All right, so as a follow up to my last post on connections to U.S. Presidents on my maternal side, here are U.S. Presidents specific to my Paternal side.
My paternal side has deep roots in the U.S. just like my maternal side, but instead of New England, it's British immigrants to what is now Virginia and Maryland.
9th US President - William Henry Harrison
Unfortunately, William, my 1st cousin 6x removed, died from pneumonia only 31 days into his term, this being the shortest any U.S. President served. Stories say he died from getting sick after giving a very long inauguration speech in poor weather, but that's just a tall tale. He was, however, the first President to die in office so that freaked everyone out and they then had to make sure there were rules in place if that happened again. William was the son of Benjamin Harrison V, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. It's strange to think back to my childhood school visits to Independence Hall in Philadelphia meant I was walking literally in Benjamin's same steps. Maybe I would have paid more attention!!
23rd US President - Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin (yes SOOO many Benjamin Harrisons) is my 3rd cousin 4x removed. However, I am related to him twice, on both my maternal and paternal sides (on my maternal side, he's my 6th cousin 5x removed). I have a soft spot for finding out how I'm related to someone multiple times, I just love it LOLOL! Yeah, I pretty much am my own cousin. AnyHOO, on my paternal side, our common ancestors are his grandfather, Benjamin HARRISON IV (above) and his wife Anne CARTER. The Carter family is also among some of the first families to immigrate to Virginia.
39th US President - James Earl Carter Jr.
Jimmy Carter, who is the first president I was aware of existing as a child, is my 10th cousin 1x removed. Our common ancestors are John CARTER and Bridget BENION, Londeners who were parents to emigrants to Virginia in the 1600s.
Now, since doing this research, I've found that there's actually even more Presidents that I'm related to on both sides but I thought I'd focus on the closest relations.
As long as you can find that one ancestral line that hits a royal somewhere in Europe, you're pretty likely to find that you are related to all kinds of historically famous people. It's been a really fun indulgence the last few weeks going over all these lines and it does suddenly bring history to life when you realize some name you read is actually a relation, no matter how distant!
