7th grader links Obama to past presidents, kings
(NBC) – A California 7th grader and her 80-year-old grandfather are allegedly the first people to discover that President Barack Obama is related to all other U.S. presidents except one.
BridgeAnne d’Avignon, who attends Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville, traced that Obama, and all other U.S. presidents except Martin Van Buren, are related to John “Lackland” Plantagenet, a king of England and signer of the Magna Carta.
The student and her grandfather, who is a genealogist, spent this past summer designing the first known family tree chart in history that shows the presidents’ direct relationship.
D’Avignon’s grandfather has researched president genealogy for 60 years.
“I’m very glad I got this done and I think it will turn out to be a success,” BridgeAnne said.
The teen has written to Obama, who she has concluded is her own 11th cousin, in hopes that she will get a chance to present the president with the chart. source
All the Presidents’ Cousins
Student finds genetic link between all but one U.S. president
During the presidential campaign, news that Dick Cheney and then-candidate Barack Obama were distant cousins became fodder for comics and pundits alike. Now a Bay Area middle schooler has revealed family ties among some of American history’s most achieved politicans.
BridgeAnne d’Avignon was on a mission to trace her own roots and uncovered evidence that each American president — except for one — has a common, very famous ancestor.
The 12-year-old from Salinas discovered that all the presidents except Martin Van Buren are related to King John of England, who was depicted as the villian in the Robin Hood tales. King John also signed the Magna Carta in 1215, which helped form the British Parliament. Van Buren’s descendants are Dutch.
It took BridgeAnne two years to finish the project, our friends at the Santa Cruz Sentinel discovered. Her grandfather, who has been tracing roots for 60 years, helped her connect the presidential dots. She thinks Obama is her 18th cousin.
BridgeAnne has political aspirations of her own, starting with a trip to the White House. She created a poster of the presidential family tree and is selling signed replicas of them on her Web site We Are All Related to help raise the funds to personally deliver a copy to Obama.
As for the common gene that binds them all, BridgAnne has her own theory.
“They all have the trait of wanting power.” source
Almost All US Presidents Were Related to King John of England
This is so interesting! This young girl started out doing a project about her own family tree, and discovered that she’s a distant cousin of President Obama! She also found that almost all of the U.S. Presidents are related to England’s King John, who signed the Magna Carta!
I just love it that she got so into her research that she put in the effort to do this epic project! That’s real learning right there: A spark that leads to a fire! Very cool and inspirational.
