Girl Genius Links Nearly All US Presidents Back To Same King Of England [VIDEO]
What began as a school assignment to trace her own family tree grew into something much bigger for 12-year-old BridgeAnne d’Avignon.
The Paso Robles, CA girl went through more than half a million names over several months and discovered that all the US presidents save for one — Martin Van Buren — are related to John “Lackland” Plantagenet, a former King of England and signer of the Magna Carta.
While previous genealogists looked exclusively at male family trees and thus only linked 22 of the former presidents, d’Avignon also checked female ancestry, enabling her to find 20 more. She’s now using her website to raise funds for a trip to Washington, where she hopes she can hand-deliver her chart to President Obama.
Her work is amazing for a person of any age, but makes us feel a little lame for spending our formative years riding bikes and throwing spitballs.
[via Wreck and Salvage]