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Study finds Obama related to Brad Pitt and Clinton to Jolie

US presidential hopeful Barack Obama is a distant relative not only of US President George W. Bush, but also of wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill, US researchers said.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society traced the family trees of the three major US presidential candidates, also revealing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's ties to pop icon Madonna and Beat generation writer Jack Kerouac.

And while Obama and Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt are ninth cousins who share a relative who died in 1769, Clinton is a ninth cousin twice removed of Pitt's partner, Angelina Jolie, sharing a common ancestor who died in 1718.

Clinton is meanwhile also related to a number of celebrities with French Canadian ancestry, including singers Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette.

"It is common to find people of French Canadian descent to be related to large numbers of other French Canadians," said genealogist Christopher Child, who conducted the research.

On the Republican side, John McCain's family tree came up with perhaps less surprising results, revealing mainly that he was a sixth cousin of US first lady Laura Bush.
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