Are you related to a U.S. President AND is each relationship sourced back to the shared ancestor?

Question

Does WikiTree's Relationship Finder show that you are a cousin to a U.S. President AND is each parent/child relationship sufficiently sourced to mark each relationship back to the shared ancestor as confident?

Comments

I am the 7th cousin 1 times removed of Jimmy carter

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James Knox Polk 11th president, I am the 9th cousin. Published in the book " cleggs of old Chatham "

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Wonderful question and great way to introduce people to the "question" of certainty....

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Edwin Conway, Sr and Martha Eltonhead are my 9th great grandparents, I descend from their daughter Eltonhead Conway that married Henry Thacker, Sr.  Martha is the daughter of Richard Eltonhead and Anne Sutton in England. Anne Sutton is the daughter of Edward Sutton, Gent.  and Anne Stanley.   Martha Eltonhead is a Gateway Ancestor of Charlemagne and goes to Henry II, King of England, etc. The lines connect with grandfathers that are Magna Carta Surities also. In Virginia, my Edwin Conway, Sr leads to President James Madison and President Barack Obama by his mother,  and the Eltonhead's lead to Richard Henry Lee and  Frances Lightfoot Lee that signed the Declaration of Independence.  They are all cousins to me. I have been involved in medieval genealogy for sometime and have corresponded with Douglas Richardson and have his books, "Plantagenet Ancestry", "Magna Carta Surities" and "Royal Ancestry, A Study in Colonial & Medieval Families".. all volumes of these books.  I have been doing genealogy for 36 years and my trees are on Ancestry. I could help others but for right now, I am a guest on Wiki and still don't know how to post on this format. LOL !

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I am a cousin to many of the American Presidents. I am related to more of them than not.

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If anyone has a proven royal line, you will find that several US. Presidents descend from royalty. Also, I am not here for free genealogy, I just don't know how to post on this format. I could give more than I receive to others that need help.  .LOL!

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I'm 2nd cousin 7x removed to George Washington., 3rd cousin 7x removed to Thomas Jefferson. JFK 9th cousins 1x removed. Theodore Roosevelt 9th cousin 1x removed. Nixon 9th cousin 1x removed. Ford 10th cousin 2x removed. I guess the closest is George H.W. Bush 9th cousins George W. Bush 10th and Jimmy Carter 14th.  I have many more but can't write  them all at the moment. This is only right if the Finder is right..!

EJ

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I am President Lincoln's 8th cousin 4x removed.  Robert Lincoln II is his 7th great-grandfather and my 11th great-grandfather.

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Could you help me? would you mind looking at my family tree on the Thompson side it shows royals in my family. I havent had time to do as much on my Browers side. Thank you.

I do have a Powhatan in my family tree on the browers side that I would love more info on and im just too new at this

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Summer, let me take a look....I am the lead of the Presidents Project and may be able to help!

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it shows im related to most of them. directly to the Bush family and more maybe im new at this lol i will take help on this tho thank you

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Thank you so very much

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I agree wonderful question. and how to do show that a certain sets of cousins above you to that common Presidential Ancestor are part of relationship to that President?

Answer 1

Not on here, but George Washington was a descendant of the Sutton family of England, and I am too.

Abraham Lincoln was a descendant of Sir Robert Drury through one of his daughters, and I am a descendant through him by his daughter Bridget Drury.

Comments

Dear Derek,

    The point is, how do you know that?  Can you put a note on Sir Robert Drury about the history book, or compiled genealogy, or other sources where you found this information?  

   Then maybe others can learn that they, too, share this line.  More cousins - we need more cousins.  -NGP

Answer 2

Well, that's part of what's needed.  But adding sources can mean lots of things and what I'm starting on is making the connections confident.  For those who aren't familiar with this each profile in edit mode will have parents, if they're known, at the top right with four choices: Non-Biological, Uncertain, Confident and Confirmed with DNA.  DNA would be ideal, but I expect it's rare except in the case of being a male descendent when you can confirm using the Y Chromosome.  "Confident" is a rather amorphous term if you look in the help pages, but I take it to mean that you have sources which bear on the parent - child relationship.  A US Census 1880 or later might be considered enough, particularly if you have other evidence like a biography which doesn't indicate the child was adopted.  Older censuses are useful, but not confident making, IMO.   A Birth Certificate which gives the parents should work well too.  Death Certificates can be a bit shakey  because the informant may not know about other marriages, or adoptions.  Marriage records may or may not list the parents of the couple.  If they do, they are probably good enough.  But there are records/sources which don't give any mention of parent child relationships and don't help in making a relationship confident.  

So, each of the links in the printout you can get from the Relationship Finder should be be "confident" or "confirmed by DNA" sometimes it may just mean looking at the sources on the child profile and seeing they're good enough and click confident and save.  Other times a lot of research may have to be done, especially for older ancestors.

Answer 3

I am working on connections with three presidents: Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, and Barack Obama.

My connection with the Hoovers is the most tentative out of all of them, and rests mostly on the identity of the mother of my 4th great grandfather, Jesse C. Hooven (Hooven-24). His father was a Nathan Hooven of Pennsylvania, and the identity of his first wife (the mother of my Jesse) has been unknown. While going through some Ohio marriage records, I found a marriage of Nathan Hooven (mis-indexed as Hoover) and Mary Ann Curtis that is a near perfect candidate to be the marriage record of Jesse's parents. Mary Ann Curtis was the daughter of John Curtis and Catherine Hoover (sister to Herbert Hoover's 2nd great grandfather John Hoover). I don't count this connection as anywhere near confirmed, as it's all based on circumstantial evidence. Mary Ann Curtis was disowned from her Quaker meeting for marrying out of unity, and my Jesse named his daughter Mary Ann, but besides some other naming coincidences I don't have much else to go on unless I am able to find someone named in a will. If I can confirm this Curtis connection, Herbert Hoover would be my 3rd cousin 5x removed. Not shown on WikiTree, as I haven't connected myself to the Curtis family due to lack of solid sources.

 

My relationship to Richard Nixon is as close to confirmed as you can get without DNA. My mother is a Mendenhall, and the Mendenhalls are perhaps my most well documented line. Richard Nixon's 2nd great grandmother, Martha Vickers, was the granddaughter of Joshua Mendenhall and Lydia Mendenhall, both descendants of the early Chester County, PA Mendenhalls. Through Joshua, we have common ancestors in Thomas Mildenhall and Joane Stroade, parents of the several Mendenhall siblings who immigrated. Lydia's father Aaron was the son of John Mendenhall and Elizabeth Maris - their son/Aaron's brother John is my ancestor. John and Aaron also married sisters, so we have a common ancestor there as well. He is my 7th cousin 3x removed, shown on WikiTree with (mostly) well sourced profiles. The Quakers make it easy to be confident. :)

 

I am fairly confident in my connection to Obama, though not as confident as the connection with Nixon. I would be related through his second great grandmother, Della Wolfley. The Wolfleys are well sourced through to their immigrant ancestor, Johann Conrad Wolfley/Wolflin (Wolfley-12). Professional genealogists (incl. those with Ancestry.com) have said that Johann Conrad is the son of Johann Martin Wolflin and Maria Margaretha Krafft of Baden-Wurttemberg. Their son, Johann Ludwig Wolflin (Wölflin-2) is my 8th great grandfather. My connection up to Johann Martin is confident and well sourced - I just need to find more sources on Conrad to confirm he is in fact their son. If so, Barack Obama is my 8th cousin 2x removed.

Answer 4

It looks like I have a sourced line to Teddy Roosevelt.

Answer 5

I feel pretty confident about the line from Reverend Obadiah Holmes to myself, and the line from Obadiah to President Abraham Lincoln. This makes President Lincoln my 6th cousin 4x removed.

In between is my Mosher line. Francis Cooke of the Mayflower is the 4th great-grandfather of Nathaniel Mosher, The Mayflower Society accepted me on this line. Abraham Lincoln and Nathaniel Mosher are 4th cousins 2x removed, both descendants of Obadiah Holmes.

 

Comments

Hello J., Are there citations in WikiTree showing that evidence?

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I have tried to cite my sources. Some of these profiles aren't mine, and need some work.

Answer 6

"No" and "No".

But once I get around to it, I should be able to show that FDR, US Grant, and Yours Truly all descend from Simon Huntington (1583-1633) & his wife, Margaret Barrett. Grant is a 5C4R, and FDR is an 8C2R.

In addition, a great-grandson of Simon, Samuel Huntington, was also the top US leader, but back before the Constitution. His job title became "President of the United States in Congress Assembled" when the Articles of Confederation took effect. The Revolution was still going on, so it was kind of a dangerous job back then! He had been a Signer of the Declaration of Independence.

I actually have a DNA match to an 8th cousin on that line back to my Huntington ancestor (granddaughter of Simon), but of course that's not really verified.

Answer 7

Yes.  :-)

I have a sourced lineage back to Thomas Delano (b. 1704), my common ancestor with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.    (But my descent from Thomas Jefferson's great-grandmother is more shaky.)

Answer 8

I am related quite a few presidents, distantly, however, to George Washington, my relationship is 1st cousin 8x removed. I lucked out in the research area, in that my direct line that connects to our shared ancestor, Lawrence Washington was already done.