Candidates and their Relatives

By Miss Cellania in Politics on Mar 26, 2008 at 10:11 am

Genealogists Christopher Child and Gary Boyd Roberts have spent three years tracing th family trees of the US presidential candidates. The results are interesting. Barack Obama’s distant cousins include President George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman, James Madison, Vice President Dick Cheney, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, and Civil War General Robert E. Lee. Hillary Clinton is related to Madonna, Celine Dion, Alanis Morissette, Jack Kerouac, and Camilla Parker-Bowles. John McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush.

Obama is ninth cousin to Brad Pitt, and Hillary Clinton is ninth cousin to Angelina Jolie. Therefore, the couple’s daughter Shiloh is related to both candidates. Link

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bean
Mar 26th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I love that Obama is related to a ton of succesful politicians and leaders, and Billary has… Celine Dion.
NiteWhite
Mar 26th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I wish Celine Dion would return to canaduh.

I’m related to both Hilary and Obama, but I’m voting for Nader.
Alex
Mar 26th, 2008 at 11:12 am
They’re both related to Brangelina? Aaawkwaard!
Kevin
Mar 26th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Hmm I bet there was interbreeding within families. These are politicians you know..
Paul
Mar 26th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I heard about this and I think that it is really stupid.
Tempscire
Mar 26th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Go far enough through a family tree and everyone’s related to everyone.
Bee
Mar 26th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
It’s a small world after all~
L
Mar 26th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Lots of U.S. politicians are related to each other. Makes you wonder if those conspiracy theorists aren’t so crazy after all…
sparge
Mar 26th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Once you get out to 6th cousins, isn’t it more direct to go through Kevin Bacon?
cTitan
Mar 26th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
and sadly… this is just the type of information that will sway many dumb a** voters to vote for one over the other (as opposed to the actual issues at hand)

honestly.. isn’t anyone else sick of this popculture obsesed – media hogging climate pleaguing America right now..really…who gives a flying f*** who these two are supposedly related to…give me content NOT controversy!!!!!

….end rant:…ok all better now..:)
Jess
Mar 26th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
If you go back enough generations, we’re ALL related.
Jerse
Mar 27th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Everyone is related to Charlemagne – hence everyone is related…

Everyone’s related to Charlemange (ninth century French king) because if you count all of the ancestors of any individual back to the time of Charlemange – the number of ancestors of that individual would outnumber the world population at that time…

So what that basically means is that somewhere along the lines my great grandma’s nephew’s half-sister^X did the nasty with your great uncle’s cousin’s grandpa^X …. and so on
L
Mar 27th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
So… by that reasoning, Charlemagne must’ve been the only dude living at that time who had descendants. And therefore everyone must also be white.

I don’t think it quite works that way, Jerse. What the numbers actually mean is that everyone’s family has a lot of incest in it… whether we’d like to admit it or not. People used to marry their cousins (and second cousins and third cousins) all the time. In some cultures, they still do. Say you have four cousins who get married and have kids. Those kids won’t have as many ancestors as someone whose parents weren’t related.

I get what you’re saying, but it doesn’t mean everyone is related to Charlemagne.
L
Mar 27th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
It would have been even more interesting if Clinton and Obama were related to each other. Talk about a family feud!
Rachael Hemphill
Dec 6th, 2008 at 6:02 am
it’s funny that someone said “everyone is related to Charlemagne” because that is exactly the search I used. I just traced a line of my family back to Charlemagne. I thought it was cool, but not so much when you guys say everyone is…lol. oh well, not as special as I thought I was.

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