Monday, February 19, 2007

Happy Presidents Day!

Since it is President's Day today (and George Birthington's Washday on Thursday), I thought I would list all of my relationships to American Presidents.

JOHN ADAMS - 4th cousin, 8 times removed
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS - 5th cousin, 7 times removed
FRANKLIN PIERCE - 5th cousin, 7 times removed
MILLARD FILLMORE - 7th cousin, 5 times removed
ABRAHAM LINCOLN - 7th cousin, 4 times removed (assuming his father was Thomas Lincoln)

ULYSSES S. GRANT - 7th cousin, 5 times removed
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES - 7th cousin, 4 times removed
GROVER CLEVELAND - 7th cousin, 3 times removed
JAMES GARFIELD - 8th cousin, 3 times removed
WILLIAM H. TAFT - 7th cousin, 4 times removed

WARREN G. HARDING - 8th cousin, 2 times removed
CALVIN COOLIDGE - 7th cousin, 3 times removed
HERBERT HOOVER - 8th cousin, 3 times removed
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT - 7th cousin, 4 times removed
RICHARD M. NIXON - 10th cousin

GERALD R. FORD - 10th cousin, once removed
GEORGE H.W. BUSH - 8th cousin, once removed
GEORGE W. BUSH - 8th cousin

I figured these out by comparing my ahnentafel chart to the charts in the book "Ancestors of American Presidents" by Gary Boyd Roberts. Obviously, having this many Presidential cousins relates to my extensive New England ancestry. Like my relationships to GWB, I share many colonial ancestors with some of the guys above.

I may try to figure out my relationships to the Vice-Presidents (I know I'm related to Dick Cheney) and Presidential spouses (I know about Barbara (Pierce) Bush) some day.

My New England cousins were impressed by the list. Reciting these to anyone but genealogists seems to make their eyes glaze over.

I often think about what my early colonial ancestors would have thought if they knew that their descendants would be famous and/or leaders of a nation. The colonial guys would not have understood - the King was the leader of the Empire, and they had no relationship to the King, as far as they knew. Of course, some of them were cousins to the King also!

How about you? Any Presidential cousins? Tell me about them.

3 comments:

Miriam Robbins said...

Randy, I come from the same New England gene pool, and am related to many of these Presidents. I haven't really kept track...my sister-in-law is just fascinated by my connections, and she has a better idea to whom I'm related. I do know that FDR and I share a LOT of DNA! I think I'm related to him about 10 different ways...I exaggerate not!

I am also a seventh cousin, two or three times removed to Diana, Princess of Wales, through Elder John STRONG of Northampton, Massachusetts.

Your Cousin,
Miriam

Jasia said...

Wow Randy, Miriam... I'm impressed! OK, here's the best I can do... my grandfather's sister's husband's brother, Stanislaw Wojciechowski, was a President of Poland. On 20 December 1922 he was elected President of the Republic by the National assembly. As a result of the coup d'etat staged by Jozef Pilsudski on 14 May 1926, he resigned from the office.

Now it's your turn to be impressed ;-)

Anonymous said...

George Washington (haven't calculated - my 20g grandparents were his ancestors)
John Adams - 3rd cousin 7 removed
John Q Adams - 4th cousin 6 removed
Franklin Roosevelt - 4th cousin 3 removed plus 7 others (related to 3 of his grandparents)
Gerald W Ford - 1/2 10th cousin
George H W Bush - 7th cousin 1 removed plus 3 others
George W Bush - 8th cousin plus 3 others

I also have the Diana Spencer connection (8th cousin 1 removed (twice) and 9th cousin)

haven't researched others