USA: Sarah Palin may be related to Princess Diana and Roosevelt; Obama to Brad Pitt

Record ID: 597323

  • Title: USA: Sarah Palin may be related to Princess Diana and Roosevelt; Obama to Brad Pitt
  • Date: 13th October 2008
  • Summary: SOUNDBITE (English) ANASTASIA TYLER, ANCESTRY.COM FAMILY HISTORY EXPERT, ON PALIN'S RELATION TO LATE U.S. PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT, SAYING: "She's ninth cousins once removed from President Roosevelt. That connection, they go back to colonial America and their ancestor John Lothrope arrived in Massachusetts from a boat in England in 1635."
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACP9R5H1UXGK8YVB9XLC4AGULV
  • Story Text: Genealogy experts say Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is related to Princess Diana and late U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt while Barack Obama is a cousin of actor Brad Pitt.
    Sarah Palin may define herself as a red-state "hockeymom," but a check of the Republican vice presidential nominee's family tree shows her to have a blue-blood background with distant relations to the late Princess Diana and late U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, genealogy experts said on Wednesday (October 8).
    The governor of Alaska and the princess are tenth cousins, while Palin and Roosevelt are ninth cousins once removed, said Ancestry.com, online genealogists.
    Palin and the late princess descended from John Strong and his wife Abigail Ford. Strong was born around 1605 in England and emigrated to the United States, where he died in Massachusetts in 1699.
    Palin and Roosevelt share ancestor John Lothrope, who was born in England in 1584 and also emigrated to America, where he died in Massachusetts in 1653.
    Other researchers discovered that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has ties to Hollywood royalty - he's believed to be a ninth cousin of actor Brad Pitt.
    The genealogical connections are not the first to gain attention in the U.S. presidential campaign. Last year, Lynne Cheney said she found while tracing her family roots that her husband Vice President Dick Cheney was a distant cousin of Barack Obama.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register