What DNA Revealed About Princess Diana’s Maternal Ancestry
In June 2013, a team of researchers studying British ancestry made an unexpected discovery while tracing the maternal genetic line connected to Princess Diana.
The scientists were examining mitochondrial DNA, a type of genetic material that pᴀsses almost unchanged from mother to child through generations.
Because mitochondrial DNA follows a strict maternal line, it allows researchers to trace ancestry far into the past with remarkable accuracy.
When the research team analyzed DNA from living relatives who shared the same maternal line as Diana, they found a rare genetic marker known as haplogroup R30b.
This genetic signature is extremely uncommon in Europe but appears primarily in South Asia, particularly in India.
The finding suggested that somewhere in Diana’s direct maternal lineage there was an ancestor of Indian origin.
Historical records eventually pointed to a woman named Eliza Kewark, who lived in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Although only fragments of information about her life remain, historians believe she was born around 1790 in Surat, a major trading port in western India that was heavily connected to the British East India Company.
During that time, many European traders and administrators lived and worked in Indian cities such as Surat.
Among them was a Scottish merchant named Theodore Forbes, who had traveled to India seeking opportunity within the trading networks of the East India Company.
Records suggest that Eliza worked in Forbes’s household and that the two had children together.
Their daughter, Catherine Forbes, would later become the key link connecting Eliza’s lineage to Britain.
At some point in Catherine’s childhood, Theodore Forbes returned to Scotland and took his daughter with him.
Eliza remained in India, and historical documentation about her life after that moment becomes extremely limited.
Researchers have not found clear records describing what eventually happened to her.
Catherine grew up in Britain and later married into Scottish society.
Over time, her descendants became connected to the British and Irish aristocracy.
The maternal line continued through generations of daughters, eventually leading to Ruth Gill, whose daughter Frances Ruth Roche became Princess Diana’s mother.
Frances married John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, in 1954 in a high-profile ceremony attended by members of the royal family.
Their daughter, Diana Frances Spencer, was born in 1961 and would later marry Prince Charles in what became one of the most widely watched weddings in modern history.
Throughout these generations, family records described Eliza Kewark as Armenian, possibly because her surname resembled Armenian names and because Armenian merchant communities had lived in India for centuries.
For a long time, that explanation was accepted without much investigation.
However, the mitochondrial DNA findings suggested that her maternal ancestry was actually South Asian.
Because mitochondrial DNA pᴀsses directly through the maternal line, the same genetic marker carried by Eliza would have been pᴀssed down through Catherine, through her descendants, and eventually to Princess Diana.
Diana then pᴀssed that same maternal DNA to her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Only daughters can continue pᴀssing mitochondrial DNA to future generations, which means that Princess Charlotte, William’s daughter, carries the same maternal genetic line and could pᴀss it on to her own descendants one day.
The discovery did not dramatically change royal history, but it offered an intriguing insight into how global connections existed even within families that later became part of the British aristocracy.
Genetic research increasingly shows that many family histories—especially those stretching back centuries—are far more complex than traditional records suggest.
In this case, the DNA evidence helped bring attention to the life of a woman whose name appeared only briefly in historical documents.
Eliza Kewark left behind very little written history, yet her descendants eventually became part of one of the world’s most famous royal families.
The revelation also reflects the complicated social realities of the British colonial period.
Relationships between European traders and local women in colonial cities were not uncommon, but the details of those relationships were often simplified or forgotten as families moved into different social environments over time.
For historians, the discovery highlights how modern genetic science can help fill gaps left by incomplete or inaccurate historical records.
While many details of Eliza’s life may never be fully known, the DNA evidence confirms that her maternal lineage survived through generations.
More than two hundred years later, that genetic connection remains part of the ancestry of Britain’s future king.
