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Obama Related To Pitt, Clinton To Jolie
by The Associated Press
Posted: March 26, 2008 - 10:00 am ET
(Boston, Massachusetts) This could make for one
odd family reunion: Barack Obama is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt, and
Hillary Rodham Clinton is related to Pitt's girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.
Researchers at the New England Historic
Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three
presidential candidates - Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican
John McCain.
Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her
mother's side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and
Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man
from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins.
McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush.
"You'd think with all that singing talent in
the family she'd be able to carry a tune," Clinton's senior adviser
Philippe Reines said. "But now it makes much more sense how she snagged a
Grammy."
Clinton won for best spoken word Grammy in 1997
for "It Takes a Village." Obama also won a Grammy in that category
this year for the audio version of his book, "The Audacity Of Hope:
Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream."
Genealogist Christopher Child said that while the
candidates often focus on pointing out differences between them, their ancestry
shows they are more alike than they think.
"It shows that lots of different people can
be related, people you wouldn't necessarily expect," Child said.
Obama has a prolific presidential lineage that
features Democrats and Republicans. His distant cousins include President George
W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S.
Truman and James Madison. Other Obama cousins include Vice President Dick
Cheney, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and Civil War General
Robert E. Lee.
Obama often jokes about his cousin Cheney at
campaign appearances.
"His kinships are across the political
spectrum," Child said.
Child has spent the last three years tracing the
candidates' genealogy, along with senior research scholar Gary Boyd Roberts,
author of the 1989 book, "Ancestors of American Presidents."
Clinton's distant cousins include beatnik author
Jack Kerouac and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England.
McCain's ancestry was more difficult to trace
because records on his relatives were not as complete as records for the
families of Obama and Clinton, Child said.
Obama and President Bush are 10th cousins, once
removed, linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662.
Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, linked by Edwin
Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769. Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama
campaign, declined to comment on the senator's ancestry.
Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins, twice
removed, both related to Jean Cusson who died in St. Sulpice, Quebec, in 1718.
The New England Historic Genealogical Society,
founded in 1845, is the oldest and largest nonprofit genealogical organization
in the country.
©365Gay.com 2008
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