Did you guys read that article on yahoo about relatives of the presidential race?

Question

that was interesting...what do you guys think?

Answer 1

Let me tell you something. If you go back 10 generations you can be directly descended from over a thousand people.  Your ancestry pyramids.  If you go back 20 generations, you can be directly descended from over a million people.  You have a very big family.

Now, I used the word "can" as if you go back far enough you will find cousins marrying.  Back when transportation was by foot of horse, people didn't have a chance to meet anyone out side their own town or village and in many small towns and villages most people were related.  

All of us as we go back far enough  will find historical people in our family trees. A lot of people are distantly related.  Those relationships of Obama and Clinton aren't all that unusual.

Answer 2

Do you mean this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080325/ap_o...

Realistically if someone is your tenth cousin you're hardly related to them at all, it's just the sort of trivia that the media likes to blow out of proportion to make a story.

Answer 3

if I was a conspiracy theorist i would think that some family or family's are running the USA in secret

Answer 4

I think you are taking it way too seriously.  As Shirley said, if you go back far enough, you have sooooo many ancestors that it is really impossible to NOT be related to everyone.  Especially considering that if you go back 30 generations, you ancestors exceed one billion, which is more than the population of the planet at the time.  Therefore, you descend from many of the same people multiple times, and you are distantly related to everyone.  According to connections Ancestry.com automatically makes to my family tree, it says that I am 7th cousin 1x removed to Hillary Clinton, 9th cousin 2x removed to George Bush Sr., and 10th cousin 1x removed to George Bush Jr.  None of this hardly excites me or gets me any favors.  The REAL excitement in genealogy is not who your 8th cousin is, but who you actually descend from.  Finding historically significant 8th great-grandfather is more exciting than finding a historically significant 8th cousin.  That is because with the 8th cousin, you share a common ancestor many generations back, but that is it.  You would still be here whether they were ever born or not.  With the 8th great-grandfather though you descend directly from him, you carry his genes, you owe your existence to him (along with many others of course.  He didn't create you by himself, but still....).  It is a much closer relationship.  Distant cousins don't excite me.  Distant grandfathers do.