A descendant of queens, writing their stories

I am Kristi Ross. I bring history to life with a dry, understated, and amused voice. My work focuses on reimagining the lives of queens, blending historical accuracy with intimate human detail to

reveal the women behind the crowns.

I never set out to uncover a royal lineage. I was simply putting clothes into a dresser drawer in my father’s Florida home when an old identification card slipped into view. It was an American Expeditionary Forces ID from the 1920s bearing the name of my great‑grandfather: Oliver Cromwell.

The name had always been a family heirloom, but seeing it there, ink faded by time and travel, sparked a curiosity that quickly became a seven‑century journey across the Atlantic.

I am descended from the Scottish Royal House of Stewart, the English House of Plantagenet, and the ancient O’Brien High Kings of Ireland, a line carried forward through Princess Lafracoth Ua Briain, great‑granddaughter of Brian Boru.

My descent is traced through a continuous chain of documented maternal and paternal lines. It is a mixed‑lineage pattern that reflects how medieval royal bloodlines actually passed from generation to generation. 

My ancestry became more than a discovery. It became a responsibility to restore the voices of the women who shaped these dynasties.

That revelation transformed a lifelong fascination with history into a professional mission. I would bridge the gap between genealogical charts and the living, breathing women who once wore the crown.

Excerpt from Conversations with Scotland's First Stewart Queens, with Queen Euphemia: 

Fate did its part. The Mure boys arrived first, and no one in Scotland ever lets you forget who came out of the cradle before whom. I never argued the order. I argued the way folk used it. 

David wasn’t lesser. He was simply later, and in a court that worships precedence, that’s enough to make a child invisible if his mother doesn’t keep shoving him back into the light. 

So, I shoved. Quietly, constantly, and with more patience than I ever wanted. Not to steal a crown, but to make sure my son wasn’t trampled under the feet of men who thought birth was the same thing as worth. If that made me hard, so be it. A mother learns quickly that fairness has nothing to do with it. You fight for your child anyway.