Relation to famous people

"According to a chart published by twelve-year-old student BridgeAnne d'Avignon, all U.S. presidents except Martin Van Buren (due to his dutch ancestry) can trace descent from King John of England. As a result, all presidents except Van Buren are direct descendants of Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror."

Alfred the great is also my 31 great grandfather. So we are all in the bloodline as the presidents.

so the leadership may be partly genetic...interesting.

“The presidential candidate with the most royal genes and chromosomes has, up to now, always won the White House,” say the researchers at Burke’s Peerage
.When it comes to picking the winner in the American presidential race, Britain’s leading chroniclers of royal ancestors say they’ve never been wrong — not once in almost 200 years.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82279&page=1#.T8OD...

I have no interest in politics, but listen to this, my grandpa was a lobbyist in DC for years, he worked directly with presidents Carter and Reagan in 1970s and 1980s and knew them very well, isn't that a crazy coincidence?

John I "Lackland", King of England#

John Lackland, King of England is Mitt Romney's 22nd ggf and
he is Barack Obama's 23rd ggf

John Lackland is also my 23rd ggf

So the odds of any given person being distantly related to royalty are remarkably high, because when ancestral lines are traced back through time, the number of ancestors doubles with each generation. If any person traced their bloodline back to the year 1500, for example, they would discover about a million ancestors.
Pedigree collapse explains how so many people can be linked to famous rulers such as Alfred the Great.

I was trying to find a reference that explains why those of us with Colonial American ancestry may more easily be able to find our lines to say John Lackland than those in contemporary UK, and it has to do with the math again. There were only 21 Mayflower families for instance, and all together, in the "Great Migration" from England (1620-1640) maybe 20,000. So even if only a few of those immigrants had a "noble" connection, very many are their descendants, cousins, etc. I'm mangling how I'm phrasing this, need math help!

I have at least two connections with King Henry 2nd, William Longspree and John Lackland. John Lackland was not a nice person , sad i am related to hi , but that's the way it goes. Like the Illegitimate line better, that's William Longspree. Oh, well you can't choose who you are related to can you?

@ Matthew

Is it " a crazy coincidence" because lobbyists weren't bipartisan back then or because all 3 are related to John Lackland the King of England ?

John Lackland, King of England is my 21st great grandfather. If the trend hold true, I goes I should have been running for the Presidency this year......

Olaf Sithricsson, King of
Dublin and York is my 26th great grandfather

Hi Denise ...Olaf Sithricsson, King of Dublin & York is also my 26th great grandfather. :)

My 9th ggrandfather and ggrandmother are Jacob Janse Schermerhorn and Jannetje Segerse Van Egmont Van Voorhout to very prominent Nederland immigrants from Holland in the 1600's that helped to pave America in originally New Amsterdam and now New York.

my connections - 6th cousins or closer for 24 out of 44 presidents!

@ Matthew

Is it " a crazy coincidence" because lobbyists weren't bipartisan back then or because all 3 are related to John Lackland the King of England ?

I am related to all the Presidents of the U.S. but not through King John. My connection is basically through the Southard branch. Thomas Southard married Annica Antonise van Salee, who was the eldest daughter of Anthony Jansen van Salee and the connections stems from them one way or another down through my G-G-Grandmother Priscilla, where for the Bush Presidents the link is with the Brunner's of which William was her second husband. Am also connected to Thomas Blossom.

In the British Islands we are connected to the Plantagenets, Stuarts, Tutors, Winsors, etc. Also am connected to Winston Churchill, T.S. Elliot, Lady Gadiva, Diana Spencer and many others I can't remember.

I am amazed at the people that my family has throughout the world and back to around 99AD. Charlemagne, Vladimer I of Kiev, Charles Martel, Dagabert I, and many others.

pedigree collapse...we all are more closely related than we would normally think....

Marilyn Monroe is my 2nd cousin once removed...

I am happy I'm related to all these famous people. It is more than I could Imagine. I just wish my father and grand father could have known all this. It was never passed down. Anyone else out there who never knew about their family history?

charlemagne have I known for many years, about him and that I am a descendant of him

@ Sherry ... it was likely not passed down because they had no idea of the connections that are made possible today , would have been unknown then.

What we are now able to find out today is mind boggling. An example : how would my mother or father know to tell me that Marilyn Monroe or Johnny Cash are my 13th cousins ? It's only thanks to the sites with genealogical software such as Geni, that we can know these connections, once our info is added and we are connected to the big tree... something our grandparents could never do.

Rhonda-Lee Allen Barber, U.E.....They told me I was related to people I am not even related to. Someone missed something somewhere. I am glad I can pass it down to my children.

I just had to bring up Antony Jansen “du Turck” van Salee again. He was one of the most interesting (and richest) settlers in New Netherlands, and may have owned the first (known) Koran in the Northern US. It was sold at auction some years back unfortunately.

Anthony Jansen van Salee is Linda Thompson's first cousin 6 times removed's husband's third great grandfather.

Erica--You are right about Anthony Jansen van Salee. The activities of Anthony and his wife are infamous. His eldest daughter Annica Antonise joined the Southard/Southworth family, who were part of the religious group that left England for Holland for religious feedom. My G-G-Grandmother Priscilla Ann Little was my direct link to Annica and her husband Thomas Southard. It is through the Southard's that I am connected to all the Presidents. Priscilla told my father many times, before her death in 1918, that we were part of the American Aristocracy. He didn't believe her but I proved her right before he died in 2009, but nothing like what I know now. All the big connections we have with world history go through Priscilla's family and the marriages they made. History was my love since I was little and was my major in College and the work I am doing now really connects my family with the history of the world.

One of the things I so enjoy is the diversity and common bonds of our ancestors and cousins. Muslims to Puritans to emperors to movie stars to Presidents to pharaohs to the late, great Johnny Cash -currently showing as my 15th cousin.

We are all related to each other. The famous, the infamous, and the ordinary. It is just a matter of finding out how we are related. I love learning what I can about the lives of the past relatives that dwelled in this place we call earth.

Simone Signoret is Monique Van Erkel-KÖHLER's great aunt's uncle's wife's first cousin once removed's husband's great aunt's husband's second great niece

http://www.geni.com/path/Monique+Van+Erkel+K%C3%96HLER+is+related+t...

Based on my 1,184 ancestors I'm following/bookmarked, most of us who go through Jean Aberdein, Margaret Ross 1st Viscountess of Stair and Isabel Kennedy of Bargany are directly descended from pretty much every major figure in history

Do you have links to those profiles?