The Family Tree: My Kinship to Brad Pitt and Barack Obama

Today, the New England Historical Genealogical Society released the various celebrities each of the three remaining presidential candidates are related to.  The AP news story tagline focused on Hillary Clinton's kinship with Angelina Jolie and Barack Obama's kinship with Brad Pitt.  

I thought it would be interesting to see who each candidate is related to, so I started reading the article.  When I got toward the bottom of the article, it said, "Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, linked by Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769."  This immediately piqued my interest because my dad recently discovered that one of our great-grandfathers was named Edwin Hickman.  

So I called my dad and he said that his sixth great-grandfather was named Edwin Hickman, from Virginia, and he died in 1769.  So I did a little more research and discovered that my seventh great-grandfather, is also Barack Obama's & Brad Pitt's ninth great-grandfather.  That makes both of them like my eighth cousins.  

Eighth is kind of close when you think about it.  I am really close to my third cousins.  8-3=5.  That is not that big of a difference.  Seriously, I doubt I will ever meet either of these "relatives," but it made for a fun day all the same.  This explains why people often confuse my good looks with the other Brad "in the family."