Long before most Americans knew who Barack Obama was, and before most forecasters thought he had a chance of being nominated, we brought you the story of Barack Obama’s Presidential Genes.
So for the 2012 Presidential Election we decided to revisit the subject using a new digital resource that did not exist at the time of the 2008 Presidential Election, the Family Forest® National Treasure.
For a head-to-head comparison, I generated Family Forest® kinship reports(# 10) for both President Obama and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In the quantity category, it was a very close race.
In the Family Forest® National Treasure Mitt Romney is related through birth or marriage to 35 U.S. Presidents (one of them is President Obama) and 18 U.S. Vice Presidents. President Obama is related through birth or marriage to 33 U.S. Presidents and 16 U.S. Vice Presidents.
It is in the quality category that Mitt Romney substantially wins over President Obama.
President Obama has only one single digit cousin (9th cousin or closer) who was either a U.S. President or a U.S. Vice President, President Hoover (8th cousin three times removed, 8C3R).
Mitt Romney has 14 single digit cousins who were either a U.S. President or a U.S. Vice President, and eight of them were Presidents.
In order of closeness, they are President Grant (5C4R), President Cleveland (6C3R), Vice President Curtis (6C3R), President Fillmore (6C4R), Vice President Colfax (6C4R), Vice President Morton (6C5R), President Harding (7C1R), President Franklin Roosevelt (8C1R), President Ford (8C1R), Vice President Rockefeller (8C2R), President Taft (8C3R), Vice President Wallace (9C), President Hoover (9C1R), and Vice President Humphrey (9C3R).
The newest release of the Family Forest® was called National Treasure because among other abilities, it is an educational resource that networks more Americans through generation-by-generation family ties to more of the key people, places, and events in U.S. history than any other single digital resource, including Facebook.
