Which Modern Black Notable are you most closely connected to?

Question

This week in the Connection Finder, we're featuring Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Featured alongside him are other modern black notables:

• "Eddie Bo" Bocage, musician
• Chris Calloway, actress
• Katherine Johnson, mathematician
• Miles Davis, musician
• Cicely Tyson, singer, model, actress
• Bob Moses, activist, author, educator
• Lena Horne, singer, actress, activist
• Amelia Elizabeth King, activist
• Barack Obama, politician
• Morgan Freeman, actor

Who are you most closely connected to? If you're one of the 24 million of us who are connected to each other on our big tree you can check with the Connection Finder.

You can check for shared ancestors with the Relationship Finder. Are you a cousin to any of them? Your Relationship Finder Quick Links page (see your profile pull-down menu under "Relationships") has quick links for several notable groups.

Special feature: Check out how you're connected to other black notables by searching the African-American Notables category and related categories like US Black Heritage Managed Profiles and 1960s Civil Rights Movement using the green MyConnections button in the upper right hand corner of the page.

Let us know how you're related below! If you want to share your connection on social media with cousins and friends, click the "get shareable image" below the results, e.g. Colin Powell and Barack Obama. Then just upload it along with the URL of your direct connection. (Please refrain from sharing your connection on the featured profiles themselves, though. It clutters conversations on research and collaboration. Thanks!)

Help us with next week's feature: Remembrance Day. Help us choose and improve profiles for it.

Comments

This is fun! "Barack and Valorie are 8th cousins once removed" through my Booths. 

"You are 29 degrees from Colin Powell, 25 degrees from Edwin Bocage, 19 degrees from Chris Calloway, 43 degrees from Miles Davis, 23 degrees from Morgan Freeman, 24 degrees from Lena Horne, 19 degrees from Katherine Johnson, 36 degrees from Amelia King, 25 degrees from Bob Moses, 18 degrees from Barack Obama, 44 degrees from Cicely Tyson and 21 degrees from Missy Berryann."

Answer 1

I am most closely connected to Katherine Johnson at 21 degrees of separation.

• 21 degrees from Katherine Johnson
• 22 degrees from Morgan Freeman
• 22 degrees from Barack Obama
• 23 degrees from Chris Calloway
• 25 degrees from Edwin Bocage
• 27 degrees from Bob Moses
• 28 degrees from Colin Powell
• 32 degrees from Lena Horne
• 39 degrees from Amelia King
• 46 degrees from Miles Davis
• 47 degrees from Cicely Tyson

Answer 2

19 degrees to Barack Obama is the closest, and also an 8th cousin twice removed.  The other connections range from 20 (Chris Calloway) to 44 (Cicely Tyson).

Comments

Interesting! Obama and I are eighth cousins once removed.

Answer 3

19 degrees from Barack Obama (10th cousins, 2x removed)
19 degrees from Morgan Freeman
19 degrees from Lena Horne
21 degrees from Chris Calloway   (16th cousins, 4x removed)
21 degrees from Katherine Johnson
24 degrees from Edwin Bocage
25 degrees from Bob Moses
28 degrees from Colin Powell
35 degrees from Amelia King
40 degrees from Miles Davis
41 degrees from Cicely Tyson

Answer 4

28 degrees from Colin Powell, no relation

22 degrees from Edwin Bocage, no relation

19 degrees from Chris Calloway, 12C2R MRCA Douglas-522

40 degrees from Miles Davis,

20 degrees from Morgan Freeman,

28 degrees from Lena Horne,

18 degrees from Katherine Johnson,

34 degrees from Amelia King,

24 degrees from Bob Moses,

15 degrees from Barack Obama, 6C2R MRCA Loftin-83

41 degrees from Cicely Tyson

21 degrees from Missy Berryann 15C2R MRCA Stewart-1622

Answer 5

 I am: 27 degrees from Colin Powell, 26 degrees from Edwin Bocage, 20 degrees from Chris Calloway, 44 degrees from Miles Davis, 22 degrees from Morgan Freeman, 29 degrees from Lena Horne, 22 degrees from Katherine Johnson, 36 degrees from Amelia King, 27 degrees from Bob Moses, 16 degrees from Barack Obama, 45 degrees from Cicely Tyson and 22 degrees from Missy Berryann

Answer 6

I am most closely connected to Morgan Freeman at 25 degrees.

Answer 7

16 degrees from Barack Obama (his 5th great-grandmother Mary Grable Duvall's brother Samuel Miller Grable married my 4th great-grandmother Nancy Bridwell's sister Rebecca), and 10th cousins through Mareen Duvall and his 2nd wife Susannah.

Comments

Hey C Handy, you are my 9th cousin, 2x removed...we're related via our Hagan side of the family tree.  :)

Answer 8

21 degrees from Chris Calloway and 23 degrees from Kathy Johnson and Barack Obama.

Answer 9

I'm closest to Chris Calloway, Katherine Johnson, and Barack Obama, all at 22 degrees.

Answer 10

Barack Obama and Patty are 8th cousins, 17 degrees of separation.

Chris Calloway and Patty are 13th cousins twice removed, 16 degrees of separation.

Answer 11

Most closely connected to Chris Calloway at 15 degrees.  She is also a cousin--we are 8th cousins, once removed.  Our family lines crossed in Nelson County, Virginia, where her father's ancestors, the Cabells (who, sadly, were enslavers of other of her ancestors), were cousins to some of my family that lived in that area for a long time.

One more cousin in this group:  Barack Obama.  He is my 11th cousin, once removed, on his mother's side.

Answer 12

Barack Obama and I are 14th cousins 3x removed. We are related through Philip Cooke( abt. 1452-1503)

Answer 13

Barack and Sandra are 14th cousins once removed

Answer 14

• President Barack Obama is my 8th Cousin Once Removed (16 degrees away) through the Goodnight family of Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France and later, Virginia.
   
• Chris Calloway is my 8th Cousin. (17 degrees away) through the Burks family of Virginia.

(Multiple estimations of my personal heritage all indicate that I have about 1% ancestry from West African, including areas of Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia & Sierra Leone.)

Answer 15

Chris Calloway - 9th cousin 1x removed; B Obama 7th cousin 2x removed

Answer 16

19 degrees from Chris Calloway, 9th cousin

18 degrees from Katherine Johnson, 7th cousin three times removed

18 degrees from Barack Obama, 11th cousin

Answer 17

22 degrees from Barack Obama (19th cousins 1x removed)

Others (not related) include, 32 degrees from Colin Powell, 28 degrees from Edwin Bocage, 23 degrees from Chris Calloway, 44 degrees from Miles Davis, 25 degrees from Morgan Freeman, 30 degrees from Lena Horne, 23 degrees from Katherine Johnson, 35 degrees from Amelia King, 28 degrees from Bob Moses, 45 degrees from Cicely Tyson 

Answer 18

I don't generally have good connections to Americans. The closest in this case are Barack Obama and Chris Calloway at 30 degrees.

(52 degrees from Cicely Tyson.)

Comments

Amelia King was English, but this is still quite a US-centric list. I noticed that https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mandela-1 seems to be unconnected to the shared tree.

Answer 19

Katherine Johnson is the closest.  Black notables are usually pretty distant from me.  Finding out Diana Ross was my ninth cousin once removed a few weeks ago came right in the midst of a lot of discussion of The Wiz in my circles, so that was pretty special.

30 degrees from Colin Powell

28 degrees from Edwin Bocage

22 degrees from Chris Calloway

43 degrees from Miles Davis

26 degrees from Morgan Freeman

33 degrees from Lena Horne

18 degrees from Katherine Johnson

34 degrees from Amelia King,

28 degrees from Bob Moses

22 degrees from Barack Obama

44 degrees from Cicely Tyson

21 degrees from Missy Berryann

Answer 20

I am proud to say that Katherine Johnson was a 7th cousin! What an amazing woman!