Meet the Woman Who Would Be Queen ... if 4,972 Die

Karin Vogel lives in Germany, works as a therapist, skipped the Buckingham Palace tour on her one trip to the UK, and has no plans to watch Friday's royal wedding—but if 4,972 people die, she would be Queen of England. According to some genealogists, the 38-year-old is last in line to the British throne, at No. 4,973. And Vogel is quite happy with her spot: "It is really very comforting that one doesn't have to worry about Great Britain," she tells the Wall Street Journal.

The royal family's website only lists successors one through 38, and there is no official chart listing the farthest-flung heirs. But at least two hobby genealogists agree that Vogel is the very last, because of a 1701 act of parliament naming German princess Sophia of Hanover and all her non-Catholic descendants, of which Vogel is one, as heirs to the throne. Vogel could potentially move up in the ranks, if parliament amends succession rules so that men no longer come ahead of women, but she still wouldn't want the job, she says: "too stressful." (More heir stories.)