Barack Obama and Scott Brown are cousins, genealogist reveals
It was bad enough that President Barack Obama lost his US Senate super majority to a Republican. Now it turns out that Scott Brown, the newly elected senator from Massachusetts, is Mr Obama's cousin.

Published: 5:49PM GMT 29 Jan 2010


Massachusetts State Sen. Scott Brown celebrates with his family Photo: AP The Democratic president and Mr Brown are 10th cousins, genealogists said on Friday.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society said Mr Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and Mr Brown's mother, Judith Ann Rugg, both descend from Richard Singletary of Haverhill, Massachusetts.


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"I think it's a really interesting thing, where you have the separation between a Democrat and a Republican, but you have one link," said David Allen Lambert, the society genealogist who co-discovered the connection with colleague Chris Child.

Mr Lambert said the work had been aided by prior research about Mr Obama, as well as Mr Brown's cooperation with the society when researchers first contacted him in December.

"I'm glad to be in such distinguished company," Mr Brown said of the findings.

In 2008, the society discovered that Mr Obama is related to seven prior presidents, including George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison. They also learned he was related to Brad Pitt, the Hollywood actor.

Mr Brown, once a little-known state senator, jolted the national political landscape by capturing the Senate seat held for nearly a half-century by the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.

When he is seated, Mr Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate. That means the Democrats will no longer hold the 60-vote supermajority needed to overcome Republican procedural manoeuvres to block votes on legislation such as a health care reform bill, Mr Obama's top legislative priority.

The genealogical chart shows that Mr Obama descends from Richard's eldest son, Jonathan Singletary. He later changed his surname to Dunham. Mr Brown, meanwhile, descends from Jonathan's brother, Nathaniel Singletary.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... veals.html