Too Much Sleuthing Going On by Edna Barney
Can there be such a thing as “too much” genealogical sleuthing? Apparently so from what I have been reading at CNN and Chicago’s Suntimes.com.
It has now been discovered that Barack Obama and George “W” Bush are 11th cousins. That is because, notwithstanding the incredible differences between their names, the two share the same great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents — Samuel Hinckley and Sarah Soole Hinckley of 17th century Massachusetts. Perhaps you do too. I do not, as none of my people ever set foot in Massachusetts, but I cannot say the same for my husband. Perhaps I will find that my children are relatives too. And believe it or not, Barack Obama is even kin to the first President Bush, the George Herbert Walker Bush.
However, it gets even more fantastic than those Busheys and Obama cousins. Mrs. Vice President, Lynn Cheney, is writing a book that covers the genealogy of her husband’s Cheney family and low and behold she discovered that Barack Obama is a cousin of her husband too. That is Vice President Dick Cheney and Obama are both descended from a Maryland Huguenot named Mareen Duvall, a 17th century immigrant from France.
Who knew that those two were French? All this time we’ve been thinking that Obama was African-American and Cheney a Cowboy-American. You know what that means all you Duvalls back there in Maryland? You’re related to them both; you cannot take sides.
Mareen and Susannah Duvall’s son married the granddaughter of another immigrant, Richard Cheney, who arrived in Maryland from England in the 1650s. The vice president, Richard B. Cheney, is a namesake of that long ago immigrant. Barack Obama is not, even though both men are direct descendants of the same Richard Cheney. Barack Obama himself was totally nonplussed when told of his newly found kinfolk on the other side of the political spectrum. “Every family has a black sheep,” said a spokesman for Obama, without explaining exactly what he meant.
And yes, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are also cousins, albeit from a totally different ancestor. This demonstrates what can happen when a person discovers all the ancestors that he had no idea were his forebears. They are others’ forebears too, and there is nothing one can do to change that.
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Edna,
I agree with you–there is way too much sleuthing going on. We are all related to each other if we dig deep enough, and a common ancestor doesn’t indicate a similarity in current personality traits it appears
Janice
Comment by Janice Brown — October 28, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Los Angels Times Political Blogs
Dec 12 2007
Barack Obama’s family tree grows and grows
It seemed a surprise for all concerned to learn earlier this year that Barack Obama is related to Dick Cheney (as well, it turns out, to George W. Bush). Now, Obama’s unusual genetic mix (black father from Kenya; white mother from Kansas), has garnered him a chance to join the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
The head of the society’s Iowa branch, Mike Rowley, extended the invite in a letter he sent to Obama’s Senate office last week, noting that ancestral research had determined that the Democratic presidential contender — through his mother’s side of the family — shares a blood line with Revolutionary War veteran John Miles Duvall.
In urging Obama to sign up, Rowley said that if he acted quickly, another honor would follow. He invited Obama to join him and other members of the society’s state chapter later this month at a cemetery in Montrose, Iowa. There, Obama’s induction would be celebrated and homage paid to Cato Mead, the one black Revolutionary War soldier known to have settled — and died — in the Hawkeye State, according to Rowley.
Rowley invoked Mead’s name in part to call attention to legislation in Congress — whose sponsors include Chris Dodd, Obama’s rival in the Democratic presidential race — to build a new monument in Washington commemorating, as the effort’s website spells out, the more than 5,000 blacks who volunteered to fight in the American Revolution.
We tracked down Rowley, 50, at his home in a Des Moines suburb and, in elaborating on his letter, he displayed the political savvy we’ve come to expect from Iowans. He said that even though time is growing short, he hoped to organize the event at Mead’s grave site while Iowa is awash with presidential wannabees (Dodd also has been invited). Once the state’s Jan. 3 caucuses are over, he agreed, candidate visits to Iowa will be few and far between.
Rowley said Obama’s office acknowledged receipt of his letter and said it would get back to him, if matters could be arranged. As of Tuesday night, he said, there’d been no further word.
— Don Frederick
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/
02:20 AM, Dec 12 2007
Comment by Jonathan Wyngate — December 12, 2007 @ 12:15 pm
Thank you so much Jonathan for that tidbit. I had not heard it. I hope he joins - what great publicity for our American Revolution.
http://patriots.wordpress.com
Comment by Edna Barney — December 12, 2007 @ 3:58 pm