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Celebrity Link: Barack Obama Related to Brad Pitt, Hillary Clinton to Angelina Jolie
By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer
BOSTON (AP) _ 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.
"You'd think with all that singing talent in the family she'd
be able to carry a tune," Clinton's senior adviser Philippe Reines
said. "But now it makes much more sense how she snagged a
Grammy."
Clinton won for best spoken word Grammy in 1997 for "It Takes a
Village." Obama also won a Grammy in that category this year for
the audio version of his book, "The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On
Reclaiming The American Dream."
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.
"It shows that lots of different people can be related, people
you wouldn't necessarily expect," Child said.
Obama has a prolific presidential lineage that features
Democrats and Republicans. His distant cousins include President
George W. Bush and his father, 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.
Obama often jokes about his cousin Cheney at campaign
appearances.
"His kinships are across the political spectrum," Child said.
Child has spent the last three years tracing the candidates'
genealogy, along with senior research scholar Gary Boyd Roberts,
author of the 1989 book, "Ancestors of American Presidents."
Clinton's distant cousins include beatnik author Jack Kerouac
and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England.
McCain's ancestry was more difficult to trace because records on
his relatives were not as complete as records for the families of
Obama and Clinton, 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. 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 New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845,
is the oldest and largest nonprofit genealogical organization in
the country.
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