Presidents' Relatives Sticker

Question

I've just come across a sticker -- {{US President Relative}} which posts a sticker on a profile saying that the person profiled is "related to a US President."

I'm wondering what the purpose of this sticker is?  I'm an 8th cousin of President Obama and a cousin of some sort to a majority of US presidents.  I'm sure the large majority of WikiTree members are "related to a US President" in some way.

This seems to have replaced the sticker identifying the person-profiles as the "direct ancestor of a US President."  At least that gave useful information and invited a look at the individual's line of descent to see where the connection lay.

Answer 1

There are rather a lot of WikiTreers who seem to like to be able to say they are related in some way to a US President.

Comments

And I'm one of them -- on my personal site I have a list of presidents and exactly how I'm related!

But what spurred this note was finding the sticker on the profile of a colonial Marylander, and it replaced one showing he was the direct ancestor of a president.  Showing he's the direct ancestor of a president is meaningful, but the other is really just....well, I won't say it!

I'm wondering if there's been an official policy change of some kind, and what it means.

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This looks like the reason (taken from the US Presidents Project page):

"To identify other people related to US Presidents, but not managed by the project, please use the Template:US President Relative"

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Thanks, Ros.

The problem is that just about everyone is related to a US President, and if WikiTree can achieve its ultimate goal of including everyone in the world, past and present, then absolutely 100% EVERYONE will be related to ALL US Presidents in some fashion, because everyone will be related to each other.  Already, lots of WikiTree members who can trace their ancestors to England can show up as my 14th or 16th cousin.  So the template is essentially meaningless.  At this point I suppose I would leave it up to profile managers as to whether the template should stay on profiles they manage.  Certainly, because we believe in documentation, the template should be on a profile only if there's documentation as to HOW a person is related to which US President.

Answer 2

It seems direct ancestors are part of the U.S. Presidents Project up to 2nd great grandparents and then ancestors past 2nd great grandparents get a "related to" sticker.

Comments

Ah, I see now.  Well, then, beyond 2nd great grandparent, the relationship can be documented in the narrative.  I think the "relative" sticker belongs ony on personal profiles.

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I put the relative sticker on my 8th great grandfather, who is the 3rd great grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt. I don't plan to use it for ancestors past him, but wanted that in my direct line. So I guess it's a personal preference.