Blood Will Tell?

Here’s an odd coincidence, reported by The Guardian:

Researchers have discovered that Benedict Cumberbatch is distantly related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author who created Sherlock Holmes, a role the actor has recently made his own [in BBC One’s Sherlock].

According to the website Ancestry.com, Cumberbatch, 40, and Conan Doyle, who died in 1930, were 16th cousins, twice removed. Their common ancestor was John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, fourth son of King Edward III and father of Henry IV.

John of Gaunt, who died in 1399, was Doyle’s 15th-great-grandfather and Cumberbatch’s 17th-great-grandfather, the website said.

(Hat tip to In Reference to Murder.)