PHOTOS: Kate Middleton and Jane Austen are related; ancestral traits comparable

The Duchess of Cambridge and popular novelist Jane Austen share a common 15th-century ancestor and are therefore related to each other, the online family history resource Ancestry.com reveals.

The website mentions that they are related through their common ancestor Henry Percy, the 2nd Earl of Northumberland. The Earl is apparently Kate's 16th great-grandfather and Jane Austen's 10th great-grandfather, making them 11th cousins, six times removed.

As per the research site, this connection is very fitting as Austen is known for her novels focusing on lower gentry or middle-class women and their romantic interactions with men of higher rank and wealth.

Finding this connection between the Duchess of Cambridge and Jane Austen is very exciting since, in many ways, Catherine is the modern Jane Austen heroine: a middle-class girl marrying the future King of England, stated Anastasia Harman, the lead family historian for Ancestry.com.

Jane Austen, known for her works like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, is one of the most widely read writers in English literature.

While comparing the ancestral traits of the two, some striking resemblances were found. The website mentions that throughout her life, Jane Austen was strongly supported by her elder sister Cassandra. This close relationship between the Austen sisters is easily comparable to the bond Catherine shares with her younger sister Pippa, who served as Catherine's maid of honor at her recent wedding, attended the same boarding school as her older sister and then followed her to Scotland to college.