Betsy's daughter v. the queen

We earlier looked at the mysterious case of why 'auntie Betsy' appears to have virtually no DNA matches to us, despite being not that distant a relative and also someone with hundreds of descendants.

The answer was that a typical DNA-tester in their mid-thirties would actually be a SIX-times-great-grandchild of Betsy, meaning they might possibly have none of her DNA whatsoever, and more likely that a half-fifth-cousin 3 times removed to myself is not very likely to match me. We are in effect at the limits quite suddenly of what autosomal DNA can do.

I am not sure I have any matches pertaining to a sibling or half-sibling of my 6xgreat-grandparents. So we close our Betsy-DNA files for now.

But all this attention on Betsy, some of the dates seemed quite familiar. Which got me thinking, how would Betsy's tribe fare in a face-off with the ruling royal family of Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha?

It's the gamekeeper's wife, Betsy's daughter Mary Blacker nee Padfield (born 1818) up against Albert of SCG's wife, queen Victoria (born 1819). I think this could be an easy victory for Mary, given what we found earlier.

Round 1, the children: Betsy's daughter scoops this one easy, first child 1837 vs. the queen 1839.

Round 2, the grandchildren: a bit close for comfort but still falling down to Betsy's daughter for the win: first grandchild, Henry Plumley (1857) vs. Kaiser Bill (1859). I think the royals are genuinely struggling at this point. In a surprise move, Betsy's folk have opted to leave Somerset for London.

Round 3, the great-grandchildren: out of nowhere the queen pulls ahead, Henry Stephen Plumley (1882) is no match for Feodora (1879). Betsy's line has to concede defeat in this round.

Round 4, the great-great-grandchildren: Betsy's daughter just regains the lost ground with Dorothy Blake (1904) up against an unexpected contender Margarita of Greece (1905). The queen has changed her strategy and has inexplicably switched to the family of her second daughter Princess Alice, in an attempt to seize control in this competition.

Round 5, the great-great-great-grandchildren: the queen has absolutely no chance here, the under-prepared royals have no suitable candidate, so Roy Miles (1927) is streets ahead of Margarita's nephew Ludwig (1931).

Round 6, the great-great-great-great-grandchildren: by now both teams are exhausted but Roy's son (1955) is still in the arrivals lounge some time before Maria Tatiana of Yugoslavia (1957).

Both teams have averaged 23 years per generation for a sustained period of 120 years. Well done to the bunch of Londoners for defeating the royals in 5 out of 6 rounds but this race through the generations is yet more evidence explaining why I'm unlikely to have DNA matches to Betsy's daughter, wife of the gamekeeper.

Incidentally, researching this, it seems that Queen Victoria is about to reach the milestone of 1000 living descendants some time around now. I have no easy way of knowing whether the gamekeeper's wife is heading that way herself. Perhaps she has already got there?