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Shaking Your Family Tree

April 22, 1999
	Found in Notable Kin by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.
Some family trees have wildly tangled branches. For example, Elvis Presley was related to former president Jimmy Carter, and Carter has kinship to Jesse Helms. According to Gary Boyd Roberts, in his latest book Notable Kin, Elvis Presley was a sixth cousin once removed of Carter. Genealogists have found more than a half-dozen connections between Carter and U.S. Senator Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. Carter is also a kinsman of writer Gore Vidal and Sen. Samuel Nunn Jr. of Georgia. Presley and Carter descend from a German immigrant by the name of Andreas (Andrew) Preslar (born circa 1701) who married Anne (Antje) Wells. In the last several decades an enormous quantity of source material on the so-called "non-plantation South'' families has been published and many kinships can now be traced among descendants of the Southern migratory pioneers. This was a mobile group of German, Welsh and Scots-Irish immigrants who flooded the South from the beginning of the 18th century. Presley, Carter and Helms, as do millions of Americans, have ancestors who were in this group. This book (Volume 2 of a two-book series) covers "tycoons, folklore, and Hollywood.'' There are chapters on the probable Rhode Island ancestry of Marilyn Monroe; the Quaker and New England ancestry of James Dean; Elvis Presley's kinship to Jimmy Carter and Carter's to Jesse Helms; and the Tennessee, other Southern and New England ancestry of playwright Tennessee Williams. Some of the family ties given are: - John Wayne, Western movie star, was fifth cousin, twice and thrice removed, of Sir Winston Churchill. - Frank and Jesse James were distant cousins of the Duchess of Windsor. - The actor James Dean shared all of his New England ancestry with former president Richard M. Nixon. - Joan (Bennett) Kennedy is a descendant of Salem witchcraft victim, Mary Estey. - Actress Tallulah Bankhead and writer Truman Capote were sixth cousins and sixth cousins once removed. Bankhead was also the fourth cousin twice removed of Mark Twain. - "Wild Bill'' Hickok was second cousin four times removed of President George Bush. The term "removed'' in genealogy refers to the distance by a given number of degrees of descent or kinship. For example, a first cousin once removed is the child of your first cousin -- being one generation removed from the original cousinship. "Millions of Americans relate via either New England or Southern ancestors to probably dozens of notable historical figures,'' Roberts says. Roberts is senior research scholar at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. He is author of several books, including Ancestors of American Presidents and American Ancestors and Cousins of the Princess of Wales. His regular columns, Genealogical Thoughts can be accessed on the Web at: http://www.nehgs.org/GBR/GBRColumn.htm. Notable Kin has as its theme the centrality of the British royal family and the medieval line of English kings (1066-1485) to Anglo-American genealogy generally, and the surprising inclusiveness of tycoons, many folkloric figures, and Hollywood of the "New England family.'' "In other countries, neighbors of different ethnic groups or religion often fight; we (Americans) intermarry instead,'' said Roberts. Both volumes of Notable Kin are available ($34 each, postpaid) from the publisher, Carl Boyer, 3rd, P.O. Box 220333, Santa Clarita, CA 91322-0333; e-mail: cboyersosinet.net. California residents must add sales tax at their local rate. (c) 1999, Los Angeles Times Syndicate Myra Vanderpool Gormley and Julie Case are co-editors of Missing Links, a free weekly genealogy e-zine. To subscribe, send your request to: Missing Links Newsletter Return to Myra Vanderpool Gormley Main Page Return to Columns Main Page
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