My great great great great great great great great great grandfather (Benedict Arnold, not the revolutionary war traitor) was the first governor of Rhode Island. His father was one of the colony's founders.
Benedict Arnold (the revolutionary war traitor) is my 17th cousin.
Oliver Hazard Perry and his brother Matthew Perry are distant cousins.
Stephen Arnold Douglas, the man who ran in the presidential race against Abraham Lincoln, is a distant cousin.
George W. Bush is my 35th cousin.
My great (x29) grandfather (Ynir Gwentland) was the king of Wales and was killed in battle.
My mom's maternal grandmother's paternal family and my dad's maternal grandfather's paternal family lived just 50 miles apart in Switzerland back in the 1600s.