Bush to Kerry: What’s up, Cuz?

The Hill ^ | 9/9/04 | Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour

[notforhire]

George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry have similar backgrounds: New England families, prep school, Yale, Skull & Bones, etc. But going back even further, they get even more similar. In fact, they are related.

Bush and Kerry are 10th cousins, meaning they share the same great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, Henry Herrick and Edith Laskin of Salem, Mass. The Herricks, however, are not their only common ancestors. Bush and Kerry can be traced back to eight different sets of shared relatives, making them alternately 11th cousins once removed, ninth cousins twice removed or 14th cousins.

William Addams Reitwiesner, a genealogist and author who dug up the relations with help from Gary Boyd Roberts at the New England Historic-Genealogical Society (do all genealogists go by three names?), said that such connections are not uncommon for Bay State bluebloods. “Relationships such as these … are typical for any two random living persons with significant New England Colonial ancestry.

Other, more distant, relationships between these two are easy to trace.”

[tiki]

LOL

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

It doesn't matter. If your family is white, and they arrived before 1900, they are probably related to Bush and Kerry. Geneology is an interesting little exercise in geometric progression.

[Just Lori]

It doesn't matter. If your family is white, and they arrived before 1900, they are probably related to Bush and Kerry. Geneology is an interesting little exercise in geometric progression.



Ok, so if Kerry is my cuzin............can I go ahead and kick his arse? I'll just say "Auntie told me to"!

[notforhire]

Johngis Kerry. Ha! That's rich, better claim that one as yours, if it is.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Yeah, that's true. Working backward is an exercise in the powers of twos. However, if you want to get really interesting, work forward. At minimum, the power is 4. It is actually far more when you consider siblings. If you figure that each family had six children, then you end up with more people than are on the earth today.

[Trashyhill]

Are you related to President Bush through the Andrews line?

[Vigilanteman]

Have you tried a google search on Rev. John Lathrop, who arrived in the Bay Colony in 1634? His descendants run the range from politicians (Romney, Bush, Roosevelt) to generals (Benedict Arnold, U.S. Grant) to religious leaders (Rev. John Witherspoon, Mormon prophet Joseph Smith). I wouldn't be surprised if Kerry is related somehow, probably through the Benedict Arnold line. Al Gore, I beleive was a distant cousin of Aaron Burr.

[Polybius]

....I'm related to several presidents, various politicians and such. I sure am impressed with myself. LOL

This summer, we travelled to Spain and I decided to finally do the full geneological reseach on my paternal line.

We met the current owners of our ancestral 16th century "casa solar" (manor house) who asked me if I could decipher the stone coat of arms on the house. One quatering of the coat of arms was of an unknown family. It had a crowned letter "M" surrounded by 7 fish.

Once I was back in the USA, I started doing Google searches of every maternal surname in the geneolgy including the surname "Bahamonde".

"Bahamonde" was it: A crowned "M" with seven silver fish surrounding it within a red border.

I even got a hit for an illustration of the Bahamonde arms in Google that showed it in the upper right-hand quarter of somebody's coat of arms:

So, the coat of arms I hit on Google would have belonged to a distant cousin.

Who was that cousin?

Escudo de armas de Francisco Franco Bahamonde

Ooooops. : - o

[Polybius]

2 parents, 4 grand parents 8 ggp 16 gggp.....pretty soon, more grandparants then the number of humans that ever lived. How the heck does that work?

Well, if you go back in your family tree in all branches, you will see the same individual popping up in several times different places within the same family tree.

[madison10]

My family arrived (one branch anyway) in 1640,Martha's Vineyard. Probably related to YOU, Bush & Kerry. Bunch of good that "blue blood" is doin' me.

"Sure am impressed with myself." Cute! ;)

[Dan from Michigan]

I was scared until I found out that John Kerry wasn't Irish.

Since one of the names in my tree is "Carey" which IS Irish.

[writmeister]

Most people of colonial American ancestry can find common ancestors. I too share common ancestors with both President Bush and Senator Kerry. Mrs. Writmeister is also distantly related to Senator Kerry.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

That link is loaded with spyware - comes in on the popups.