{"id":65055,"date":"2021-02-15T10:52:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T15:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=65055"},"modified":"2023-11-10T13:17:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T18:17:25","slug":"3-steps-to-researching-your-presidential-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/3-steps-to-researching-your-presidential-ancestors.html","title":{"rendered":"3 Steps to Researching Your Presidential Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Introduction:<\/em><\/strong><em> In this article \u2013 in honor of today being Presidents Day \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega gives three tips for researching that family story saying you\u2019re related to a U.S. president. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So, you\u2019ve heard the family story that you are related to a past President of the United States. Is it true or is it just a family legend? Before you add that name to your family tree, you\u2019ll want to carefully check that story. Despite the belief that all family legends have at least a kernel of truth, they still need to be carefully researched and verified. Below are three steps to take.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65059\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65059\" style=\"width: 476px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/doc\/newspapers\/image\/v2%3A1361D6A4DA3058B1%40GB3NEWS-1364D7FB77C0A4E0%402425293-13647BF062AD3A50%403-138145891D1B3923\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65059\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/national-labor-tribune-newspaper-0216-1928-george-washington.jpg\" alt=\"An article about George Washington, National Labor Tribune newspaper article 16 February 1928\" width=\"476\" height=\"718\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/national-labor-tribune-newspaper-0216-1928-george-washington.jpg 476w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/national-labor-tribune-newspaper-0216-1928-george-washington-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 476px) 100vw, 476px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65059\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">National Labor Tribune (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 16 February 1928, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Three Steps for Your Presidential Research<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1)<\/strong> <strong>Is it Probable?<\/strong> Sometimes family stories are just that, stories. Part of your research process should be not only to evaluate the sources you consult, but to also analyze that family legend. Think about that family story and ask yourself these questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who told you the story? How did they hear that story? What is their \u201cproof\u201d?<\/li>\n<li>What do you know about that President\u2019s life? When was he born and when did he die? Where was he born? Where did he die? Who are his parents?<\/li>\n<li>Does the story make sense with what you know about your family history? How are you supposedly related?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once you determine that the story is probable, you can move on to researching the genealogy to prove or disprove the story (remember, it may not be true but that still requires some research).<\/p>\n<p>One last thought about the probability of the story being true. Let\u2019s say the story seems very improbable. Was grandma just making it up? Maybe, but there can be a whole host of reasons why the story has been passed down. Maybe your family has a similar surname as the President or his First Lady. Maybe they lived in the same general area. Maybe you even have an ancestor that was named for that President. Maybe there\u2019s a vague story linking you to another historical person, which means you\u2019re also distantly related to a President. These stories have an origin that may be unknown to us, but we still need to look at them objectively to determine if they are true.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65063\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65063\" style=\"width: 677px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/doc\/newspapers\/image\/v2%3A13D0A597A7997365%40GB3NEWS-166EB044DB69F279%402453047-166DC7676669E4BB%4043-166DC7676669E4BB\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65063\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/state-journal-register-newspaper-0211-2004-abraham-lincoln.jpg\" alt=\"An article about Abraham Lincoln, State Journal-Register newspaper article 11 February 2004\" width=\"677\" height=\"723\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/state-journal-register-newspaper-0211-2004-abraham-lincoln.jpg 677w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/state-journal-register-newspaper-0211-2004-abraham-lincoln-281x300.jpg 281w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 677px) 100vw, 677px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65063\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Journal-Register (Springfield, Illinois), 11 February 2004, page 44<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>2)<\/strong> <strong>Trace Yourself Back Carefully.<\/strong> After determining the probability of the story, you need to trace yourself back to that President. Maybe you\u2019ve even done that. Remember that genealogy is about connecting children to parents, and in order to do that you need to start with yourself and go backward in time. Do not jump generations in order to quickly find what you hope is your famous ancestor. That is a recipe for mistakes. Carefully trace each child to their parents, gathering the records that show that connection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3)<\/strong> <strong>Use Trusted Sources.<\/strong> Lucky for you, professional genealogists love to trace famous roots and there are several trusted sources to help you learn more about those presidential roots. The gold standard in presidential genealogy, Gary Boyd Roberts\u2019 book <em>Ancestors of American Presidents<\/em>, was last updated in 2009 and contains pedigrees for Presidents Washington to Obama, as well as information about their royal lines and <em>Mayflower<\/em> descendants.<\/p>\n<p>Other resources can be found by searching the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.familysearch.org\/search\/catalog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FamilySearch Catalog<\/a> and Cyndi\u2019s List\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyndislist.com\/us\/presidents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Presidents<\/a> category. You can also find online trees and DNA projects that might be of interest. Make sure that you double check those online trees for credible sources.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Whom Are You Related To?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s always great to hear a family member\u2019s story of being related to someone famous. How much better is it to learn of a presidential connection that also might lead you to royalty or the <em>Mayflower<\/em>? Remember that a story is just that until it is proven. The way you prove it is with careful research using credible sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega gives three tips for researching that family story saying you\u2019re related to a U.S. president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":65071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[938,12,2719,558,1691],"class_list":["post-65055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-genealogy","tag-genealogy-search-tips","tag-george-washington","tag-presidents-day"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/illustration-0215-2021-featured-graphic-presidents-day.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65055"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95845,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65055\/revisions\/95845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}