Obama Related to Brad Pitt, Clinton to Angelina Jolie – Yawn!

Ho hum, here we go again. The news services are filling up with “sensational stories” that various political figures are related to each other or to Hollywood celebrities. The latest round of stories quote researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society who found family connections for the three presidential candidates — Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.

Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother's side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins. McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush.

OK folks, let’s do the math: you have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents and so on back in a mathematical progression. If you go back 300 years, you have about 8,190 ancestors. If you go back 400 years, you have roughly 131,000 ancestors!

Note: Of course, those numbers assume no duplication of ancestors but everyone has duplicates in the family tree.

OK, so if I have 130,000 ancestors and you have 130,000 ancestors, what’s the odds that we share a few of them? Rather good odds, I suspect. The same is true for Brad Pitt, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the local mailman.

Let’s face it: we are all related to most everyone else.

It would be a much more impressive news story if researchers could positively prove that any two public figures are NOT related to each other but I guess we will never see that story.

If you want to read the latest drivel, look at the Associated Press story at http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i8pk8HGlTrOdiqrYNQ5IaY5I2P8QD8VKN73G0.

Comments

[Peggy]

While the NEHGS may claim to have done all the research, the information about Hillary Clinton's French-Canadian ancestry was published last November in the journal of the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan. There was little known about Hillary's French-Canadian connection until the research was done by Gail Moreau-DesHarnais and Diane Wolford Sheppard, uncovering her relationship to some of the founding families of the Fort Ponchartrain (Detroit, Michigan)-Sandwich (Windsor, Ontario) region. Gail was even interviewed by the Montreal newspaper La Presse regarding this research.

Credit should be given where credit is due.

[Nancy Davis]

If you really care about this, you probably have too much time on your hands, and if so, how about helping me find my gggggrandmother?

[Brigid]

Why is it that the ancestry of public figures can be plotted out so completely and back upmteen generations to Charlemagne or Robert the Bruce or someone else famous, and most of us who work hard at this for years can't get back more than three generations because there are no records or the names are so common that there is not enough proof to fully claim the connection? Maybe the trick to breaking the brick walls is to run for high office and get the experts more invovled!

[Nathan W. Murphy, AG]

I read on CNN a claim that McCain is descended from English royalty. I wonder if this connection is through the Wright-Washington family? If so, the latest results from the Wright DNA Project disconnect McCain's Wrights from English royalty.

[P. Naff]

Just like somebody a long time ago gave Jesus a genealogy that went back to King David, maybe having famous people related to a presidential candidate helps somehow to legitimize them somehow, regardless of what they say or think. Maybe it would be more refreshing to do a genealogy study to show just how many scoundrels, thieves, and criminals each of the candidates are related to.

[M Raymond]

The article breaking Hillary Clinton's connection was published in a Michigan genealogical journal, based in part on research done by William Addams Reitwiesner and staff of NEHGS, the French Canadian cousins were then made based on those results published in that journal. NEHGS is reporting on these connections, and they are in a good position to since several of their staff have participated in the research.

[J Harper]

There was also a report in amongst this that Hilary Clinton is connected to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Can anybody please tell me if and where that has been more fully explained? Thanks

[C Sirrine]

This was great fun, NEHGS staff and others have done an amazing amount of research and I think it will get a lot of people interested in looking into their genealogy.

some URLs that show the connections were:

http://www.notablekin.org/presidential_candidates/index.html
http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html
http://www.wargs.com/political/rodham.html
http://www.wargs.com/political/mccain.html

[Peggy]

This all goes to show the truth in that old adage: "If you want your family tree done for free, run for office."

[Jay]

Throughout my years of genealogy research I have found most people that I have come in contact with to be for the most part friendly, cooperative, and ambassadors of genealogy. I would expect all of the above from someone in a position such as yours Dick. It's a human interest story Dick. I frankly dont care about the "math". I think that you are missing the point of the story. I was happy to see the mainstream media run the story since it may just peak the interest of someone out their that may wonder to themselves "I wonder if I might be related to someone famous too". While there may be a few people out there that are impressed with your mathematical genius, I say, relax Dick. And if its drivel you are looking for, there is no need to surf away to another site when all you need to do is scroll back up to your very own post.

[jcim]

Frankly, I think 130,000 relatives is small in comparison to the people who have come into our country and cannot trace their roots back 300 years or even 10yrs! We are really becoming a minority... The news story is alittle cheezy, but I agree, it may peak someone's interest to start looking for their family tree.

[John]

It was Matthew of the Bible who cited the ancestry of Jesus; and one's interest is "piqued".

[David McDonald]

OK, Dick, we get your point...you find this information worthless.

Yet, you posted it on your website and it's engendered more than a dozen comments. You can't have it both ways. If you don't like it, don't post it. Otherwise, don't label the stuff "drivel."

For some, it's entertaining. For others, it leads to clues on their own ancestry. For still others, it's an incentive or invitation to become a researcher. I don't see anything in those assertions that equates to "drivel."

[Bobbi]

They always have this information about how many presidents someone is related to. Why is it I am unable to find the genealogy of President Harding?

[Barbara]

I find this fun to do. I can go back to several gggggggrandparents that arrived in America around 1635. I am related to John Wayne, Clint Eastwood. We are all related through William Potter. 3 daughters of William Potter). Also Lucy Ware Webb Rutherford, Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes, and more comes from this line.

Also I have the Eastman surname in the Tipton Family. Who knows you might be related to me.

Anyway, this is lots of fun even if does take time and I guess I have the time since I am retired.

Regards

Barbara

[Mountain Girl]

Big whoop. Thanks to generations of inbreeding, my family tree doesn't fork (a nod to comedian Jeff Foxworthy) -- making me am a 6th cousin to my siblings, 5th cousin once-removed to my mother, and 6th cousin, once-removed to my kids. If political reporters are looking for a sensational headline, it seems announcing a candidate's cousinship to a parent, sibling, or child would initially attract greater attention.