Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 29 May 2026 by Allen Gurney

These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.

Queen Anne Boleyn Notes

Collateral / related G17 subject. Queen Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536) is not in Allen Gurney’s direct ancestral line. She belongs beside Anthony Gurney (G17) as a Boleyn-Howard-Heydon cousin.

Relationship Placement

Queen Anne Boleyn belongs at G17 in this project because she was a same-generation second cousin of Anthony Gurney (G17). The relationship is through Anthony’s mother, Anne Heydon, not through the paternal Gurney spine.[1]

Relationship path:

  • Common ancestors: Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, Lord Mayor of London, and Anne Hoo.
  • Allen’s line: Sir Geoffrey Boleyn and Anne Hoo -> Anne Boleyn the elder of Blickling -> Anne Heydon -> Anthony Gurney (G17).
  • Queen Anne’s line: Sir Geoffrey Boleyn and Anne Hoo -> Sir William Boleyn -> Sir Thomas Boleyn -> Queen Anne Boleyn.
  • Therefore: Anthony Gurney and Queen Anne Boleyn were second cousins.
  • Removal: from Anthony Gurney (G17) down to Allen (G1) is sixteen generations, so Queen Anne Boleyn is Allen’s second cousin, sixteen times removed.

HRP Biographical Anchor

Historic Royal Palaces’ Tower of London article supplies a concise public-history anchor for Anne’s standard life facts: approximate birth about 1501, parents Sir Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard, childhood at Hever, continental court education, marriage to Henry VIII in January 1533, coronation on 1 June 1533, Elizabeth’s birth on 7 September 1533, arrest on 2 May 1536, execution at Tower Green on 19 May 1536, and burial in the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula.[2]

Research Use

This related fact sheet should be used to make the Boleyn connection intelligible without implying royal descent. The safe phrasing is “second cousin, sixteen times removed” or “collateral Boleyn cousin.” Avoid “ancestor” language for Anne herself.

Sources Consulted

  • Historic Royal Palaces, “Anne Boleyn,” Tower of London.
  • Daniel Gurney, The Record of the House of Gournay (London, 1848), pedigree p. 287.
  • Daniel Gurney, Supplement to the Record of the House of Gournay (King’s Lynn: Thew & Son, 1858), pp. 868 ff.
  • Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), genealogical chart appendix.

  1. Relationship chain from the existing G17 Anthony Gurney and G18 William Gurney V fact-sheet citations: Daniel Gurney, The Record of the House of Gournay (London, 1848), pedigree p. 287; Daniel Gurney, Supplement to the Record of the House of Gournay (King’s Lynn: Thew & Son, 1858), pp. 868 ff.; Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), genealogical chart appendix, as cited in the G17/G18 sheets for the Heydon-Boleyn cousinage. ↩︎

  2. Historic Royal Palaces, “Anne Boleyn,” Tower of London, accessed 26 April 2026. Source ID: hrp-anne-boleyn. ↩︎