History is usually taught as a series of random events. One guy gets elected, then another guy from a different party wins, and we assume they're all complete strangers. But if you've spent any time on the weird side of the internet—or watched a viral TikTok—you’ve probably heard the claim that almost every single person who has ever sat in the Oval Office is actually related to a medieval king. Specifically, King John of England.
It sounds like a conspiracy. It feels like something out of a Dan Brown novel. But is it actually true?
The short answer is: mostly. But it’s not as "Illuminati" as it sounds. When we talk about how all presidents are related, we aren't talking about a secret cabal of cousins passing the baton of power behind closed doors. We’re talking about basic math and the reality of how human genealogy works over hundreds of years.
The 12-Year-Old Who Cracked the Code (Sorta)
Most people first heard about this through BridgeAnne d’Avignon. Back in 2012, this 12-year-old girl from California spent months tracing the lineages of 42 U.S. presidents. She created a massive family tree and concluded that 41 of them were related to King John "Lackland" of England. He’s the guy who signed the Magna Carta in 1215.
The only outlier she found was Martin Van Buren. He was Dutch.
Honestly, it’s a cool story. It went everywhere. But there's a nuance here that gets lost in the headlines. Genealogy experts like those at Ancestry.com or the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) have known about these links for decades. It wasn't exactly a new discovery in the world of professional historians, but it highlighted a reality about the American political elite that feels... well, a bit un-American.
We like to think anyone can be president. We love the "log cabin to White House" narrative. But the data shows that a massive chunk of our leaders come from the same ancient English stock.
Why King John?
Why is this one specific king the "grandfather" of the American presidency? It's not because he was particularly great. Actually, he was pretty terrible. But King John had a lot of kids. His descendants married into the landed gentry of England, and those families eventually became the people who could afford to sail to the New World in the 1600s.
When the Puritans and the early Virginia settlers arrived, they weren't just random peasants. Many were "younger sons" of the English upper class. These were people with money, education, and—most importantly—documented pedigrees.
If you go back 20 to 30 generations, the number of ancestors you have is technically in the millions. $2^{30}$ is a massive number. But there weren't even that many people alive in Europe back then. This is what scientists call "pedigree collapse." Eventually, everyone’s family tree starts to overlap.
If you have any English or Western European ancestry at all, there is a very high mathematical probability that you are also related to King John. You just haven't spent months in a library proving it.
The Royal Connection vs. The Reality of Power
It’s easy to get sucked into the idea that there's a "presidential bloodline."
Gary Boyd Roberts, a massive figure in the genealogy world and author of Ancestors of American Presidents, has spent his life documenting these links. He's found that many presidents are cousins. Many times over. For example, George W. Bush and Barack Obama are 10th cousins. Dick Cheney is also in that mix.
But look at the distance there. A 10th cousin is basically a stranger. You probably have thousands of 10th cousins you'll never meet. The relationship is so diluted that the DNA is negligible.
What really matters isn't the "royal blood." It’s the social capital.
The reason all presidents are related (or most of them) is that they often come from families that have stayed in the "leadership class" for centuries. It's about access to education, networking, and the kind of wealth that allows a family to stay prominent from the 1700s through today. It’s less about a magic gene and more about the fact that the same circles of people have been running things for a long time.
The Martin Van Buren Exception
Let's talk about Martin Van Buren for a second. He's the "Dutchman" who broke the streak.
Van Buren was the first president born a U.S. citizen, but his first language was Dutch. His family came from the Netherlands, not England. Because he didn't share that British Isles ancestry, he doesn't link back to the Plantagenet kings like the others do.
This brings up an interesting point about the diversity of our leaders. As the U.S. becomes more diverse, the "everyone is related to King John" thing is going to fade. Or at least, it should. We’ve had presidents with Irish roots (Kennedy, Reagan), but even then, those lines often cross back into the English aristocracy if you go back far enough.
Is it just a math trick?
Kinda.
Think about it this way: if you go back to the year 1200, King John is one of the few people from that era who actually has a documented lineage that survived. Most commoners’ records are gone. We can’t track them. We track the kings because they were the ones writing things down.
There is a theory in genealogy called the "Isomap" or the "Identical Ancestors Point." It suggests that if you go back far enough in any relatively closed population (like Western Europe), you reach a point where every person living then is either the ancestor of everyone living today or the ancestor of no one living today.
If King John has any living descendants at all (which he does, in the millions), then almost everyone with English blood is likely one of them. The "mystery" of the presidential bloodline is mostly just the mystery of how many people we are all actually related to.
Breaking Down the "Cousin-in-Chief" Phenomenon
- The Bushes and the Pierces: Barbara Bush was actually a distant cousin of Franklin Pierce. That means George W. Bush was related to a president through both his father AND his mother.
- The FDR-Teddy Connection: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt were fifth cousins. Eleanor Roosevelt was Teddy’s niece. They kept it very much in the family.
- The Obama-Heritage Link: Obama’s mother had deep roots in the American South and England. That’s where his links to the other presidents—and the British royals—come from. It’s a reminder that the American "melting pot" is often more of a "web."
What this means for you
Does this mean the presidency is rigged? No. It means that history is smaller than we think.
We like to put these figures on pedestals, but they are part of the same human story we all are. The fact that all presidents are related is a quirk of history and biology, not a disqualifier of democracy. It’s a testament to how interconnected we are.
If you’re interested in seeing where you fit into this, you don't need a professional genealogist. Start with what you know.
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Actionable Steps to Trace Your Own "Presidential" Roots:
- Check the 1880 Census: This is the "gold standard" for American genealogy. It’s the first census that really gives detailed info on every person in a household. If you can get your family tree back to 1880, you’re halfway there.
- Look for "Gatekeeper" Ancestors: In genealogy, a "gatekeeper" is an ancestor whose lineage is already well-documented. If you find a connection to a prominent New England or Virginia family from the 1700s, there’s a massive chance you’re already in the books.
- Use Free Databases: You don't have to pay for the big sites immediately. Use FamilySearch.org (run by the LDS Church, which has the largest genealogical database in the world). It's free and incredibly deep.
- Look for the "Great Migration": If your ancestors arrived in America between 1620 and 1640, look at the Great Migration Study Project. These families are the ones most likely to link back to the English gentry and, subsequently, the presidential lines.
- Test Your DNA with a Specific Goal: Don't just look at the ethnicity percentages. Look at the "Common Ancestors" features. If you see names like "Windsor," "Spencer," or "Plantagenet" popping up in distant cousin matches, you're on the trail.
The reality of the presidential bloodline isn't about a secret crown hidden in a vault. It’s about the fact that we are all much more closely linked than we realize. Whether you're a Van Buren or a Roosevelt, you're part of the same tangled, messy, and fascinating tree.