By announcing her intention to stand for the Senate, Liz Cheney, daughter of the former US vice-president Dick Cheney, is hoping to emulate a number of illustrious names who have followed previous generations of their family into office.

• The Bush family can boast four generations who entered the world of politics. George W Bush was elected president in 2000, eight years after George Bush Sr left office. Bush Sr's father was a senator, Bush Jr's brother Jeb served two terms as governor of Florida and has been touted as a future Republican candidate for president, and Jeb's son George P Bush is attempting to carry on the dynasty, starting by standing for the relatively low-profile role of Texas land commissioner.

• When Patrick Kennedy retired from the House of Representatives in 2011 it was the first time since 1947, when his uncle John F Kennedy was elected to Congress, that no member of his family held a federal office. Patrick's father, Ted, John's youngest brother, was a senator who failed in an attempt to follow his brother into the White House when he unsuccessfully challenged Jimmy Carter for the Democratic ticket in 1980. Bobby Kennedy, also a senator, was running for the Democratic nomination in 1968 when, like brother John, he was assassinated.

• The founding father John Adams was the second president of the United States. Twenty-eight years later his eldest son, John Quincy, became the sixth president. The last of the family to hold office was Charles Francis, a great-great-grandson of John Adams, in the 1930s. He became President Herbert Hoover's secretary of the navy, which was then a cabinet office.

• Mario Cuomo, a first-generation American who was the son of an Italian grocer, was elected as New York governor in 1983. His eldest son, Andrew, served as his political director until Mario was defeated at the polls in 1994. In 2010 Andrew won back the governorship for the Cuomo family, a post he continues to occupy. His father has him earmarked for bigger things, raising the prospect of his son running for president in 2016.

• The Harrison family is another that has spawned two presidents. William Henry Harrison served the shortest tenure in US history, dying on his 32nd day in office in 1841. His grandson Benjamin entered the White House 48 years later. The last of the line, also named William Henry, was a congressman from Wyoming. He died in 1990.