Why are there no living relatives of Shakespeare?

Answer 1

There is no living relative of Shakespeare because he was alive about nearly 400 years ago. And humans cannot live for that long.

But wait. Maybe you are not asking about his children only. Maybe he has a living great-great-great (well, a lot of greats) grandchild. But also, there are no living decendants of Shakespeare, well not legitimate ones anyway. Shakespeare and his wife Anne had three children, and from these three children came four grandchildren and all four grandchildren died without having children of their own.

But what if Shakespeare had children from women he was not married to? The actor Betterton claimed he was such a child (of course, he might well have been lying). If so, Shakespeare might have had decendants we don't know about.

And anyway, the question doesn't say "children", or "decendants" but "relatives". Aren't neices and nephews your relatives? And although we have no record that Shakespeare's brothers had children, the only one of his sisters to reach adulthood did. Joan Shakespeare was married to a guy called Hart and had children, and one of them had children and so on. Her decendants were still living in Stratford in 1806. There may be some still alive.

And what about cousins? There are possibly some decendants of the Ardens around who would be related to Shakespeare on his mother's side.