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| Presidents Ulysses Simpson Grant and Franklin Delano Roosevelt
were distant cousins - 4th, once removed. Richard Warren of the Mayflower
was their common ancestor. I am likewise a descendant of of this pilgrim
and therefore kin - a distant cousin - to these famous American Presidents.
The seven kinship trees below illustrate the consanguineous relationship
between these famous cousins and me, and our descent from Richard Warren.
One of these trees shows the cousinship of FDR to his likewise famous wife
Eleanor Roosevelt (5th, once removed) through their paternal line.
It seems natural for people to take pleasure and pride in claiming kinship to celebrated or historical figures. I am no different. However, when I began the search in 1993 for my paternal ancestry in So. Germany, that was not a goal - even though a faint possibility existed that I might uncover a Schwenk Knight ancestor along the way. I didn't! Then in 1995 through the efforts of others, I learned of my connection to the Mayflower and Richard Warren, one of the principle men who settled the Plymouth Colony. And recently (12/97) again through research by others, I learned of my cousinship to these two famous U.S. Presidents, and so I decided to share these findings here in this page. And now a little background on the common ancestor. Richard Warren was one of forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact, a document signed at Cape Cod, Massachusetts on November 11, 1620 upon the arrival of this ship in America. These signers were the principle men on this voyage. There were about 100 passengers aboard. Some of the more prominent names of these signers were: Myles Standish, John Alden and William Bradford. These Pilgrims then proceeded to Plymouth Rock on Decembers 21, 1620 and founded there the Plymouth Colony. Richard and his wife Elizabeth brought five daughters and two sons into the world. They all married and had children. It is said there are more living descendants of this union than of any other Mayflower passengers. According to the Marist College Homepage at http://www.academic.marist.edu
which provided me considerable data on Franklin and Eleanor, FDR was also
related to the following historical figures:
Does this mean that all these famous people are also kin to me? Well, only in a very distant and indirect way. I suspect that of all the above persons, only Winston Churchill was blood kin to FDR and could thus be a distant cousin to me, but this has not yet been researched by me. I think the other persons were related to FDR only through affinity which is to say marriage. If, for example, my wife's great-grandfather was once governor of Colorado, I could say I am related to him, but this only through affinity, not blood. Well, I hope you will enjoy this Famous Cousins page. It certainly has been pleasurable for me to create it. Don Schwenk 21 December, 1997
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Click on tree icons to reveal kinship trees.
FDR's descent from Richard Warren. Nine generations. 17K file size. |
Cousinship of FDR and U.S. Grant and their descent from Richard Warren. 26K |
Richard Warren to Gordon Schwenk. 14 generations. 28K |
Cousinship of FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, 5th, once removed, through the Roosevelt line. 23K |
FDR's two way descent from R. Warren, Warren and Church; Schwenk connection. Part A. 20K |
FDR's two-way descent from Richard Warren, part B. 20K |
This page created on 21 Dec 1997 and amended 27 Dec 1997
