The New England Historic Genealogical Society reported that Mr Obama is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt, while Mrs Clinton is related to Pitt’s girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.
Releasing the findings of a three-year-long study, the society issued a bizarre – if intriguing – array of blood ties between the presidential candidates and the great and the good on both sides of the Atlantic.
Among them, Mr Obama is said to be distantly related to Sir Winston Churchill, while his rival Mrs Clinton is reportedly a cousin, far removed, of the Duchess of Cornwall.
Researchers at America’s oldest genealogical groups also said that Mrs Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother’s side, has familial ties to the singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette, as well as the author Jack Kerouac.
They claimed that Mr Obama, whose white mother was from Kansas and black father from Kenya, is linked to six US presidents – both Democratic and Republican – including George W Bush, who is said to be a 10th cousin.
“His kinships are across the political spectrum,” said Christopher Child, a genealogist who traced the family histories of US politicians for the project.
He said that while the candidates often focus on pointing out their differences, their ancestry shows they are more alike than they think.
“It shows that lots of different people can be related, people you wouldn’t necessarily expect,” he said.
Mr Child said that the ancestry of John McCain – said in separate research to be “related” to Robert the Bruce – was more difficult to trace because records on his relatives were not as complete as those for the Obama and Clinton families.
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