Famous Connections | CyberBarrett Genealogy

⬆ Direct Ancestors

In Barrett's Direct Line

These are people Barrett is literally descended from — they appear in his family tree as great-grandparents, going back many generations. Their blood runs in his veins.

⬆ Direct Ancestor

Pocahontas

Rebecca Rolfe · abt. 1596 – 1617

16th Great-Grandmother (via Bolling line)

The famous Powhatan princess who befriended the Jamestown colonists. Her son Thomas Rolfe and granddaughter Jane Rolfe are the bridge into Barrett's Tackett and Holt ancestry through the Virginia Bolling family.

Pocahontas →Thomas Rolfe → Jane Rolfe → John Bolling →…Tackett line… →Barrett

⬆ Direct Ancestor

Edward Doty

Mayflower Passenger · abt. 1599 – 1655

10th Great-Grandfather (Mayflower, 1620)

One of the 102 passengers aboard the Mayflower. Edward Doty was an indentured servant who later became a freeman and landowner in Plymouth Colony. His line descends through Barrett's great-grandmother Matilda Baldwin via her mother Sarah Elliott — the documented basis for membership in the Alabama Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Edward Doty →…Elliott line → Sarah Elliott → Matilda Baldwin →Henry & Matilda Holt → Perian Holt → Landon Holt →Barrett

⬆ Direct Ancestor

Richard Warren

Mayflower Passenger · abt. 1578 – 1628

10th Great-Grandfather (Mayflower, 1620)

One of the most prominent Mayflower passengers, Richard Warren was a London merchant who sailed alone and later brought his family to Plymouth. He is among the most prolifically descended Mayflower passengers — millions of Americans count him as an ancestor, including Barrett through the Newsom line.

Richard Warren →…Newsom / Sherburne line →Martha Tackett → Landon Holt → Romaine Holt →Barrett

Pocahontas family tree showing ancestry documentation — **Pocahontas (Rebecca Rolfe) Family Tree** — Ancestry documentation showing the Bolling/Rolfe descent line connecting Barrett to the famous Powhatan princess through 17 documented generations.

Edward Doty, Mayflower Passenger from 1620 — **Edward Doty** — Mayflower Passenger, 1620. One of the 102 souls who made the crossing aboard the Mayflower. Barrett's documented descent through the Elliott-Baldwin line provides the basis for his membership in the Alabama Society of Mayflower Descendants.

↔ Famous Cousins

Famous Relatives

These people are not direct ancestors — they are cousins, sharing a common ancestor with Barrett but branching off into their own famous lines. The connection is real and documented on Ancestry.

↔ 9th Cousins

Dolly Parton

b. 1946 · Country Music Legend

9th Cousins — Shared Ancestor: Cecily (Collmore) Bohannon

Both Barrett and Dolly descend from Cecily (Collmore) Bohannon (abt. 1637–aft. 1678), making Cecily Barrett's 8th great-grandmother.

Barrett →…Tackett → Bohannon → Cecily Bohannon ←Dolly's Bohannon line ←Dolly

↔ 12 Degrees

Elvis Presley

1935 – 1977 · The King of Rock & Roll

12 Degrees of Separation — via Tackett / Mansell line

The path runs through Barrett's Tackett line, connecting to the Mansell family of Appalachian Virginia — the same Mansell bloodline that flows into Elvis through his maternal grandmother, Doll Mansell. The Mansell family appears in many documented Melungeon family trees, and it has long been hypothesized among Melungeon researchers — though not definitively established — that Elvis carried Melungeon heritage. His dark coloring, high cheekbones, and deep Appalachian roots are consistent with this theory. Given that Barrett's own Tackett line runs through the same Melungeon ancestral communities, the two share more than just degrees of separation.

Barrett →Tackett line → John Tackett → Abner Tackett →Martha → Doll Mansell → Gladys Smith →Elvis

↔ 4th Cousin 8× Removed

George Washington

1732 – 1799 · 1st President of the United States

4th Cousin, 8× Removed — Shared Ancestor: Isabel (Sherburne) Towneley

Barrett and the Father of our Nation both descend from Isabel (Sherburne) Towneley (abt. 1425–aft. 1462). Washington's line runs through Lawrence and Augustine Washington; Barrett's runs through the Sherburne–Newsom–Tackett chain — making Isabel Barrett's 16th great-grandmother.

Barrett →Newsom → Sherburne/Towneley → Isabel Towneley ←Mary Warner → Augustine Washington ←Washington

↔ 6th Cousin 4× Removed

Franklin D. Roosevelt

1882 – 1945 · 32nd President of the United States

6th Cousin, 4× Removed — via the Holt / Church / Delano line

This connection runs directly through the Holt line Barrett has already researched. William Kendrick Holt (a Holt family relative) connects to the Church family, which ties to the Warren Delano line — FDR's mother's side — making this one of the most personally significant famous cousin connections.

Barrett →Henry Holt → W.K. Holt → Church / Delano branch →Warren Delano → Sara Delano Roosevelt →FDR

↔ 8th Cousin 1× Removed

Merle Haggard

1937 – 2016 · Country Music Icon

8th Cousins, Once Removed — Shared Ancestor: Cecily (Collmore) Bohannon

Like Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard also connects to Barrett through Cecily Bohannon — the same 1637 ancestor. Cecily is Barrett's 8th great-grandmother and Merle's 7th great-grandmother, making the branches slightly offset by one generation.

Barrett →…Bohannon → Cecily Bohannon ←Bohannon → Harp → Flossie Mae Harp ←Merle

↔ 8th Cousin 1× Removed

Jacqueline Kennedy

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier · 1929 – 1994

8th Cousins, Once Removed — Shared Ancestor: Joseph Wickes (1620–1692)

Barrett and Jackie Kennedy both descend from Joseph Wickes, an early colonial American. Jackie's line runs through the Bouvier family; Barrett's through the Elliott line connected to his Mayflower research.

Barrett →…Elliott → Wickes → Joseph Wickes (1620) ←…Bouvier line ←Jackie

↔ 9th Cousin 2× Removed

Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney · 1901 – 1966

9th Cousins, Twice Removed — Shared Ancestor: Bennett Eliot (1552–1621)

The connection to the man who built the Magic Kingdom runs through Bennett Eliot (1552–1621). Barrett's line descends through the Elliott–Tackett chain; Walt's descends through Philip Eliot and ultimately the Disney family who emigrated from England.

Barrett →Elliott → Bennett Eliot (1552) ←Philip Eliot → … → Elias Charles Disney ←Walt

Elvis Presley, The King of Rock and Roll — **Elvis Presley** — Barrett is 12 degrees of separation from The King via the Tackett/Mansell line. The Mansell connection is particularly significant: among Melungeon researchers, it is *sometimes claimed* or *hypothesized* that Elvis carried Melungeon heritage through this same Appalachian lineage — a theory lent circumstantial weight by the fact that Barrett's own Tackett line runs through the same documented Melungeon communities. Barrett has had a private tour of Graceland, walking the same halls as his documented relative.

Thomas Jefferson family tree showing ancestry documentation — **Thomas Jefferson Family Tree** — Ancestry documentation showing the relationship path between Barrett Holt and the 3rd President of the United States.

James Madison family tree showing ancestry documentation — **James Madison Family Tree** — Ancestry documentation showing the relationship path between Barrett Holt and the 4th President of the United States, Father of the Constitution.

📖 WHAT DOES "ONCE REMOVED" ACTUALLY MEAN?

This trips up nearly everyone — but once you get it, it clicks forever. "Removed" has nothing to do with how distant the relationship is. It's purely about generational difference.

When two people are in the same generation — like two people who both share a great-grandparent — they are simply cousins: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on. No "removed." The cousin number tells you how far back you have to go to find the shared ancestor.

"Once removed" means there is exactly one generation of difference between the two people. So Barrett's 1st cousin's child is Barrett's 1st cousin once removed — same cousin relationship, but one rung lower on the generational ladder. Go two rungs down and it's "twice removed." That's it.

Think of it this way:

Relationship	What it means
4th cousin	Same generation — you both share a 4× great-grandparent. Neither is older or younger in the family tree.
4th cousin, once removed	One of you is one generation older or younger than the other. The cousin number still describes the type of relationship; removed just accounts for the generational offset.
4th cousin, 8× removed	Eight full generations apart — like Barrett and George Washington. Washington was born in 1732; they share the same ancestral line, just in wildly different eras of history.

The bottom line: "Removed" is a calendar correction, not a measure of closeness. A 3rd cousin once removed is not farther away than a plain 3rd cousin — they're just from a different generation of the same branch. When you see "8× removed," that's simply history catching up — centuries of generations separating the same shared bloodline.

A NOTE ON THE RESEARCH

All connections on this page are sourced from Barrett's documented Ancestry family tree and cross-referenced against public genealogical databases. Direct ancestors are individuals who appear in the unbroken parent-child chain from Barrett back through history — their DNA literally contributed to his. Famous cousins share a common ancestor but branched into separate family lines generations ago. Neither type of connection is more remarkable than the other — but they mean very different things genealogically. Barrett holds documented membership in the Alabama Society of Mayflower Descendants based on the Edward Doty line.