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BARACK OBAMA AND BRAD PITT ARE COUSINS: New England Historic Genealogical Society poked around in his family tree.
*Turns out the Democratic Party isn't the only house divided. Folks woke up yesterday to news that presidential candidate Barack Obama is related to Brad Pitt, while his rival Hilary Clinton has family ties to Pitt's girlfriend Angelina Jolie.
The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) in Boston on Wednesday released a study in which it traced the family trees of all three presidential candidates to find they all had famous relatives, both dead and alive.
Pitt was found to be a ninth cousin linked back to Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769.
In addition to Pitt, the Chicago senator also has in his family tree six U.S. presidents as distant cousins, including George W. Bush and his father, Gerald R. Ford, Lyndon B. Johnson, Harry S. Truman, and James Madison.
Obama, whose mother was white and from Kansas, is also linked to British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. It was previously reported that he is also a distant cousin of Vice President Dick Cheney.
"Obama's maternal ancestry includes the mid-Atlantic States and the South," said Christopher Child, a genealogist with NEHGC that dates back to 1845 and describes itself as the United States' oldest and largest non-profit genealogical organization.
Meanwhile Senator Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins twice removed linked by Jean Cusson of St. Sulpice, Quebec, who died in 1718.
Child said Clinton is also a cousin of a number of famous people with French Canadian ancestry, including Madonna (ninth cousins linked by Pierre Gagne of Quebec who died in 1656) Celine Dion, and Alanis Morissette, as well as author Jack Kerouac. Another cousin is Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles.
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