Posted on 04/02/2011 5:17:39 PM PDT by Germanicus Cretorian
Paso Robles, CA -- Their political party lines maybe different but one thing United States presidents could share is their family line.
A young girl in California has put together a Presidential Family Tree. Twelve-year-old BridgeAnne d'Avignon found that all the presidents but one are related to King John of England through a common ancestor.
"They are all cousins and all grandsons of John Lackland," BridgeAnne told KCOY News. The girl searched more than a half million names for months. She started with George Washington, then traced both the male and female family lines to make the connection.
KCOY reports that before this, historians were only able to link 22 presidential family trees.
The teen also found out that she is the 18th cousin of President Barack Obama. She even wrote him a letter to let him know.
The only president not linked to King John: the eight president, Martin Van Buren.
Was Kennedy an Irish Catholic descended from Lackland? If true, that is a surprise.
Six degrees of separation. We’re probably all related to John Lackland.
His mother was white.
I am NOT believing this story.
I don’t either. I believe that Kennedy’s geneology, for example, wasn’t traced past the nineteenth century or possibly the eighteenth century.
Isn't there a French song about a bridge in Avignon? Does this 12-year-old teenager really exist, or is this another April Fool's story?
How did she find the birth records for Barack Obama?
First black president? Huh?
All of these family trees going back many generations have a major problem.
They are all based on the assumption the father was accurately known in every case. This is highly unlikely and the larger the number of births involved the less likely it becomes.
“Was Kennedy an Irish Catholic descended from Lackland? If true, that is a surprise.”
It would be a surprise. I’m not sure - I haven’t read the whole article so I don’t know if there are some that are just cousins rather than direct descent. The Royal Family of England is descended from one or two Irish kings as well, one of them being Niall of the Nine Hostages, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Kennedy family is too - their name itself is from the Irish Gaelic for headman or chieftain, and the O’Neil dynasty Niall started lasted from before the time St. Patrick was captured as a slave until Brian Boru arrived on the scene - he later defeated the Norse in the battle for rule of all Ireland in 1014 - about 600 years. Plus Niall was a polygynist, as were also many Irish kings up until about the winter of 1601-1602 and the Battle of Kinsale - many descendents all over Ireland and all throughout the royal houses of Europe.
OUCH!!!. Alix Fitz-Alan was my 17th Great Grandmother. That hurts. Guess I’ll have to pour myself another few fingers of Woodford Reserve.
I have an unproved lineage back to John myself (it was a 'Darth Vader moment' in my genealogical research given his villainous reputation), and just in the past week I've unearthed documentation that states that one of my wife's ancestors is a descendant of King John. I still need to dig up the particulars, but like you said, it's almost a sure thing for anyone of European descent.
Since Van Buren was rumored to be the illegitimate son of Aaron Burr he may be in the link as well.
But it's fun. Once you get back to a gateway American ancestor/ress, the rest of it has been professionally done, etc.
I Still Care: I mainly do direct ancestors but have had fun with some collaterals.
Was this King John the son of Henry I? I have two going back to him, can't get at my genealogy program on my pc which didn't crash but close to it.
I suppose we are all related; I've never found one American president unless Obama goes back to Wm. Conqueror on his mother's side or this King John.
I found a lost line actually two or more lines on my mother's side. They manufactured guns in Kansas City. I look for everybody no matter how insignificant their lives may have seemed to others. And am major stuck on three brick walls I'd like to break through.
I've loved meeting like 3rd cousins I didn't know I had and corresponding with them. We had a published genealogy on my father's side which gave me a head start. But my mother worked on it a few years before she died. The clues she left were priceless, and with the internet, I made connections that I might never have made. My gr grandfather was a twin, and my mother lost the other one in Nebraska. I met up with a descendant of the lost twin, and I had the "rosetta stone" or where to look going further back, I knew his parents and a sibling had died from small pox. Later the third cousin I met confirmed it when he found an obscure diary left by a fellow in PA. He had traced his to IL then was stuck until I told him what county they were from in PA and how the census made it so hard to find the surviving orphaned children. It all came together at last.
Only one King John in English history.
No kidding. We can’t even trace his relatives back one gneration with any certainty.
I am. At least twice. He's my 25th G-grandfather and my 27th G-grandfather.
You should find the thread here on FR from last Presidents Day when the AP failed to find anyone white related to Obama who were proud of him.
the Dunham’s are old-time colonialists ... related to a lot of the Mass Bay Colony gang. Then again, remember Gov. Richardson ... the first “Latino” major candidate? His father was decendant of colonialist Mass Bay Colony. So is MITTSTER. all the way back to 1700’s New England in his case.
Not Hillary. Recent immigrants, the Rodhams.
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