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Roosevelt: Theodore and Franklin Related? And Other Odd Presidential Questions

Roosevelt: Theodore and Franklin Related? And Other Odd Presidential Questions
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, left and President Theodore Roosevelt. (AFP/Getty Images; Library of Congress/Reuters/Landov)

By    |   Sunday, 05 October 2014 05:13 PM EDT

Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were fifth cousins, and a look back into the genealogical charts of the presidential office find numerous family connections.

FDR, in fact, was related to 11 former presidents, the most of anyone on the list, according to History.com. Along with cousin Theodore, he was related to John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, and William Howard Taft.

Vote Now: Was Roosevelt the Greatest American President?

Abraham Lincoln and George W. Bush were seventh cousins (four times removed), History.com said, and Jimmy Carter and George Washington were also distantly related cousins.

The relationship between the two Roosevelts on the list of U.S. leaders is a common question. Here are some questions (and answers) that aren’t asked as often:

Which president was not a U.S. citizen when he died?

John Tyler, the 10th president, died in 1862 as a citizen of the Southern Confederacy.

One of the U.S. presidents lived with a bullet in his body most of his life. Who was it? Andrew Jackson had a bullet in his chest from a duel with Charles Dickenson in 1806.

Urgent: Who Is the Greatest American President in History?

Which presidents were left-handed?
Quite a few – James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan (who wrote right-handed), George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.

Interestingly, there has been some difficulty deciding if Reagan and Hoover should be on the list, Anything Left-Handed said. Images sometimes are flipped accidentally, so it’s unclear, but both of those presidents have photos showing them signing and writing right-handed. Assuming Reagan was left-handed, six out of the last eight presidents have been left-handed, when only 10 percent of the population is left-handed.

Who was the famous poet who spoke at Robert F. Kennedy’s inauguration?
That would be Robert Frost, who recited “The Gift Outright” at the 1961 event. He had planned to recite “Dedication,” a poem he wrote for the event, according to the Library of Congress, but glare from snow at the event forced him to recite "The Gift" from memory. A video of Frost reciting the poem can be found on Hulu.

How long does the U.S. Secret Service protect the president?
The agency is authorized to offer protection to presidents and their spouses for their lifetime, unless they decline the protection.

Vote Here: Which U.S. President Would Be Considered the Greatest in History?

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FastFeatures
Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were fifth cousins, and a look back into the genealogical charts of the presidential office find numerous family connections.
roosevelt, theodore, franklin, related, odd, questions
417
2014-13-05
Sunday, 05 October 2014 05:13 PM
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