Princess Helena of the United Kingdom hemophilia carrier?

[suzy_q2010]

Originally Posted by coschristi

One surviving child out of multiple births sounds more like Hemolytic disease from Rh-incompatibility.

Only about 15% of the world population is Rh negative, with up to 19% in the French Basque & Ashkenazi Jews. Rh positive is the dominant trait & when a Rh negative woman gives birth to the baby of an Rh positive man; it’s most likely that the baby will be Rh positive as well.

During childbirth, body fluids & blood can mix & when the baby’s blood meets the woman’s blood; she will form antibodies towards the Rh positive blood cells.

While the firstborn would survive; any subsequent children, if from an Rh positive father; would encounter the antibodies in the mother’s blood, causing the baby to suffer an “attack” from its own mother’s blood.

Subsequent children who actually had inherited the Rh negative blood type would not be at risk but since Rh positive is dominant; that is an uncommon occurrence.

Since the late 1960s a product called Rhogam has been available for use in Rh negative pregnant women that prevents the Rh-negative mother from making antibodies during her pregnancy but this is why people used to have to get a blood type test before they got married: To check for Rh-incompatibility.

Rh-negative prevalence is under 4% in Sub-Sahara Africa, Pacific Islanders, South America & Asia, 4-9% in the Mediterranean & North/East African regions & 10-15% in Northern & Eastern Europe.

This is actually how I discovered that my great x 5 grandfather was an Ashkenazi Jew; I had always been curious how I was Rh negative from two positive parents & four positive grandparents. I have one sister & she is also positive. It seemed as though all branches of my family tree had high fertility rates with no recorded early infant deaths or stillbirths.

Then I found a great-great-great grandmother who was the only surviving out of three. As was her father. And his; a “German” physician; educated at Heidelburg University prior to immigrating. I found the church birth records; with scores of entries under his surname (German law required that Jews be registered with the Lutheran Church for full citizenship rights); of children who were baptized & received their last rites ... on the same day.

I later found our surname on the registries of Holocaust victims (who had not immigrated) & finally; DNA analysis confirmed it.

Princess Helena had four surviving children.

[dizzybint]

Interesting thread. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haemop...ropean_royalty

[PacoMartin]

Queen Victoria had five daughters who each had a 50/50 chance of being a carrier

1. Victoria, German Empress
2. Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse
3. Princess Helena
4. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
5. Princess Beatrice

We know Alice and Beatrice were carriers because they had sons with hemophilia.



Victoria, the German Empress, had four sons (one of which died of meningitis at age of 21 months), but none of which showed any sign of the disease. She had four daughters and they had 9 grandsons. We assume that she wasn't a carrier because statistically, it would have been nearly impossible for no one to have the disease.

Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, (18 March 1848 – 3 December 1939) was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She was childless and AFAIK there did not exist any tests even in her old age that would have determined if she was a carrier.

But Princess Helena should be easy to tell given that she had 6 pregnancies. She lost two boys and two boys land two girls lived. But they produced only one granddaughter. Basically, she could have been a carrier, but we don't have enough statistical evidence.