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RELATIVES: Researchers found that Mr Barack Obama is a distant cousin of Brad Pitt, while Mrs Hillary Clinton is related to Angelina Jolie.
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BOSTON - THIS could make for one odd family reunion: Mr Barack Obama is a distant cousin of Brad Pitt, while rival Hillary Clinton is related to Pitt's girlfriend Angelina Jolie.
Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates - Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.
Mrs Clinton, who has French-Canadian blood, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette.
Mr Obama, the son of a white Kansas woman and a black man from Kenya, can call six US presidents his cousins. Mr McCain is a sixth cousin of First Lady Laura Bush.
Genealogist Christopher Child said that while the candidates often focus on pointing out their differences, their ancestry shows they are more alike than they think.
Mr Obama has a distinguished presidential lineage, featuring Democrats and Republicans.
His distant cousins include President George W. Bush and his father George Bush, Mr Gerald Ford, Mr Lyndon Johnson, Mr Harry Truman and Mr James Madison.
Other Obama cousins include Vice-President Dick Cheney, ex-British premier Winston Churchill and Civil War General Robert E. Lee.
Mrs Clinton's distant cousins include beatnik author Jack Kerouac and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England.
Mr McCain's ancestry was more difficult to trace because records on his relatives were not as complete, Mr Child said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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