Since it is President's Day today (and George Birthington's Washday on Tuesday), I thought I would list all of my known 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
CHESTER A. ARTHUR - 8th cousin, 4 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
BARACK OBAMA - 8th cousin once removed
I figured these out by comparing my ancestral name list to the charts in the book Ancestors of American Presidents by Gary Boyd Roberts (with the exception of Barack Obama). 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 have no doubt that I could find more cousinships to the ones not on my list if I had longer ancestral name lists for their ancestors back into the English royal lines.
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.
UPDATED 1:15 p.m.: The Geni.com blog has a post about how George Washington is related to all of the other U.S. Presidents. Note that some are not biological relationships.
4 comments:
I'm curious why you say "assuming his [Abraham's] father was Thomas Lincoln". Is there some controversy about this, which I didn't see mentioned in the Wikipedia articles (I know, not infallible)?
Randy, I learned I'm related to the Bushes via Francis Cooke of the Mayflower. I was a lot more impressed to learn that the Wilson brothers of the Beach Boys also descend from Cooke.
I haven't checked any other Presidents - I may have to do that!
Ancestry.com says Andrew Johnson is 1st cousin 5x removed. I also know I am related to the Bush's and also Barbara Bush, but I forget how, my dad has lots of New England ancestry, it could be from the Mayflower link to John Howland or Richard Warren. Barbara Pierce Bush is related to the Demuth Family that immigrated from Moravia to America. My husband and her share Christopher Demuth and Suzannah Kline of the Moravian religion, went to Pennsylvania and Tuscarawas Co., Ohio.
Thanks for the link to the Geni Blog, Randy. :-)
Post a Comment