A friend of Leland’s, Megan Smolenyak, has an interesting new book coming out in February. A recent article in the Chicago Tribune gives us an early peek at this fun new book.
We’re all (likely) related to stars
A genealogist explains why we’re all likely to have celebrity relatives, albeit distantly
By Katherine Skiba, Chicago Tribune reporter
WASHINGTON ——The news stories invariably raise eyebrows: Barack Obama is related to Brad Pitt. Madonna and Ellen DeGeneres are cousins. John Edwards and Britney Spears are cousins, too.
How can it be?
Genealogist Megan Smolenyak explains it in a new book, which features chapters on Barack and Michelle Obama. If a person goes back 10 generations, he or she will have 1,024 direct ancestors, she says.
The result is that each of us is bound to have “millions of cousins — and a few of them are going to be famous,” Smolenyak says.
The genealogist, who traced Obama’s roots to the Emerald Isle, which the president visited amid fanfare last May, notes that socioeconomic and cultural factors contribute to the mind-boggling blood ties.
In her book, “Hey, America, Your Roots are Showing,” due out in February, Smolenyak notes that 200 years ago, few people lived in cities and transportation options were scant.