Anonymous asked: Are there any presidents that do not have living relatives today?

Well, let’s dismiss the funky genealogy I referred to in the last answer and just focus on direct descendants. In that case, yes, there are many Presidents who have no direct descendants living today.

First and foremost, there are those Presidents who had no natural children of their own: George Washington, James Madison, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and James Buchanan. Then we have the Presidents who had children that never lived to adulthood: Franklin Pierce and William McKinley. That’s seven Presidents that definitely have no direct descendants living today.

Now, after that, things get sketchy for me because this isn’t something I’ve researched deeply enough to feel 100% positive of the answer I’m giving you here off the top of my head. I know that Abraham Lincoln has no direct descendants living today. Lincoln’s last direct descendant – his great-grandson (grandson of Robert Todd, Lincoln’s only son to live past the age of 18) died in 1985. Millard Fillmore had two children – a son who lived until he was 61 and a daughter who died at 22 – but neither of them married, so there are no direct descendants of Fillmore living today. Chester Arthur’s grandson – his last direct descendant – died in 1972.

Other than that, I believe every President still has direct descendants living today. So, to sum it up – to the best of my knowledge – there are no direct descendants living today of 10 Presidents: George Washington, James Madison, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Chester Arthur, and William McKinley.

Also, many sources note that Warren G. Harding had no children, and it is true that Harding and his wife, Florence, had no children together. However, Elizabeth Ann Christian Blaesing (1919-2005), was almost certainly the product of the extramarital affair between Harding and Nan Britton. Several years after Harding’s sudden death in office – when the hefty child support payments delivered to Britton on behalf of President Harding by his Secret Service agents also suddenly ceased – Britton wrote a book called The President’s Daughter exposing her affair with the President and their illegitimate child who bore a striking resemblance to Warren G. Harding. The President’s daughter lived a very private life and refused interviews until her death, but most historians (including this one) believe that the sons of Elizabeth Ann Christian Blaesing are undoubtedly the grandsons and direct descendants of President Harding.