Cheney and Obama are Related

You will probably read a dozen more stories like this before the election, but there is one new article about related politicians in the news recently. Lynne Cheney has been researching her husband's genealogy for her new book and discovered that Dick Cheney and Barack Obama have at least one thing in common: an ancestor.

You can read the full story at http://www.thesequitur.com/content/view/1690/43/.

Comment: If I read one more story about two politicians being related, I think I'll scream. Let's face it, everyone is related to everyone.

Each person has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents and so forth in a mathematical progression. If you go back two or three hundred years you have thousands of ancestors. Go back a thousand years and you have a theoretical billion ancestors or so. (It's theoretical because that's more people than ever lived on the face of the earth. Obviously, you have multiple lines of descent from many of these people.)

Everyone else has the same number of theoretical ancestors, including all the well-known personalities. If your ancestors have been in this country for 200 or 300 years and someone else's ancestors have done the same, there is a very strong likelihood that the two of you share at least a few ancestors. If you could trace your ancestry back a few thousand years, you'd probably find that you are related to everyone else on the face of the earth.

OK, so Cheney and Obama are related. So are you and so am I. I'd bet that George W. Bush is even related to Osama bin Laden if we could go back far enough in history. Ho-hum. Some reporter had a slow news day.

Now, do you think Cheney and Obama will invite us to their family reunion?

Comments

[Sharon Buie]

Wow -- why so hostile? I think it's a cool bit of triva and irony.

[Dino (All Dino, All the Time)]

Dick,

Don't scream. Let's get creative about this. Wouldn't it be cool to find out that: pick one (Obama, Clinton, McCain, Bush) is related to pick one (Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Charles Manson, John Wilkes Booth)?

You know they are. All we need is the Mother Of All Databases or some genealogists with more time than ancestors to do the research

[Keith]

I am 8th cousin once removed to Barack Obama (different ancestor than the Cheney-Obama connection). It's no surprise, we are all related!

[Jason Presley]

But are they related to Kevin Bacon? That's really the only important question.

[theKiwi]

Well at least Obama is having some fun with it, appearing on various TV shows since this news broke, with quotes kind of like:

"Cheney is the black sheep of the family"

"I won't be going to the annual family hunting party"

Cheers

Roger

[Gloria Ishida]

Not particularly exciting but interesting. I am related to the future king of England through his mother, to FDR, Nathan Hale and Rutherford B. Hayes, all through the same family (Strong). So what? But still kind of fun to know. I don't mind shariing this but rarely do - who cares - but there could be others I'd keep quiet about.

[Gary Rasmussen]

The most interesting aspect of Dick's post for me is the genealogical math involved, and the empirical evidence that exists to support that math. As we go backwards in time the number of our ancestors increases rapidly while the size of the associated population decreases. At some point it seems inevitable that the theoretical number of ancestors will exceed the size of the population, implying that indeed we are all related and, moreover, are related in multiple ways. My question: can anyone recommend a book, accessible to non-mathematicians, that discusses the mathematical aspects of genealogy?

[Mirty Lewis]

I agree who cares if they are related. I am very sick of hearing about politcians! I am screaming with you. LOL

[Stephen Young]

A good book that discusses the mathematics of kinship is "The Mountain of Names, A History of the Human Family," by Alex Shoumatoff (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985). Obviously a bit dated, it is very interesting. I would add that I don't accept all of Mr. Shoumatoff's data, but even so, I'd recommend this book to any genealogist.

[jena moffitt]

I'd like a closer look at the research. I have multiple lines that have been in the US for 250-300 years, I'd love to tie into some professionally prepared and well documented family tree and perhaps leverage an invitation to a "cousins" inaugural ball.

[Wayne Townsend]

Hey Dino...what's wrong with being related to John Wilkes Booth? Evidently I am! Also related to Benedict Arnold. I agree with Mirty, I'm sick of hearing all the back and forth from politicians! I mean, I'm a Canadian with my own idiots to worry about and I still get all the garbage from the US politicians! I bet you guys don't hear all the yak that is going on in our House of Parliament....You're lucky! LOL
Have a great day all!

[Pat B.]

Gary Rasmussen asked:Can anyone recommend a book, accessible to non-mathematicians, that discusses the mathematical aspects of genealogy? I loved "Dozens of Cousins" by Lois Horowitz - a short, fun, readable paperback that I have found invaluable. Lois is/was head of Acquisitions Department of San Diego Public Library. One chapter is titled "The Incredible Shrinking Family."

[Michael Pollock]

I happen to consider myself a friend to two of the individuals most frequently responsible for such tidbits (and one got involved in the same because both his father and grandfather were avid genealogists and there was little on his own family for him to research as a result).

I have been involved with such myself, having done research on the ancestries of Ronald Reagan, Barbara (Pierce) Bush and former Vice President Al Gore. Many who publicize such things have agendas, though it is not always clear what those agendas might be. For example, The National Enquirer ran a story on Barbara Bush based on my research during the first Bush administration which omitted a significant amount of "embarrassing" information. Its article on Ronald Reagan was fairly even-handed, though a bit on the sensational side in identifying as an ancestor a relative of Reagan's who survived a disasterous expedition to Pike's Peak by engaging in cannibalism. It also attributed to me a "quaint" story to explain the alcoholism of one of Reagan's uncles when I was only able to establish that Reagan's father succeeded in having that uncle committed to a mental hospital on the third try.

Burke's Peerage has published periodic compedia of the ancestries of American Presidents alleging that the most "blue blooded" candidate invariably wins. It has referred to George W. Bush as the most "blue-blooded" American President EVER, yet has not published its results, I believe, because of the extreme anti-Bush bias of the editor of the Presidential Families of the United States series.

In researching the Gore ancestry for Burke's, I was thwarted in finding much substantive information on his ancestry due to the number of localities where Gore's ancestors have lived that lost significant portions of their records. However, it can be proven that he descends from George Maris, one of the colonists who accompanied William Penn to America, and as such, Gore is related to both William "Wild Bill" Cody and Richard Milhous Nixon. There is also intriguing circumstantial evidence to suggest, somewhat ironic, as Gore was Vice President to Bill Clinton who liked to claim an "affinity" to Thomas Jefferson, that Gore is related to Jefferson through a collateral line of Jefferson's grandmother.

While I do sometimes find the manner in which such research is publicized distasteful, when I am asked to do the research, I typically accept because I know the research I provide to the client is accurate within both the best of my abilities and the limitations the client places on me. I would also like to think that there will be some residual benefit of others who may pick up from my research following my example of trying to make certain the research is accurate.

[Marilynn B]

Blue Blood = Inbred Moron

I'm glad I have never (yet) found a family connection to the rich & perverted royalty, although my husband seems to be linked to British royalty, poor thing. I am descended from a much more honorable ancestor: a Portuguese pirate. :)

[Ward Greene]

Three things on this:
(1) I think it would be fun to check the my DNA against the Rhode Island colonial era Greenes,as mine were in Boston at the time,and like the RI ones,were Quakers, traders,schooner owners,etc.,though on a smaller scale.Then they moved to Newfoundland or returned there.Long story. That would be interesting DNA,at least for me.
(2) Yep.Me too.A close cousin of mine shares an ancestor with Princess Diana,so that's a "me too".
(3) What I'd really think would be fun is if someone could take modern rabid white supremecists and show them that their DNA proves they are definitely part black African,part Middle Eastern (Jewish ?),etc. That would be a laugh.

[George Wright]

I was quite surprised to find that Barak and I are fourth cousins, once removed (even closer than him and Dick Cheney). The relationship is through Obediah Wright, of Tennessee.

I just wish that I could identify my relationship to J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter's author). I'd love to spend Christmas at her place. Oh well, maybe Cousin Barak will send me an invitation.

You know, genealogy can be pretty dry sometimes, what with having to inhale the paper residue from dusty old tomes. Finding some surprising personal relation is at least enough to lend a chuckle to a long day at the computer screen.

[harry]

Unlike those who want to prove a relationship to a public figure as Gary Roberts might do, I have tried for many years to prove that Bush isnt related to me.