Courtney Cox Delighted By Aristocratic Roots | Who Do You Think You Are

Courtney Cox visits the UK to find more about the Ligon side of her family. She discovers Thomas Ligon x9 great grandfather was a descendant of Anne Berkeley - one of the most important aristocratic families at the time.

The star of long-running sitcoms Friends and Cougar Town is first up in Season 9 and she traces her maternal line back to ambitious and ruthless relatives who murdered their way to power in medieval times, but she's also shocked by an ancestor who's one of European history's most famous characters. Along the way, she visits Gloucestershire and London to put the pieces together in her journey of discovery.

In each episode one of Britain's best-loved celebrities traces their family tree to reveal the surprising, extraordinary and often moving stories of their ancestors.

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[vaughangarrick]

One of the greatest shows ever. It's family history and putting us in a historical and sociological context. Fascinating to see how we are all related

[stereoroid]

The further back you go, the better the chances of finding Aristocratic connections, since they tended to have more surviving children and kept better records. In researching my own ancestry in Scotland, I found a connection to Queen Elizabeth II through her mother (the Bowes-Lyon family), but that was 20 generations back, so perhaps a million people could say something similar.

[aab]

That moment you find out you're (very) distantly related to a Friends star. Too funny. It splits at Eleanor Dennys. I'm descended from Eleanor's sister, Ann.

[ndChanceCrafting]

Thomas and his wife are my 19th Great Grandparent also. Fascinating stuff!

[geraldthomas]

I must be an aristocrat, I've been called a count a phew times.

[natashabaker]

Does this mean that Courtney Cox and Danny dyer are distant relatives?

[Koalatronic]

Oooh this one is really interesting. I want to see the rest now 😂. Does she get to visit the castle? That'd be cool.

[tallthinwavy]

That far back can find royal ancestors. My 12th great grandmother was the older sister to Anne Boylen, wife of King Henry VIII

[Radagast-]

I'm distantly related to Charlemagne, but then so is everyone else.

[oliverbayley]

That guy looks like an exact mixture of Joey and Chandler.

[margaretgaskin]

The death of Edward II in Berkeley Castle must have been quite a revelation for her.

[christoguichard]

Listening to her, as a Brit who just takes this sort of history as part of growing up learning, it amazes me how little Americans know about their British ancestry.
She didnt even know what an "Aristocrat" or a "Baron" was.

[kerryendon]

Congratulations👏 on finding your aristocratic and even Royal ancestors!
I understand the shock and surprise as I too, have aristocrats and Royalty many generations back on my Mother's side lines.
It's so interesting and doing a family tree opens up so much sometimes. You have to remember that MANY people have these connections. One just has to start researching to find them. 😊❤️

[fullspeedaheadbarcelona]

That little minx will always be my Queen 👑

[davidcufc]

Although this is interesting stuff, it's not particularly unique. If you go back hundreds of years, you've literally got thousands of ancestors and if you're English chances are that at least one of your ancestors is from the nobility. For instance I'm directly descended from a Superintendent of the Tower of London. His daughters married into the English royal family. Furthermore my mother's maiden name was Barclay, a family name derived (via Scotland) from the Berkeley family mentioned in this video. So I'm almost certainly a distant relative of Courtney Cox. However I'm not typing this to claim that my ancestry is anything special; quite the opposite; if you're of English origin you'll almost certainly find connections like this if you go back far enough and search hard enough.

[BrianFrenchinternet-marketing]

Also Spenser family i.e., Lady Diana Spencer.

[thomHD]

The modern town of Berkeley is sort of the UK equivalent of a US rust-belt town like Flint Michigan or somewhere like that, except it just happens to have a castle in the middle of it. Berkeley University in the US, incidentally, gets its name from the philosopher George Berkeley, not the town/family.

[ryangerrard]

She’s from the south most of us have British ancestry

[importantjohn]

Thomas Berkley was very much "I'll be there for you" in respect of the King. His great granddaughter x19 continued that tradition for a group of benign middle class yuppies in the 1990s. cool

[wellman]

Courtney and I are related. We share both Lygon and Bass ancestors.