We're Related: I Broke Down and Downloaded the App

The first estimated famous relation was the only one I expected.  I do indeed believe that I am a 6th cousin to President Obama through my mother's maternal upline.  Our 4th great grandmothers were sisters, daughters of John Wilson and Ruth Welborn of North Carolina, Kentucky, and Illinois. I discovered this years ago when I first started my genealogy in earnest

I'm referring to the Ancestry app called "We're Related."

Judy G. Russell of the Legal Genealogist was also predicted to be related to the President, but found the actual connection to be unlikely, or at least unprovable as presented.  The other predicted relations she was given were also spurious, as have most of the ones I've been given have been.  I would be happy to claim Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln as distant cousins, but I'm not sure I believe the way the app estimates the relationships.  Still, it might be right once in awhile.

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings has done a number of interesting posts on the topic.





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