Big Island business can link candidates to common ancestry
November 3, 2008 - Waikoloa, Hawaii

A Big Island couple who operate a genealogy service has been making headlines throughout the election season. They have even managed to link this year's presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, to a common ancestor, which is no stranger to having its descendants lead America.

Bruce and Kristine Harrison, who founded the Family Forest Project in 1995, have been popping up in news newarticles all over the world, as the ancestral histories they have mapped keep revealing interesting tidbits about the backgrounds of world leaders, past and present.

In this interview, the Harrisons show how the resource they created works, and how a new finding reveals that presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are related through Sulgrave Manor, which is also the ancestral home of George Washington.

Recently, an AP article detailed the link, uncovered by the Harrisons, between Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and recent Saturday Night Live costar, Alec Baldwin. According to Harrison, they are "fairly distant cousins". Palin was also found to have ancestral connections to several prominent Hawaii families, such as the Cooke family of Bank of Hawaii, the Atherton family, and Monty Richards of Kahua Ranch.