No, Eleanor and Theodore were not first cousins. Theodore Roosevelt was Eleanor’s uncle (her father’s brother).
Eleanor’s father and Franklin were fifth cousins. Eleanor and Franklin were fifth cousins, once removed.
You should read the Blanche Weissen Cooke biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. According to the biography Eleanor was quite attractive when young. She was very tall, very thin and had beautiful blond hair and bright blue eyes.
Eleanor’s looks faded when she grew older and depressed by family circumstances that included numerous affairs by Franklin and the strain of living with a very overbearing mother-in-law.
I took a graduate class with Ms. Cooke and that was her explanation.
If you don’t mind a little puddle jumping, if Prince William becomes the King, he will be the first British monarch to be related to all of the other British monarchs. Diana’s ancestory filled in the missing connections.
I am a descendent of King David II of Scotland. From what I have been able to tell, he didn’t have any children “to speak of.” 
My father said that I am related to James K. Polk. I haven’t been able to verify that. I used to live on the property where his mansion had been.
I’m related to three writers and you would know at least one of them – Sir Walter Scott. The name of the family that we share in common would also be recognizable to you, but I had just as soon throw myself into a sticky at the BBQ Pit as mention it.
Nothing to see here. Just keep moving please. Move right along. Nothing to see…
I have seen pictures of Mrs. Roosevelt when she was younger and she still didn’t look attractive.
I would just assume that Franklin Roosevelt wasn’t a shallow person who could love only outer beauty. Eventually they did lead somewhat separate lives with other loves, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they didn’t love each other.
BTW, here’s a picture of the young Eleanor. I think she looks quite attractive. And if anyone wants to look up her best biographer, it’s Cook, not CookE. Sorry about that.
all humans are something around 30th cousins(at most) with each other.
Robert Duvall was in The Sixth Day with Arnold Schwarzenegger
who was in Total Recall with Sharon Stone
who was in He Said She Said with
Kevin Bacon
Oops! Wrong game, Sorry!!!
.
If William or Harry become King then I’ll be related to the monarch.
My grandmother traced her line to a common ancestor with Lady Diana.
I’m gonna hit my cousin up for some loot.
They were already all related – Diana gives the princes direct descents from the Stuarts, but all the English dynasties (Plantagenet, Tudor, Stuart, Hannoverian, etc.) were all inter-related.
William is descended, IIRC, from all of the English kings except for William II, Richard I, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Richard III, Henry VIII (though there may be a connection through an illegitimate line), Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I, Mary II, William III, Anne, William IV, and Edward VIII. All of those monarchs either left no issue, or had only surviving illegitimate children of which nothing is known of their descendants.
To Nichol_Storm,
How can Prince William not be related to all these people? Does not the throne follow down from one family member to another? Edward the 8th was William’s great-great uncle, who abdicated the throne in 1936. The line of succession has been unbroken since 1714 with the reign of George I.
George I-Father of George II
George II-Father of George III
George III-Father of George IV
George IV-Brother of William IV
William IV-Third son of George III and younger brother of George IV. (Prince William will be William V)
Victoria-Niece of Willaim IV
Edward VII-Son of Victoria
George V-Second son of Edward VII
Edward VIII-Son of George V (married Wallis Simpson and abdicated)
George VI-Brother of Edward VIII
Elizebeth II-Daughter of George VI
Prince Charles (Will be King Charles III)
William
The tree gets funny before 1714. George I, great grandfather was King James of the King James bible fame. His cousin was the great virgin queen Elizebeth I who was the daughter of King Henry the VIII. So, Willaim’s bloodline has come from the Tudor’s, the Stuart’s since the 15th Century and before. The crown has been passed down successfully from one family member to the next with only the Protesatnt Reformation of the early 17th Century.
ET
The white Washingtons joke about that too. Or at least the great-great-great (etc) nephew that I knew did.
Seems like I remember my mother muttering something about us being direct descendants of Pocahontas.
Related? Yes. English? No. These are all foreign dynasties. The last monarch of England from an English house was Harold Godwinson back in 1066 and none of his heirs ever took the throne so that doesn’t count as a dynasty. The last native dynasty then was the House of Wessex, the former kings of the West Saxons who forged England.
Their last king was Edward the Confessor who also died in 1066 ( though there was an intervening Danish dynasty descended from Cnut on the throne from 1016-1042 ). Afterwards England was ruled in turn by Normans ( descended from William the Conqueror ), then the French ( descended from Geoffrey Plantagenet ), then the Welsh ( descended from Owen Tudor ), then the Scots ( descended from James Stuart ), then a Dutch king ( William of Orange who didn’t produce an heir ), then the Germans ( descended from Ernest Augustus and then another house descended from Francis Albert ) who still hold the throne. The Queen’s husband is a prince of Greece so when she passes yet another foreign dynasty shall take the throne of England.
That’s not to say that Prince Charles and his children aren’t English, mind. Just that their dynasty isn’t. No English house has ever regained the throne in the extremely long wake of the Conquest.
I think one of the Playboy Playmates during the 1960s was a descendant of a president. I forget which one, though.
[Walloon pulls his Playboy 50th anniversary book off the shelf for further historical research . . . ]
According to IMDB, Tom Hanks is distantly related to Abraham Lincoln:
They seem to be all over–hell, I’m married to one. Glad that, unlike her mother and sister, she didn’t inherit the Adams nose. :eek:
ET Bass said,
My girlfriend’s daughter is a direct descendent of Lincoln, so there was someone doing someone somewhere.
Thanks for correcting my mistake re: FDR and Eleanor being cousins. I must have read that they were cousins and interpreted it to mean first cousins.