I disovered that Ugo Boncompagni/Pope Gregory XIII was my 12 Great-Grandfather, and Pope Paul III, born Alessandro Farnese was my 14 Great-Grandfather.
What happened to the priests vow of celibacy? How could those you mentioned have fathered children if that be the case? Hmmm?
Paolo Farnese
Ranuccio Farnese
Costanza Farnese
Lucrezia Farnese
I was shocked to find any Italian in my family to begin with since my mother was born in Canada, and my father in Holland. The Italian line started on my mother's side in 1655 in New York City, when Pietro Caesaro Alberti married Judeth Jan Menjie who had been born in Amsterdam, Holland. Unbeknownst to my mother, there was Dutch on that side too. Pietro Albert's mother was a Medici. And eventually as you go back, there's de Medici's, Orsini's, and Farnese's.
Ancestry.com just updated my DNA breakdown to: 59% England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe; 35% Germanic Empire (had no idea of that); 2% Sweden (no idea of that); 2% Ireland and Scotland; and 2% Norway (no idea of that either). My mother wouldn't believe it if she was alive today. She thought she was French Canadian, and that's it. She always told me we didn't have any relatives on her side of the family.
I'd always thought I was a first-generation American, but her side of the family came here, some on the Mayflower, and others from England and other European countries, and settled in New Amsterdam...Kinderhook, the Albany/Troy area and Dutchess County, NY...in the 1600's. My 10th great-grandfather on her side is Peter Minuet, once Governor of New Netherland, and the guy who bought Manhattan Island from the Indians.
I only started all of this in June, and am not close to even being done. Of course once you get past the actual DNA lines that link you to your ancestors, it's anybody's guess if the information you're getting is factual, because there's no real way to verify it. After the late 1600 and mid 1700 lines, the DNA peters out.