It’s always interesting to see how fast the New England Historic Genealogical Society can research and write up the newsmakers of the moment. This morning I recieved word from Tom Champaux that researchers at NEHGS had uncovered the common ancestor of President Barack Obama and Republican Massachusetts Senator-Elect Scott Brown,
Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and Brown’s mother, Judith Ann Rugg, both descend from Richard Singletary of Haverhill, Mass, who died in 1687 at the age of 102. Singletary, like his two descendants Obama and Brown, held public office, serving as town selectman in both Salisbury and Haverhill, Massachusetts in the 1650s.
President Obama descends from Richard’s eldest son, Jonathan Singletary, who later changed his surname to Dunham. Scott Brown descends from Jonathan’s brother, Nathaniel Singletary. This kinship makes Obama and Brown 10th cousins.
Research by Christopher Child and David Allen Lambert goes on to find that politics seem to be a strong current in the family line. President Obama and Senator-elect Brown are also related to George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Rutherford Hayes.
Read the Press Release and view the Brown-Obama Family Tree at the NEHGS web site.
