We're all related.....sorta...

[one_voice]

Obama & Palin: Cousins?

It’s a plot twist worthy of Dickens: fierce political rivals in the midst of a contentious battle discover they are, in fact, related.


No, really. On Wednesday, Ancestry.com — the world’s largest online family history resource — revealed that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are actually cousins.


The relationship is, however, distant. Obama and Palin are 10th cousins through a common ancestor named John Smith — who settled in Massachusetts in the mid-17th century. And there’s more: Palin isn’t Obama’s only surprising relative. In the course of its research, the genealogy company also discovered that POTUS shares an ancestor with his vociferous critic (and newly discovered 10th cousin once removed), Rush Limbaugh, and is 11th cousins with George W. Bush. (In case you are wondering: Bush and Palin are also 11th cousins, according to the site.)


Researchers at Ancestry.com used historical records and documents to glean these findings.

~snip~

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1010/obama_and_palin_cousins.html


OMG...Rush and Sarah.... :crazy: :rofl:

[Bitwit1234]

1. Gee what a crock.

If yo want to you can hook anybody up to anybody as a first cousin 20 times removed. Just go to one of the census sites and try it. I have been researching my family for 15 years and our main researcher has gone to Utah, (LDS) center, England/Scotland where it is thought our original documented ancestor Thomas Sealock came from. No where can a relative overseas be located. AND GUESS WHAT...WE HAVE DNA TEST ALL OVER THE PLACE..NO MATCHES. So don't tell me it is so easy to match.

For example. Another ancestor has the same name as someone who married a Margaret Randolph said to be a cousin of Thomas Jefferson. NOW some in our line have hooked him up to her, but there is no documented proof. And I don't think so. And that's the way with these so called connections to Obama. People just want to get their name in the headlines. And I tell you one thing if someone published I was connected to any of the scags they hooked Obama up with I'd sue their butts.

[hfojvt]

4. nowhere can a relative overseas be located??

Huh? I have located several, always with help from other relatives. On my mom's side I can find her great-grandfather in the church records in Germany and trace it back to almost 1600 when the church records start. I now have a file of 30,000 names or so, and I am probably less than halfway done with those church records. I have also found ancestors of my dad in Germany and Switzerland church records.

What you are talking about is the difficulty of finding ancestors like Joseph Loomis who was born in 1590. I have never personally seen records from the 16th century.

You are certainly correct in that people make false connections all the time, but there is documentation for lots of ancestry and most Europeans are probably connected within 30 generations.

[gateley]

2. Well we know which side got the brains. nt

[pinboy3niner]

3. Even the best families have their embarrassing white sheep. :)