Obama And Palin RELATED? Website Claims President Also Has Ties To Limbaugh, Bush Family

Talk about awkward family reunions.

Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are related, according to research done by genealogists at Ancestry.com.

Odds are against them running into each other at a picnic, but Obama could technically be joined by Rush Limbaugh and George W. Bush, too. Yup, they're one big, uh, happy family.

The site, which claims to be the world's largest online family history resource and is featured on the NBC show "Who Do You Think You Are?", says that Obama and Palin are 10th cousins through an ancestor named John Smith. The president is also 10th cousins (once removed) with Limbaugh through Richmond Terrell.

The Bush political dynasty could hypothetically claim both Obama and Palin, who are each 11th cousins of former President George W. Bush.

Palin happens to be related to conservative commentator Ann Coulter and, more surprisingly, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. They're all cousins through John Lathrop, who was the minister of an illegal independent church in England and was exiled to the U.S.

And you probably thought there were big disagreements in your family.

It seems Ancestry.com finds these types of connections every year. In 2009 they announced that Obama was related to Warren Buffett, his 7th cousin three times removed, and Brad Pitt, his 9th cousin. In 2008, they revealed that Palin is a distant cousin to both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Princess Diana.

Comments

[68GREYFOX]

05:44 PM on 11/11/2010

This article is Ridiculous. But at least the writter has a J-O-B. (LOL)

[familyforest]

04:40 PM on 10/28/2010

See how Sarah Palin and Meg Whitman compare at:

http://familyforest.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/meg-whitman-narrowly-beats-rival-in-a-related-contest/
and see their Ancestors-at-a-glance colorful exciting fan charts here:
http://familyforest.com/resources

[familyforest]

02:37 AM on 10/26/2010

This blog says: "After the Family Forest® Project revealed to me that California gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman is related to former Alaska Governor and possible 2012 Presidential candidate Sarah Palin (they are 8th cousins once removed through common ancestors Rev. Joseph and Elizabeth (Bulkeley) Emerson, who are also ancestors of Hollywood super star Matt Damon), just for fun I began comparing their kinship reports to see how closely the two of them are related to other politicians, celebrities, and historical figures."

http://familyforest.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/meg-whitman-narrowly-beats-rival-in-a-related-contest/
for the rest of the story see link above.

[farmerlady]

07:18 AM on 10/16/2010

To think that some people pay this company to do this "research". Sigh.

[farmerlady]

07:17 AM on 10/16/2010

This is not terribly newsworthy if you understand basic math. All humans share a common ancestor not that long ago in evolutionary terms, and all are related to each other fairly closely--about the furthest away you can get is 15th or 16th cousins.

Using this same "geneology research", you can find out that 50% of Europeans living today are descended from Charlemagne or Julius Caesar, or both. We find that some 40 million Muslims are descendants of Muhammad, even though almost his entire family was wiped out a few years after Muhammad's death (had his family not been eliminated, the number would be much higher).

In other words, these "family trees" mean--not much. If you can trace a vague distant relationship to some celebrity you can also trace it to any number of unkown dirt farmers. It simply doesn't mean anything.

[tribalogical]

12:29 PM on 10/16/2010

6 degrees of separation for the living, and not too many more for our common lines of ancestry…

we're all related at some point and another. you don't get 7 billion people from a few hundred million without doing a lot of cousin-making! :))

[Ruben40]

11:51 PM on 10/15/2010

I have an excellent idea I will create a website and use famous peoples names to get traffic onto my website doesn't matter if all of it is a bunch of garbage what matters is money.

[madisonmagic]

04:21 PM on 10/15/2010

Please tell me they can link Glenn Beck and Woodrow Wilson?

[tribalogical]

12:31 PM on 10/16/2010

"Mooselini" Palin and Mussolini woud be awesome…

So would Glenn Beck and Joe McCarthy…

Because I'm sure this stuff is genetic! :P

[familyforest]

10:18 PM on 10/14/2010

Almost all of these generation-by-generation family ties could have been explored visually in the Family Forest between one and three years ago. Please Google "family forest" + Obama

Family Forest® Project
http://www.familyforest.com
A People-Centered Approach To History®
http://familyforest.wordpress.com

Here is the link to it or Family Forest video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kuhTyCl-yA

[venice6]

09:45 PM on 10/14/2010

If I were Obama, I would be sooooo embarrassed.

[Guest211]

06:33 PM on 10/14/2010

i knew i saw a resemblance

[Howard Scott Pearlman]

02:07 PM on 10/14/2010

And I am related to Moses, Jesus and Adam and Eve so what !

[AAAProgressive]

12:40 PM on 10/14/2010

New Post up - and it's a doozy!!
Revisiting the questions surrounding Trig Palin’s birth - "Anything goes?"
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/10/revisiting-questions-surrounding-trig.html

[WOODSTOCKER51]

11:57 AM on 10/14/2010

"Obama and Palin are 10th cousins through an ancestor named John Smith"

.SO THATS WHAT HAPPENED AT THAT "NOTELL MOTEL"....PALINS RELATIVE WAS "RIDING" HIS SLAVE GIRL AT THE TIME...........LOL

[Hassayamper]

02:52 PM on 10/15/2010

Obama has no slave ancestry. This relationship is through his white mother.

[catlady628]

11:55 AM on 10/14/2010

Just one big happy family!

[Kipper51]

11:46 AM on 10/14/2010

"they revealed that Palin is a distant cousin to both Franklin D. Roosevelt"

I knew there was a reason why FDR was facepalming in his casket :)