My name is Hein Bruins and I live in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Genealogy is one of my many hobbies, along with travelling, practicing sports, going to the theatre or a museum and sozializing with my friends. I grew up on a cattle-farm in Groningen in the north of my country and I am working in the tourist industry and in the film and TV industry.
I started to be interested in royal genealogy at primary school when I saw a family-tree of the House of Orange, the Dutch royal family, in my history-book.
Since those days I have collected quite a lot of information about European royalty and nobility. I am glad to finally be able to share my findings with other people. I don't claim that my genealogical charts are totally complete and up to date. Therefore I welcome critical notes, suggestions, adjustments, additions, questions and information about recent developments at my e-mail-address. I will regularly up-date my pages and add new ones.
My sources include:
Almanach de Gotha (old version)
Almanach de Gotha (new version)
Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch
Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels
Genealogisches Handbuch des in Bayern Immatrikulierten Adels
Europäische Stammtafeln
Matrilineal Descents of the European Royalty (by William Addams Reitwiesner)
Bernadotte-ättlingar (by Ted Rosvall)
The Book of Kings - A Royal Genealogy (by Arnold McNaughton)
The Royal House of Stuart (by A.C.Addington)
The Descendants of Louis XIII (by Daniel Willis)
The Descendants of King George I of Great Britain (by Daniel Willis)
Une Dynastie Mythique: Les Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha (by Georges Dufoux)
La Descendance de François-Joseph Ier Empereur d'Autriche (by Jacques and Nelly Parisot)
Debrett's Peerage
Burke's Peerage
Burke's Guide to the Royal Family
Burke's Royal Families of the World
État Présent de la Noblesse Belge
Gotha News (by Jan-Willem Wilschut)
CEDRE (by Jean-Fred Tourtchine)
Royal Book News (by Marlene Eilers Koenig)
Deutsches Adelsblatt
The website of Alt.Talk.Royalty
The website of Royauté
The websites of William Addams Reitwiesner, Paul Theroff, Brigitte Gastel Lloyd, Netty Leistra, Verena Denzer, Henri van Oene and others (see my links page)
The international press
The e-mails and letters of many nice people from across the world
I consider most of my sources extremely reliable, but once in a while little bits of (partial) misinformation appear on my site. I apologize for that! I do my best, but I am not a professional historian or journalist, just a simple hobbyist! Please correct me if necessary.