It’s pretty amazing what genealogists from Ancestry.com can dig up. It seems like they are always finding connections in the family trees of unexpected people. This time, they found that actor George Clooney and former President Abraham Lincoln are related to each other.
Ancestry.com is one of the biggest genealogy websites. The site is frequently updated with new records and archives. They have a blog that updates at least once a week. They produce one or two live webinars every week. Somehow, the genealogists who work for Ancestry.com still find the time to dig up unexpected connections in the family trees of famous people. I imagine that behind the scenes at Ancestry.com must look a lot like Santa’s workshop would at this time of year.
This time, genealogists at Ancestry.com have found a familial connection between actor George Clooney and Abraham Lincoln, the Sixteenth President of the United States of America. It turns out that the two are cousins to each other. The genealogists discovered this while tracing Lincoln’s lineage in celebration of the upcoming film called “Lincoln”. Learning that Lincoln was related to Clooney was an unexpected finding.
How are these two connected? Ancestry.com’s Michelle Ercanbrack explained it to People Magazine. She said that the genealogists started noticing the similarity between the names in Lincoln’s family tree with the names in Clooney’s. Each man’s family has roots in Kentucky.
Ancestry.com has a segment of the family tree that connects Lincoln and Clooney. The two men share a common ancestor named Lucy Hanks. She was Lincoln’s maternal grandmother. Clooney is connected to Lucy Hanks through a series of relatives. In short, the genealogists discovered that George Clooney is Abraham Lincoln’s half-first cousin five times removed.
The new movie called “Lincoln” is directed by Stephen Spielberg. It will be released into theaters on November 16, 2012. The role of Abraham Lincoln is played by Daniel Day-Lewis. George Clooney is not cast in this movie.
You can find out more about President Lincoln at Ancestry.com. They have letters, photos, and more. Right now, you can search through the Abraham Lincoln Papers for free. There are over 20,000 documents from 1833 – 1897. There are correspondence, memos, notes, drafts of speeches and more. Some of the papers are annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center.
Genealogists who are on Facebook might want to visit the Ancestry.com Facebook page. They are having a contest. One grand prize winner will get a round trip for two in the continental United States to Washington D.C.. The trip will be for four days and three nights. You get the chance to explore Lincoln’s history.
Image by Believe Creative on Flickr