Friday, October 12, 2012

Who Knew? Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are Cousins!

My friend, cousin and geneablogger colleague, Tom Kemp, Director of Genealogy Products at  GenealogyBank,  sent along this Infographic about the Presidential candidates, along with the following information:

"Did you know that the 2012 U.S. presidential candidates President Barack Obama & Governor Mitt Romney are related to each other? Get the skinny on who's who in Obama and Romney's family trees. Find out how the 2012 U.S. presidential hopefuls are related and learn other fun genealogy facts about the candidates running in this year’s presidential election in this special Infographic by GenealogyBank.com.

"Explore Obama and Romney’s family ties in common and their genealogical relationships to English royalty, former United States presidents, Hollywood celebrities and American Wild West outlaws. See old baby pictures of Obama and Romney with their parents, discover when and where they were born and much more!"

Obama & Romney - Who Knew? We're Related! Genealogy
Infographic


Courtesy of: Genealogy Search - GenealogyBank

See Tom Kermp's blog post, Obama & Romney Are Related! Genealogy Infographic  for more information.

Isn't that fascinating!!  The Infographic doesn't define the level of cousinhood through Edward I - my count says it's on the order of 20th cousins.

My thanks to Tom for letting me share this Infographic on my blog.

Of course, I am related to both candidates also.  See:

*  I'm Mitt Romney's (Distant) Cousin

*  Yep, Barack Obama is my cousin!

And see My Presidential Cousins for my known connections (plus Barack Obama now!).

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/who-knew-barack-obama-and-mitt-romney.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

3 comments:

CarmenMJ said...

It is really interesting when you look at the list of Presidents who have no common ancestry with any other Presidents. It is a short list. Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy and Andrew Johnson. I am actually related to Andrew Johnson - he was my great great grandfather's first cousin. Calvin Coolidge has the most common lines with other Presidents with 19 and Bush 41 & 43 share 18 common lines.

Martin said...

Please do not credit Thomas Kemp with this. This was discovered by long ago by (among others) Bill Reitwiesner and Gary Boyd Roberts. All presidential genealogy started at the NEGHS. Mr. Kemp (a one time employee at NEGHS for a very short time) is just exploiting that for his new business. He gives no credit to the people who truly did the research. I find that shameful. You shouldn't link to such stuff.

Martin said...

Just to clarify, Ms. Johnson is incorrect in many of her assertions. Presidents with no known presidential cousins are: Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Arthur, McKinley, Wilson, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton. That's 13 out of 43 men to hold the office or roughly 30%. Additionally the Bushes have the most lines in common with other presidents at 18. Coolidge, FDR, and Ford are tied for second place at 17. See: Ancestors of American Presidents by Gary Boyd Roberts 2009 edition, pp. 591-593.