The Royal Descents comprises Volume Three of Dr. Justin Glenn¿s The Washingtons: A Family History, a comprehensive multi-volume work covering fifteen generations of the ¿Presidential Branch¿ of the Washingtons. This study includes more than 63,000 descendants of the immigrant John Washington, who settled in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1657, married Anne Pope, and became the great-grandfather of President George Washington. The Royal Descents volume traces the ancestry of the early Virginia members of this ¿Presidential Branch¿ back to the nobility and royalty of England and continental Europe, including the Plantagenet dynasty, William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great, and Charlemagne. It also adds lines of descent from fourteen of the twenty-five Barons who served as Sureties to compel King John to ratify the historic Magna Carta in 1215.Future volumes will trace generations eight through fifteen, making a total of over 63,000 descendants. Although structured in a genealogical format for the sake of clarity, this is no bare bones genealogy but a true family history with over 1,200 detailed biographical narratives. These in turn strive to convey the greatness of the family that produced not only The Father of His Country but many others, great and humble, who struggled to build that country.ADVANCE PRAISE¿At long last the Washingtons have a published history worthy of their place in history. Glenn has done a masterful job. I am convinced that this work will be of wide interest to historians and academics as well as members of the Washington family itself. Although the surname Washington is perhaps the best known in American history and much has been written about the Washington family for well over a century, it is surprising that no comprehensive family history has been published. Justin M. Glenn¿s The Washingtons: A Family History finally fills this void for the branch to which General and President George Washington belonged, identifying some 63,000 descendants. This is truly a family history, not a mere tabulation of names and dates, providing biographical accounts of many of the descendants of John Washington who settled in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1657.¿ ¿ John Frederick Dorman, editor of The Virginia Genealogist (1957-2006) and author of Adventurers of Purse and Person¿Decades of reviewing Civil War books have left me surprised and delighted when someone applies exhaustive diligence to a topic not readily accessible. Dr. Glenn surely meets that standard with the meticulous research that unveils the Washington family in gratifying detail¿many of them Confederates of interest and importance.¿ ¿ Robert K. Krick, author of The Smoothbore Volley that Doomed the Confederacy and Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain
