It was recently reported in the Guardian (UK) that John McCain is NOT a descendant of the 13th century Scottish King, Robert Bruce. McCain's links to Scottish king shot down by experts

Asked by the Guardian to investigate McCain's past, genealogists and medieval historians described the link to Robert the Bruce as "wonderful fiction" and "baloney".

Hmmmm... I was thinking of voting for Robert Bruce, but if he and McCain are not related then this changes everything. Yet, Senator McCain should not feel bad about being outed for NOT being related to a famous Scot. I, too, am NOT related to another famous Scot to whom it was once a family tradition that we were related.

In a letter written by my grandmother's Aunt Rose in the early sixties, she describes her mother's mother as follows: "Henrietta's mother Emily Knox claimed she was a lineal descendant of John Knox The Reformer." This idea that we (my mother and I) are descended from John Knox, the founder of the Presbyterian church, I have determined to not be true (see this article where I explained why it can't be true).

Also, recently in the news it has been revealed that "Barack Obama is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt, and Hillary Rodham Clinton is related to Pitt's girlfriend, Angelina Jolie." (see AP report Obama Related to Pitt, Clinton to Jolie).

And in this CNN article (Family ties: Candidates' ancestry makes for strange bedfellows), it is revealed that the New Genealogical Society has determined that:

• Barak Obama is related to Brad Pitt, Winston Churchill, and George Bush.
• Hillary Clinton is related to French Canadians author Jack Kerouac, Pierre Trudeau, and Celine Dion. She is also related to Madonna and Angelina Jolie.
• While McMain may not be related to Robert Bruce he is related to Scottish King William the Lion, French King Louis VII, and English King Edward I.

According to CNN:

Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, is "related to millions of contemporary Americans - perhaps even a significant percentage of the population," the researchers said.

He is cousins with six U.S presidents, including Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. He is also linked to American artist Georgia O'Keefe, the Duchess of Windsor and two men who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Most surprisingly, Obama -- the man who could become America's first African-American president -- is linked by ancestry to Robert E. Lee, who commanded the armies of the Southern slave-holding states during the American civil war.

Unfortunately the details of these relationships are not explained. I would be interested in knowing what McCain's relationship is to Edward I is. This past summer I determined that I, too, may be related to Edward I. There is a rather thin thread that connects me to this 13th century Plantagenet King.

I also determined that I might be related to George W Bush. If correct, former President George Herbert Walker Bush is my 11th cousin, Barbara Pierce Bush is a 10th cousin. (It seems the former President and former First Lady are 9th cousins).

I say that I might be related George W. Bush and this depends on whether my great-great grandmother, Della Pickering, is indeed the daughter of Corbett Pickering. This connection requires more research. I explain the details of my connection to the Bushes and also Edward I in "Barking Up the Wrong Tree?". There are also charts that show how I am related to George H. W. Bush (Cousin I) and to Barbara Pierce Bush (Cousins II).