To the delight of schoolchildren and car dealers all over America, Monday is Washington’s Birthday, better known as President’s Day. To celebrate, the genealogy website Geni.com has compiled a list showing how every American president is in some way related to our nation’s preeminent Founding Father.
From John Adams (Washington’s 10th cousin once removed) to Barack Obama (9th cousin 6 times removed), every chief executive has been a distant relative of our nation’s first president.
In Obama’s case, the connection starts with Washington’s ancestor Elizabeth Paulet. Elizabeth’s grandniece Margaret married into the Smith family. A few generations later, Margaret’s descendent Mary married into the Dunham family. Mary’s great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter, Stanley Ann Dunham, gave birth to Barack Hussein Obama in 1961.
Obama shouldn’t get carried away with the connection, however. The closest presidential blood relative to Washington, according to the website, was the thoroughly mediocre Zachary Taylor. Lest we forget, greatness is not passed along through genes.