Clinton and Obama Long Lost Cousins of the Jolie-Pitts
Just one big happy family, right? It turns out, Hillary Clinton is related to Angelina Jolie. And Barack Obama is Brad Pitt’s distant cousin. Could this be why we’re reading about fights between America’s favorite global-adoption couple? (The Jolie-Pitts, not the Democratic candidates!)
Researchers at the New England Geneological Society hunted down family connections for all three of the presidential candidates. Let’s see who else is in the family.
Clinton, who is French-Canadian on her mother’s side, is also related to Madonna (score!), Celine Dion (oh.), and Alanis Morissette (huh. Ironic.) She also gets Jack Kerouac and Camilla Parker-Bowles.
Obama is related to at least six American presidents, including (ahem!) George W. Bush (gonna use that Hillary?). Also, 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.
John McCain is related to Laura Bush (booooring!). Researchers have a hard time filling out the family tree of McCain, but Political Nanny thinks it could shed some light on the whole nasty teeth thing.
On the Pitt and Jolie lineage, from the AP:
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 1700s? Well, Political Nanny is probably related to all of them too!
