GW’s daddy was President. Were there other Presidents that were related?
John Adams and John Quincy Adams (father and son)
Also, Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt were related, although it was a much more distant relationship.
William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison, grandfather and grandson.
Almost forgot:
Benjamin Harrison, grandson of William Henry Harrison.
William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison were grandfather and grandson.
Beaten to the punch by Ruby!
Third by a nose!
OK, you guys have just listed all the ones I know off the top of my head, which happens to be the list of all presidential pairs with the same surname, except for Lyndon and Andrew Johnson, unrelated AFAIK.
Is there any identifiable degree of relation between any presidential pairs who do not share a surname?
There was a minor news story last week stating that Bush and Kerry are something like 9th cousins; I vaguely remember similar stories in previous elections.
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0878156.html
Although given any pool of so many people across American history, there’d probably be a similar number of relationships.
Yeah, lots, apparently. Here is a list of presidents who were distant cousins to William Howard Taft:
George W. Bush is also related on his mother’s side to Franklin Pierce.
The Nixon and Eisenhower families are related by marriage.
And here’s that site’s page for cousin relationships among all the presidents:
Very few people know that Bill Clinton is really the love child of John F. Kennedy and Ma Kettle. [sub]That would explain the sexual appetite and the Arkansas upbringing.[/sub]
Just what do you mean by “related.” Humphrey Bogart was related to Princess Diana because they had a common ancestor back in the 1600s or something. While that technically fills the bill as “related,” I personally wouldn’t consider someone more than, oh, maybe three generations removed as a “relative.”
With those kinds of guidelines, the list of presidential relationships shrinks dramatically.
Genealogists have determined that FDR was distantly related to a total of 11 U.S. presidents, 5 by blood and 6 by marriage:
Genealogoists have also determined that FDR was related to Mrs. FDR by both blood and marriage. That both simplified and complicated the family tree.
The 22nd and 24th Presidents were like twins!
Winston Churchill, who had both Mayflower and Knickerbocker ancestry through his American mother, was a cousin of both TR & FDR on both sides of his family and was related to other U.S. presidents as well.
Jimmy Carter is the illegitimate father of both Bill Clinton and the Olsen twins. (I can’t back that up, but my Ouija board spirit guide Shoopy says it’s so and he rarely lies.)
True story: When Jimmy Carter was newly elected, the National Enquirer printed a story on his genealogy (they paid professional genealogists to compile it) that mentioned his family’s (distant) connections to Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Jefferson and other presidents. He says it was the most informative and best researched piece on his family history he’s ever read, he still has his original copy and he’s probably the only president (or celebrity) ever to write a thank you letter to the Enquirer.