Six degrees of Presidential history

(NECN) - To celebrate this President's Day, we thought we'd bring you a bit of interesting presidential history. Who is related to whom and how? Joining Good Morning Live on Monday to fill us in on some of the connections is Gary Boyd Roberts. He is the author of "Ancestors of American Presidents" and senior senior research scholar of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. GARY'S GENERAL NOTES: - Obama is related to 9 other presidents (was 7; 2 new ones were discovered just this week - that's an exclusive for NECN). He's also related to Robert E. Lee. - Obama is NOT related to Lincoln or Washington; but both Obama and Washington descend from kings - Lincoln has ancestry back to Hingham, MA; he is 1/16th New England (South Shore, MA) ancestry - Washington is 2nd cousin, 5-times removed from Queen Elizabeth II - FDR and the Bushes have the most number of connections to other US presidents: 18 each - 11 presidents have Mayflower ancestry - Obama has much untraced mid-western and boarder states ancestry - Of the 43 US Presidents (Cleveland was voted in twice) about 17 have "dynastic" or only 1- or 2-generations away from wealth and power; (i.e.: Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, JFK, both Bushes) while the other 25 or so have more common, simpler roots (Andrew Jackson, Lincoln, Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Clinton, Obama) GARY'S BIO: Gary is Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at New England Historic Genealogical Society. He's been working with NEHGS since 1974. Gary has spent much of that time specializing in work on royal descents, presidential genealogy, and other 'notable kin.' He's written several books on the subject, including "American Ancestors and Cousins of the Princess of Wales," and "The Best Genealogical Sources in Print." Gary holds a BA from Yale and an MA from the University of California, Berkeley. He is originally from Houston, Texas, and now lives in Boston. NEHGS has some great charts on Obama's relationships to various celebs and other presidents here: http://www.newenglandancestors.org/about/7320.asp New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is located at 99 Newbury Street, Boston. Website is www.NewEnglandAncestors.org. Phone is 617-536-5740.