Well, the cousin thing is actually a grandmother / grandson thing, but that's a big part of it (the Kaiser's mom was one of Victoria's daughters, as was the Czarina, if I remember right). The way to get to stories involving them was through Clemens (on his trips to Europe he mingled with royalty in England and Germany) as well as through Robert Todd Lincoln, who was ambassador to England at one point in Victoria's reign. He certainly would have interacted with the Queen, and probably with the Kaiser as well. In addition Lew Wallace was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) at the same time and they were very heavily involved with the Kaiser, at least later, in the run up to WW1.
Hey, I'm assuming that I would have some artistic license, as well.
There's a new book I want to get (when I finish the new Tom Clancy I bought today) called Empires of Light about Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse and their competition to electrify the country. Based on the relative treatment by Hollywood and most history courses who would guess won?
http://www.tfcbooks.com
http://www.tfcbooks.com/mall/more/381tele.htm
Tesla was the inspiration for what started out as
"mad scientist invents killer ray gun" stories, and has since
morphed into a more familiar sci-fi concept, the "phaser".
He also did some interesting stuff with low-frequency
radiation and electrical power production. When Tesla was
just a kid, his brother drowned in an accident. He blamed (tortured) himself,
for years afterward. His curse, and indirectly, the blessing
that drove him to greatness...
Oops, gotta go. Kelly Rowland (Destiny's Child) is on Jay Leno...
By the way, I gotta ask, what is a "phsstpok"? The sound a balky steam engine makes?