This year, the United States is celebrating George Washington’s Birthday on Monday 17 February 2025. We refer to it as Presidents’ Day, but officially it is a Federal observation of our first President’s birthday. Many States also observe the Monday Presidents’ Day.
Our founding father George Washington was born on 22 February 1732 New Style Gregorian calendar–under the old style Julian calendar in the Colony of Virginia it was recorded 11 February 1731. He was the first child of Augustine Washington (1694-1743) and 2nd wife Mary Ball (c. 1707-1789). After leading the Continental Army to victory over the King of England, George Washington became the First President of the United States of America, serving 30 April 1789 to 4 March 1797.
The Washington family were prominent Virginia cavaliers from Northamptonshire, England. Go back far enough in genealogy, and we find George Washington was descended from Sir Thomas Holand, KG (1350-1397), 2nd Earl of Kent, Lord Holand and Wake. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1375 (that’s the “KG”). Sir Thomas and wife Countess Alice FitzAlan de Arundel (1350-1416) also had at least 8 children whose offspring were well documented through the years. This would be at least in part due to Countess Alice being part of the Plantagenet Royal Family–Royals get put in writing.
Turns out, my own family history ties to Sir. Thomas thru my dad’s Woodbury.Corning family way back. So that means President George Washington appears to be my 11th cousin 9x removed. Huzzah! Sir Thomas also counts Presidents James Buchanan, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson among our common descendants.
So far, I’ve found direct shared ancestry with 32 US Presidents, and connections by marriage for several others.
- George Washington
- Thomas Jefferson
- James Madison
- John Quincy Adams (thru his mother, not the first President Adams)
- William Henry Harrison
- Zachary Taylor
- Millard Fillmore
- Franklin Pierce
- James Buchanan
- Abraham Lincoln
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Rutherford B. Hayes
- James A. Garfield
- Chester A. Arthur
- Stephen Grover Cleveland (only counting him once, even tho he skipped terms)
- Benjamin Harrison
- Theodore Roosevelt
- William Howard Taft
- Thomas Woodrow Wilson
- Warren G. Harding
- John Calvin Coolidge
- Herbert Hoover
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Harry S. Truman
- Lydon B. Johnson
- Richard M. Nixon
- Gerald R. Ford (Leslie Lynch King Jr)
- James “Jimmy” Carter
- George H.W. Bush
- William “Bill” Blythe Clinton
- George W. Bush (thru his mother, as well as father)
- Barack Obama (yes, on his mother’s side)
My closest connect is, unfortunately, President Millard Fillmore, my 4th cousin 5x removed by way of ancestor Nehemiah Royce. Fillmore is widely considered one of the worst presidents ever, at least before the current occupant. On the other hand, President Abraham Lincoln is my 5th cousin 5x removed, so being related to one of the best presidents ever helps make up for it.
I doubt that the fact I’m W’s 9th cousin 1x removed will get me invited over for tea, but family history is a way I have found to bring history to life. I’m a map-guy, so I like the ebb and flow of history as it is. Yet the fact Abe Lincoln’s gggg-grandfather and mine are the same sets my imagination afire about the life of Abraham Jones (1628-1718).
Others may say it’s just another way for the old WASP establishment to reinforce the patriarchy. Yeah, this Midwest farm boy is going to go pulling family rank on anybody. There is certainly an element in our society more concerned about who your “people” are than what you do. To me that’s the thing we fought a war either England to get out from under.
The who you know, rather than the what you can do, also seems to underly much of the graft and corruption across America’s economy and government. The possibilities of an emerging oligarchy are not an empty threat.
In his Farwell Address, President Washington called for national unity and focused on threats at home and abroad. As the National Constitution Center notes, “For the American republic to survive, the American people and their elected leaders had to commit to lives of civic republican virtue—valuing reason over passion and the public good over private self-interest.” Something to remember this Presidents’ Day.
Happy birthday, cousin George.
Resources: White House Historical Association–they need all the help they can get for the next four years.
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