The backgrounds of America's First Families are diverse: Nancy Reagan and Lady Bird Johnson have Spanish forebears; Herbert Hoover was Swiss and Canadian; Mamie Eisenhower was part Swedish while Ike was German; Martin Van Buren and the Roosevelts were Dutch; James Garfield had a royal strain of French; Eliza Johnson's parents were immigrant Scottish sandal-makers; both Calvin Coolidge and Edith Wilson had American Indian blood she being a direct descendant of Pocahantas. Yet it is the Irish American who represents the largest majority of those who have been President or First Lady.
Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States (1869-1877). Photo Wikimedia Commons
By Carl Sferrazza Anthony
There’s as much of the old sod in the White House as there is on its south lawn.
The backgrounds of America’s First Families are diverse: Nancy Reagan and Lady Bird Johnson have Spanish forebears; Herbert Hoover was Swiss and Canadian; Mamie Eisenhower was part Swedish while Ike was German; Martin Van Buren and the Roosevelts were Dutch; James Garfield had a royal strain of French; Eliza Johnson’s parents were immigrant Scottish sandal-makers; both Calvin Coolidge and Edith Wilson had American Indian blood–she being a direct descendant of Pocahantas.