Future (Jewish?) royal Kate Middleton (photo courtesy of celebgalz.com)
Is Kate Middleton Jewish?
I was intrigued to learn that the future princess' mother was born Carole Goldsmith. Could Prince William possibly be marrying an MOT - and how would that sit with the House of Windsor?
Technically, according to Slate magazine, royals can only be removed from the line of succession if they marry a Roman Catholic - so Jews are still a-ok. But as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, I think the queen would sleep a little better at night if her line married Anglicans or similar.
Sadly, according to fairly definitive online source JewornotJew.com, even if there are Jews in Kate's family tree, at least five generations of the Goldsmith clan have been married in churches, so if there was any Jewish link (and I have a hunch there was...) it was lost long ago. Still, it's nice to think that there might possibly be a couple drops of Jewish blood in the royal family for many generations to come - even if they won't exactly be hosting a seder at Buckingham Palace.
There may be, however, at least one Jewish connection to the royal wedding next year: Elizabeth Emanuel, the Jewish fashion designer who created Lady Diana's '80s-tastic wedding dress for her 1981 wedding to Prince Charles. The Jewish Chronicle reports that bookmakers are giving 5-to-1 odds on Emanuel being tapped to design Kate's dress.
Her last traceable “Goldsmith” ancestor was a carpenter named John Goldsmith who was born in Kent around 1783. At the time, there were a skant few Jews living in England, and pretty much all of them were Sephardic Jews who didn’t have names like “Goldsmith”. On the other hand, “Goldsmith” can easily be a non-Jewish English last name (as can many other names starting with “Gold”, including “Gold” itself), and John’s son married in a Baptist church.
My guess is, based on her family tree, is that Prince William probably has more Jewish ancestry somewhere down the line than Kate Middleton does.
Miss Middleton is Church of England, didn’t you hear that she changed when she got engaged? I think she was Roman Catholic wasn’t she? Anyway she is definitely not a follower of Judaism.
I sincerely hope that Kate will be able to cope with Brenda (granny). Surely, a drop of Jewish blood can only strengthen the Saxe Coburg/Gotha bloodline.
Neither the present Duchess of Cambridge nor Prince William are anything but Church of England. Neither has any Jewish blood in their known ancestry. To propose it is preposterous.
The only unusual thing to be found is in Diana’s ancestry. She was one sixty-fourth Armenian through her mother’s Forbes.
“Neither the present Duchess of Cambridge nor Prince William are anything but CoE… The only unusual thing to be found is in Diana’s ancestry. She was one sixty-fourth Armenian through her mother’s Forbes.”
Actually Philip, William’s zeyde, was not CoE, but was born Greek Orthodox.
At least those who, like Rachel, dream of British Jewish royalty can take comfort in the yiddishkeit of British comic royalty, such as Peter Sellers and Sacha B. Cohen, who are only slightly less humourous than the yuckmeisters over in Buckingham Palace.
The British Royal family’s house name was originally Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The House of Windsor name did not surface until the WWI-era, when an Order-in-Council of King George V opted to drop Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to keep the British public from connecting them to their German counterparts. The name Windsor was taken from one of the King’s castles. In essence, these incestuous inbreds are Royal frauds.
Kate Middleton had to have a second baptism, just before her marriage.
It was said it was because she was to marry someone who would become the Head of the Church of England…but I wonder if anyone with NO Jewish ancestry would have had to do this…...The fact that the now-Duchess has had NO Jewish upbringing doesn’t bother me. She -like Elizabeth II—is NOT anti-Semitic, and THAT’S what counts to me.
(An article here states that a guard at Buckingham Palace was BARRED from the Royal Wedding because of an anti-Semitic remark! Earlier, the Queen allowed the chief rabbi of London to use his Kosher chef in the royal kitchens! (Holocaust victims did NOT die in vain!)...King Simeon II of Bulgaria, (still living), prevented many Jewish deaths in WWII.
I am very glad that ALL religions seem to be accorded respect by MOST of those in power, in 2011…and hopefully, forever!
King Simeon II, (mentioned above), has some Jewish ancestry, for, as stated in “The Pictorial History of the Jewish People”, Bulgaria had a Jewish queen in the Middle Ages. The Countess of Rose, (Anthony Armstrong-Jone’s mother), has some Jewish ancestry, as does
Princess Anne’s current husband. Anti-semites in Britain and elsewhere murmer about this—but they can do nothing to stop it. Princess Margaret may have been anti-semitic in her youth….but it appears she saw sense later on. And so does the “hardest-working royal”, Princess Anne, who obviously cares nothing of wagging tongues! Whether someone is Jewish or not doesn’t bother me—all I ask is, if they aren’t Jewish, that they not be anti-Semites. Amongst the powerful of the world, it seems my wish has mostly been granted.
Again…Holocaust victims —who showed the world where hatred can lead—did not die in vain. I pray for, and thank them, every day!
Following “Dr’s” comment…. For those who don’t know, “Brenda” was the name given to Queen Elizabeth II in a satire on the English monarchy sometime in 1970s-1990s.
I am a Goldsmith. My family arrived in America and settled in Maryland in the 1600’s. We arrived a Catholic family on a land grant. My ancestor served as King Charles II’s physician. The Goldsmith family in England was an old, catholic family. I’m sure, through the generations, many joined the Church of England. I think it’s best remembered that Jesus Christ was a Jew..so we all probably have a little MOT in the background.
William great grandmother the late Queen mother was from a Jewish family, Bowes-Lyon.
The Lyon part of the family name was of the founders of Lyons Corner House in the UK.
I am from a long line of Sephardic Jews who apparently came to London at the invitation of Oliver Cromwell..
My family name is Goldsmith and appears to always have been so.. Not an anglisation, but could be a translation of the profession.
When I’m reading the “big” problem all of you have, in order to check if a person, even if that person his the wife of a prince.
I feel like I was in 1942, when “they” pick me up, and bring me and family to Auschwitz.
I would like to tell you that the Queen is a true ‘Jew’ from the line of Judah, and so is Catherine, so it is a marriage from God to keep the line of Judah pure. Check the Queens geneaology, it goes back to Abraham, and even before. Check out BIWF it will tell you about the true Israelites, who the British and American people are. All Anglo-Saxon-Celtish people are all true Israelites, proven in history.
I just wanted to add that after a trace of my family history, i found that the name Zecher is from the Tribe of Levi, and goes back to Zecheriah in the Bible. I have a book of our family name and history, it showed me where the ‘Lost Tribes’ of Israel migrated to the ‘ISLES OF THE SEA’ see Isaiah 49. You would be amazed to find out that you could be from one of these tribes, not necessarily ‘Judah’ though.
I have some experience in researching genealogies. With the exception of “possible” Jewish surnames, Goldsmith, Temple & Myers I could not find any Jewish linkage in her family genealogy records which are on the web.
Recent generations were practicing Church of England members or Protestants and there is no clear Jewish maternal line.
There is nothing in the detailed records at the site below to show a Jewish heritage in any branch.
The research goes back many generations, is very thorough and has links to the underlying official documents.
On Kate’s maternal side many were laborers and workmen and only the bare bone official documents survive … no family stories or indication of them as practicing Jews.
There was an entry for Esther Goldsmith, got my heart beat going … not a common Protestant family name, but her Maiden name was Jones.
There is the marriage of a Temple to a Myers if someone wants to grasp at straws.
Since England had a great and popular Prime Minister with deep public Jewish roots, Disraeli, there is no reason for the family to be concerned about having some Jewish heritage.
Well, I guess celebrating an official English Princess with strong Jewish roots will have to wait a few more years.
PS If you want to take a different position from mine, please review in detail what the published facts or on the site I listed.
11/17/2010 at 02:51 PM
Kate Middleton’s ancestry is documented in detail here -
http://www.wargs.com/other/middleton.html
Her last traceable “Goldsmith” ancestor was a carpenter named John Goldsmith who was born in Kent around 1783. At the time, there were a skant few Jews living in England, and pretty much all of them were Sephardic Jews who didn’t have names like “Goldsmith”. On the other hand, “Goldsmith” can easily be a non-Jewish English last name (as can many other names starting with “Gold”, including “Gold” itself), and John’s son married in a Baptist church.
My guess is, based on her family tree, is that Prince William probably has more Jewish ancestry somewhere down the line than Kate Middleton does.
Login to reply to this comment or post your own11/17/2010 at 02:58 PM
Thanks for the link, and what an exhaustive family tree! You are likely right on the name. But it can’t hurt to dream
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