Will Rogers said, "There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you." No doubt about it--political shenanigans provide an abundance of joke material for humorists and late-night comedians. And, if you have politicians in your family tree, they can also provide plenty of genealogical material.

Aside from entertainers, politicians probably enjoy talking or writing about themselves more than any other group. Can you begin to count the number of memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies written by or about politicians? All of this self-promotion and public scrutiny results in a lucrative historical track record for genealogists.

When researching family politicians, start at the top and look for a connection to a president. If your family has American roots dating back to the eighteenth century, there's a good chance you might be distantly or directly related to a president. The population was small in those days and concentrated in a tight geographical area. It wasn't that hard for someone in your family to marry into a family that eventually produced a president.

Presidents in your family tree are a real bonus because their genealogies have all been traced. Only forty-two men have been president (Grover Cleveland was elected for two non-consecutive terms), and several of them came from the same families, so it's not too hard to scan presidential genealogies hunting for a common ancestor. I, for example, share an ancestor with John Tyler, the tenth president. I know you've never heard of John Tyler, but, he really was a president...