Family Ties

Mike McGough
June 2016

The American Colonists waged an epic struggle against King George III to win their independence. It would not have been surprising if they had made specific provisions in their new Constitution to prevent the possibility of a monarch-style family reign or the creation of a ruling dynasty. However, no provision in the Constitution, written law, or court decision even speaks to family ties and the US presidency. Nonetheless family relationships are indeed part of the personal history of several of the 43 individuals who have thus far served as president.

According to a number of research genealogists, Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd president is distantly related to at least six other presidents by marriage and five by blood. Most notably he is the fifth cousin of the 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt was the uncle of Franklin’s wife, Eleanor. FDR also has some distant lineage link to the first president, George Washington. The first related presidents were John and John Quincy Adams, the 2nd and 6th presidents respectively. John was the father of John Quincy. The only other father-son duo was George H. W. Bush and his son George W. Bush, our 41st and 43rd presidents.

William Henry Harrison, the 9th president, died just a month after his inauguration in 1841. His grandson, Benjamin Harrison became the 23rd president in 1889. They are the only grandfather-grandson presidential duet. The 4th president, James Madison was a second cousin to the 12th president, Zachary Taylor. Even though Andrew the 17th president and Lyndon the 36th president share the surname Johnson, they are not directly related. Some genealogists believe that they may have shared one very distant relative.

Several first-family children appeared to be potential presidential candidates. Some declared their presidential intentions while others were just the subjects of speculation by political observers.

Jesse Grant, the son of President U. S. Grant, announced that he would seek the highest office in the land. His candidacy was never taken seriously by the public or the press, and it quickly failed. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. may well have been a post World War II White House contender, but he died shortly after landing with his troops during the Normandy Invasion in 1944.

The son of president number 27, William Howard Taft ran for the presidency three times. His closest bid for the White House came in 1952, the election that brought Dwight Eisenhower to the presidency. Before he died in a 1999 plane crash, there was much speculation that John F. Kennedy, Jr. would make a run for the White House. The young Kennedy never expressed an interest or positively responded to the presidential speculations about him. John Ellis Bush, Jeb, announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2015. Early in 2016 he suspended his bid based on a less-than-hoped-for show of voter support in the primaries. Jeb is the son of Bush #41 and the younger brother of Bush #43.