September 18, 2002
10:59 AM   Subscribe

What do Prince William, Sir Winston Churchill and President George W. Bush have in common? They're all blood relatives.
posted by TBoneMcCool (25 comments total)
 
That's some marketing gimmick for a genealogy site.

Exactly how many people are descended from Henry Spencer, 1420? Assuming an average of 2 kids each having 2 kids... 33 million? (feel free to chime in if I'm off anyone). Gee, what a connection!
posted by malphigian at 11:07 AM on September 18, 2002


And they're all lizards, obviously.
posted by robself at 11:08 AM on September 18, 2002


What does RavinDave, Marg Helgenberger, and Richard Nixon have in common? Okay, okay ... Marg and Dick aren't related to each other, but they're both my kin. Same tree -- vastly different forests

In short, malphigian nailed it. Mildly interesting, but no big deal to find such connections.
posted by RavinDave at 11:12 AM on September 18, 2002


Along malphigian's line of reasoning, and if you want to go back 150,000 years, technically we're ALL related...
posted by mathis23 at 11:18 AM on September 18, 2002


My utmost apologies to the very-had-to-impress, seen-it-all MeFi crowd. Let me rephrase my original post to make it more in line with the norm:

What do Prince William, Sir Winston Churchill and President George W. Bush have in common. They're all blood relatives. (NY Times link)
posted by TBoneMcCool at 11:19 AM on September 18, 2002


I haven't completely formed my (semi-serious) joke about blue-blood, bad gene-pools, and a global conspiracy, so I'll just let you MeFites do the work in your imaginations...
posted by Shane at 11:34 AM on September 18, 2002


And hey, everyone's related to Charlemagne.
posted by Pinwheel at 11:58 AM on September 18, 2002


And where, I ask you, is Kevin Bacon in this oh, so small world?
posted by JollyWanker at 12:32 PM on September 18, 2002


Of course, my ancestors were signatory to the ten commandments.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:56 PM on September 18, 2002


JW: You spoke to soon; or, rather, too late, as this came out yesterday afternoon. (fourth item)
posted by blueshammer at 12:57 PM on September 18, 2002


i'm not a member of ancestry.org, and have no desire to be, therefore i could not view this link. what utter bullshit.
posted by quonsar at 1:45 PM on September 18, 2002


quonsar: user rvkh. password sillybilly. You're missing some lovely photos of the delectable Prince William, the destestable George W. and the irascible Winston C., you know.
posted by Raya at 2:07 PM on September 18, 2002


Quonsar, the guest registry wasn't up earlier today when I posted this item. Before you dismiss this as "utter bullshit" you might want to check out the link the the Associated Press story on the New York Times Web site that I listed above. If you have an aversion to the NY Times link, you can read the story on the Washington Post's Web site. If you're opposed to the Washington Post, then I can't help you.

I guess I made a big mistake by thinking a few of you might find this little item to be interesting. I forgot that tired sarcasm and snarky remarks rule the day around here these days.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 2:10 PM on September 18, 2002


TBoneMcCool: If that was directed at me, there was no "sarcasm" or "snark", its was a simple statement of statistics -- it is not terribly remarkable that these 3 are some of 33 million ancestors of this same guy.

The only snark here was from you, who posted the same story via the new york times as some thinly veiled point about MeFi snobbery.

It'd be a good idea for you to accept that you don't get to play lord and master of your threads on MeFi. People will make of them what they will, and theres really no need to lash out at them for it. Nobody attacked you, they just said it wasn't that surprising.
posted by malphigian at 2:25 PM on September 18, 2002


Thanks for the "advice" malphigian. My remarks weren't directed at you. They were directed at quonsar and his "utter bullshit" comment. YOUR point on 33 million ancestors was well taken.

It's just frustrating to see so many recent front page posts turn in to utter crap with comments that contribute nothing -- and this post has certainly been no exception. I guess I was futilely trying to save mine from going down the typical path.

I'm moving on and will reserve further comment for MeTa.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 2:43 PM on September 18, 2002


tbonemccool: it's a fine link, and i apologize for bitching. i have no particular aversion to, say, NYT or other sites which require registration, i was in dickhead mode when i posted that remark.
posted by quonsar at 2:45 PM on September 18, 2002


OK, last response from me, I promise: quonsar, I was in dickhead mode when I responded. My apologies.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 2:52 PM on September 18, 2002


As Pinwheel noted, what do Prince William, President George W. Bush and everyone else alive have in common? We're all blood relatives.

People said, why would you be interested in having the bust of [Sir Winston Churchill] in your Oval Office.  And the answer is because he was one of the great leaders in the 20th century.  He was an enormous personality.  He stood on principle.  He was a man of great courage.  He knew what he believed.  And he really kind of went after it in a way that seemed like a Texan to me:  he wasn't afraid of public opinion polls; he wasn't afraid of -- he didn't need focus groups to tell him what was right.  He charged ahead, and the world is better for it.
-- President George W. Bush, July 2001.

posted by stinglessbee at 4:33 PM on September 18, 2002


This mitochondrial eve stuff gets so much hype, it really shouldn't. Chances are, human beings all have a common male ancestor much more recent than mitochondial eve 150,000 years ago. In addition, the eve stuff isn't even necessarily accurate, since scientists actually have found an instance of mitochondria being passed through males in humans.
posted by gsteff at 5:47 PM on September 18, 2002


I come from royal stock myself...
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:50 PM on September 18, 2002


I hatched out of a mysterious glowing egg that my 'parents' found in the woods of Maine... I have no relatives.
posted by Grod at 6:46 PM on September 18, 2002


When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:23 PM on September 18, 2002


Bush is related to just about everybody, it appears, including Marilyn Monroe and Benedict Arnold (see last item).
posted by taz at 10:37 PM on September 18, 2002


Well, the genealogy part about being descended from Charlemagne was covered before:
http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/17074
posted by zia at 12:33 AM on September 19, 2002


I'm not related to Churchill or Prince William, so I'm probably not related to George Dubya - whoo, that's a relief!
Now, where can we find an enterprising genealogist who can prove that Bush is a distant cousin of a certain Mr Hussain in Iraq? That would be much more fun!
posted by tabbycat at 12:54 AM on September 19, 2002


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