Might as well get this post out of the way. My mother would not be amused. She might have even whacked me over the head for posting this where anyone could find it. There’s a very strong probability my mother married a distant cousin of George Herbert Walker Bush. And she gave birth to three distant cousins of George W. Bush. Her grandchildren are also distant cousins of both father and son.

Bush. Bush. Bush.

Presidents 41 and 43 are descendants of Thomas Mercer and Elizabeth Barnes of Cecil County, Maryland. (Just Google it.) My  7th great grandmother, Mary Mercer, is presumably the daughter of the same Thomas Mercer and his first wife Elizabeth Bentley. Mary attended the same church (St. Stephen’s Church) as Thomas and his wives and their other children. Although a church record of Mary’s birth or baptism did not survive, she married James Veazey there in 1716. And, as distant cousin Ann Veazey Davis points out on her website, there were no other Mercers living in the area at the time. So if Mary wasn’t the daughter of Thomas and one of the Elizabeths, how’d this Mercer maiden just happen to end up in Cecil County, Maryland at the same church circa 1700?

Cousins George and George once removed are looking pretty solid. I better wrap this one up quickly and start hunting for a Kennedy, Carter or Clinton connection if I know what’s good for me in the afterlife.

Kenfolk: Trantham
Relation: 7th great grandmother
Common ancestors: Presumably Thomas Mercer and Elizabeth Bentley, my 8th great grandparents

Reference:
http://members.tripod.com/~ann_vz_davis/mercer.html