ambassador Maurice Paleologue - if he were descendant of Byzantine emperors

[Sjostrom]

The claim of the Bucharest-originated Paleologue family to imperial root
from Constantinople has been regarded a fraud for about a century and
more....
However, they might actually have a root which is not at all far from
enabling this claim in a sense - although this root has its start in a way
that no definitive descent from Emperors can be shown.
The uncertainty is the same as often commented: the Kantakouzenos of
Ankhialos family of the 1500s may have in some way had imperial roots, but
it cannot be proved.

12 generations.
The lineage from the Kantakouzenos, Rhaulis, etc families to Maurice
Paléologue:

1 'shaitan' (possibly: Demetrios) Kantakouzenos (d 1536 Pisa, Italy)
threat to Ottomans, Greek (= rhomaion) rebel, freebooter, buccaneer...
son:

2 archon Mikhael 'saitanoglu' Kantakouzenos, magnate of Ankhialos (death:
executed in Spring of 1578); wife said to been from a family with base in
the island of Crete.
son:

3 archon Andronikos Kantakouzenos, magnate of Ankhialos (bc 1553; death:
executed in November of 1601); married (in June of 1576) (Eirene)
Rhaulaina/Rhallis
daughter:

4 (Bella) Kantakouzene; married (1605) Laskaris Rusetos, chancellor of
ecumenical patriarchate (fl 1613; d after 1646)
son (who went to Romania):

5 prince Antonie Ruset, hospodar of Moldavia (fl 1678)
son (he seemingly returned somewhat to Constantinople):

6 prince Ioannis Rusetos, beyzades (fl 1732; dc 1750); married: countess
Helena Mavrokordataina (b 1682; d 1722)
son (returned pretty fully to Constantinople):

7 prince Nikolaos Rusetos, chartophylax of Constantinople (fl 1750, 1765)
daughter (moved to Romania):

8 princess Venetiana Ruset (b est 1720; death: murdered in 1798); married:
boyar Radul Vacarescu
son:

9 boyar Barbu Vacarescu, ban of Craiova, caimacam and justice of Valachia
(fl 1821; b est 1750; d 1832); married secondly: Zoe Gulianu-Paleologu;
daughter of (Radul 'Raducan') Gulianu-Paleologu
daughter:

10 Elisabeta 'Paleologu' Vacarescu; had children by a man named Dimitrie.
son (fled to France):

11 Alexandru 'Alecu', adopted Gulianu-Paleologu, revolutionary (b 1824; d
1866)
son:

12 ambassador Maurice Paleologu (b 1859; d 1944)
childless.

- - - - -

So, there was obviously no provable unbroken male-line descent from the
aristocracy of Constantinople, but however exists cognatic descents from
post-conquest orthodox-greek aristocracy of Constantinople.

The gap is: what was before the year 1500 in roots of these (above
specified) orthodox-greek aristocrats of Constantinople. It seems even
plausible that at least some of those would have had some root coming from
Emperors pre-conquest.

On a more negative note, it is entirely possible that those people listed
in the root all were descendants of empire-era merchants and lower
classes, at best mere collateral relatives of emperors with whom they
shared surname in a few occasions. And in that way, no emperor were a
direct ancestor of these.

No emperor can be shown in the family tree.