Obama and George W. Bush are 11th cousins

[Sims2789]

Just something funny I read:

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Barack.Obama.family.2.339709.html

He's also related to Harry Truman and Dick Cheney, and another source says he's related to Jefferson Davis. I wonder how common stuff like this is for other people.

 

[The Yankee]

I think we're all eleventh cousins with each other, so I really don't care about this. We could even be kissing cousins!

But it will give Obama another line to use on the stump about his wrongheaded family.

 

[FriendlyFire]

6 degress of seperation.

 

[Zelig]

I think we're all eleventh cousins with each other, so I really don't care about this.

Not quite, the most distant family relations in the human population are estimated to be approximately 2000th cousins.

 

[emzie]

Interesting, but not shocking.

 

[RedRalph]

Fact, is, somewhere down the line Lucefarul and MobBoss have a common ancestor. As do Al Da Great and Saladin. We all do.

 

[Catharsis]

I think we're all eleventh cousins with each other

Then why do you never call?

 

[kramerfan86]

This isnt really that impressive. If a family has been in the same country long enough its members are bound to be distantly related to tons of their fellow countrymen.

 

[Snowball]

Apparently Im related to Richard the Lion-Hearted. And some of the founding fathers too. The fact that Barrack is related to some too isn't all that impressive. Why does it matter anyways?

 

[Elrohir]

We are fam-ily! Sing it with me now!

 

[Sir Matzee]

We are fam-ily! Sing it with me now!

The problem is "sometimes family members fight each other..."

 

[Chieftess]

I think we're all eleventh cousins with each other, so I really don't care about this. We could even be kissing cousins!

But it will give Obama another line to use on the stump about his wrongheaded family.

Not quite, the most distant family relations in the human population are estimated to be approximately 2000th cousins.

Maybe the difference between Icelandic and Mapuche (a culture south of the Inca that were the last to fall to the Spanish). (provided Icelandic ancestors didn't somehow stumble into North America, marrying thier 800th cousins and messing up the whole family tree. ). Of course, it would happen with more isolated populations too.

Just food for thought (an intellectual exercise)... if a person had 4 descendants, and those had 4 each, and so on for each generation...

1st cousins - 16 (that's 4 siblings from the first set of parents, having 4 kids each)
2nd cousins - 64
3rd cousins - 256 (Guess how big my Polish side of the family is? It's at the 3rd cousin generation! It's a little less actually, since the 2nd and 3rd generation have been having less kids. My great-grandmother would be the first generation, a little over 100 years ago. Our family is about to split, giving the 2nd generation is dying off, and now the 1st cousins have their own families. In 8 more generations, we won't even know of each other.)
4th cousins - 1,024
5th cousins - 4,096
6th cousins - 16,384
7th cousins - 65,536
8th cousins - 262,144
9th cousins - 1,048,576
10th cousins - 4,194,304
11th cousins - 16,777,216 (This is 250 years - If you use the 1940s as his generation, then that's 1690AD. Right around when the colonies started.)

The problem is "sometimes family members fight each other..."

Sounds like a typical day in Off Topic.

 

[GenMarshall]

What's next? Obama and Billary share the same relative in the distant past?

 

[Sims2789]

Apparently Im related to Richard the Lion-Hearted. And some of the founding fathers too. The fact that Barrack is related to some too isn't all that impressive. Why does it matter anyways?

It doesn't matter since the US isn't a hereditary monarchy/republic. But it's still interesting.

 

[Evie]

So? I'm 11th cousin (or thereabout, I haven't done the exact maths but it's in that range) with Hillary Clinton, Céline Dion, Madonna, and probably dozens of other famous people (including virtually everybody in North America with Colonial French ancestry*)

*Exclusing those to whom I'm significantly closer than 11th cousin.

 

[The Yankee]

Then why do you never call?

My cable/internet/phone package only covers long distance to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Canada.

 

[cubsfan6506]

Great the last thing we need is another Bush in the white house.

 

[The Yankee]

Great the last thing we need is another Bush in the white house.

Reconsidering your support?

 

[bhsup]

You want Presidential relations to toot your horn about? Ya can't beat me!! I'm related to, via my maternal grandmother....

WARREN G. HARDING!

And I am very proud to say so, in a perverse "bottom that! sort of way.

 

[Integral]

See, all Obama will do is continue the Bush dynasty.

Where is your change now?