![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/bushmil.jpg\")
In
\n an America fraught with class, racial, religious and sexual tensions,
\n genealogy may yet play a role in what is shaping up to be the nastiest,
\n and most most divisive elections in recent history. However, despite
\n their obvious differences in personality, political party, and speaking
\n style, the two men have a lot in common. ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/kerrymil.jpg\")
Scions
\n of wealthy eastern power establishment families, they both went to exclusive
\n private schools and
\n then to Yale, where they were fraternity brothers in the shadowy secret
\n society "Skull and Bones".<\/p>\n
Now comes the astounding news that not only are these two great Americans Last week, Roberts walked a reporter from La Stampa, one of Italy’s As a result, Bush and Kerry are anywhere from tenth cousins once removed Who knew? Admittedly, if you go back far enough we are all related, A bit deeper John Kerry’s grandfather, Fritz Kohn, was born to a Jewish family in Kohn moved to Vienna in the late 1870s, changed his name to Frederick After In an America fraught with class, racial, religious and sexual tensions, genealogy may yet play a role in what is shaping up to be the nastiest, and most most divisive elections in recent history. However, despite their obvious differences in … Continue reading
\n united by race, age, class, education and blood ritual, but that they
\n are actually blood relations! Distant cousins! Who knew? Check out Sam
\n Allis in today’s Boston Globe<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n
\n major daily newspapers, through the blood connections between George
\n W. Bush and John F. Kerry. They are related through five kinships —
\n Henry Herrick of Salem, John Dwight of Dedham, the parents of the Rev.
\n Peter Bulkeley of Concord, Thomas Richards of Weymouth, and the Sherman
\n family of Dedham, Essex, England.<\/p>\n
\n to twelfth cousins twice removed among the five lines. (Can’t you just
\n see the pair playing Frisbee at a family picnic?) <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n but this seems to make a mockery of our vaulted American diversity. Like
\n the Klitishenko brothers fighting for the heavyweight title. Like letting
\n CNN and Fox define the extremes of the American political spectrum. Don’t
\n get us started.<\/p>\n
\n into the Globe<\/a> we discovered another genealogical gem.
\n John Kerry, it turns out, is one-quarter Jewish! Again, who knew? <\/p>\n\n
\n the Austro-Hungarian town of Bennisch, now called Horni Benesov and part
\n of the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n
\n Kerry, and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1901. He arrived in the
\n United States with his wife, Ida, in 1905. Sixteen years later, he committed
\n suicide in a Boston hotel washroom. John Kerry’s father, Richard, was
\n 6 years old at the time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n seeing him march in umpteen St. Paddy’s Day Parades in South Boston
\n most people naturally assumed the Senator was from the Kerry, Ireland
\n Kerrys. Who knew he was in reality from the Vienna, Austria Kohns? Actually,
\n he’s probably wise not to play up the Jewish angles, as big as we are
\n for racial and religious pride. Most Jews will undoubtedly vote for him
\n anyway, and there are certainly a bunch of racially retro citizens who
\n would never vote for ANYBODY with even a few drops of Jewish blood. Fortunately,
\n most of those people don’t come out from under their rocks to vote, sparing
\n them this year’s agonizing choice, for these two articles taken together
\n lead to the inescapable conclusion that both of the candidates are tainted.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"