Kissin' or dissin' cousins: Obama, 6 presidents
Also related: Hillary and Angelina, Barack and Brad.
BOSTON - This could make for one odd family reunion: Barack Obama is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt, and Hillary Rodham Clinton is related to Pitt's girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.
Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates - Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.
Clinton, who is of French Canadian descent on her mother's side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins. McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush.
Genealogist Christopher Child said that while the candidates often focus on pointing out differences between them, their ancestry shows they are more alike than they think.
Obama has a prolific presidential lineage that features Democrats and Republicans. His distant cousins include President Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison. Other Obama cousins include Vice President Cheney, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Civil War Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Clinton's distant cousins include beatnik author Jack Kerouac and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, wife of Britain's Prince Charles.
McCain's ancestry was more difficult to trace because records on his relatives were not as complete, Child said.
Obama and President Bush are 10th cousins, once removed, linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662. Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, linked by Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769.
Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins, twice removed, both related to Jean Cusson, who died in St. Sulpice, Quebec, in 1718.