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Obama and Brown are distant cousins, Boston researchers say

E-mail|Link|Comments () January 29, 2010 11:26 AM

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

President Obama and US Senator-elect Scott Brown -- who are opposites politically -- are distant cousins, genealogically speaking.

US Senator-elect Scott Brown

According to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the president and Brown are 10th cousins. The group said Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and Brown's mother, Judith Ann Rugg, are both descendants of Richard Singletary of Haverhill. Singletary died in 1687 when he was 102 years old.

Obama's family is descended from Singletary's oldest son, Jonathan, who changed his surname to Dunham. Brown's family can be traced to Nathaniel Singletary, Jonathan's brother, the group said in a press release issued today.

Brown won a surprise victory for the open Massachusetts Senate seat earlier this month, breaking the Democratic grip on the Senate and forcing Obama to rewrite his political agenda.

The research was conducted by genealogists Chris Child and David Allen Lambert, the group said.

It found that Obama is still tops when it comes to having family ties to former presidents.

Obama, the group found in 2008, has links to seven presidents, including his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, and Bush's father, George, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S Truman, and James Madison. Obama also has ties to actor Brad Pitt.

Brown, on the other hand, is connected to just six former presidents including the Bushes, Richard Nixon, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Rutherford B. Hayes.