President Barack Obama can add a new name to the list of things he calls Scott Brown: cousin.
Genealogists at the New England Historic Genealogical Society said Friday that the president and the Republican senator-elect from Massachusetts are 10th cousins. Obama’s mother and Brown’s mother are both descendants of Richard Singletary of Haverhill, Mass., who died in 1687.
This isn’t the first time genealogists have tied the president to notable Republicans. During the 2008 presidential campaign it was reported that Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney are 8th cousins.
The revelation led Obama’s spokesman to quip: “Every family has a black sheep,” and the vice president to jokingly refer to him as “my cousin Barack Obama.”
And in more weird-but-true genetic news, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos was informed today that he is likely a maternal cousin of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“You’re putting me on,” said Stephanopoulos after Henry Louis Gates Jr. told him that he is “very likely” Clinton’s cousin as part of a segment on “Good Morning America” promoting a four-part PBS series on family histories.
Stephanopoulos underwent DNA testing as part of the series, but Clinton has not.