List_of_children_of_the_Presidents_of_the_United_States

List of children of presidents of the United States

List of children of presidents of the United States

Index of US Presidents' children


The following people are children of U.S. presidents, including stepchildren and alleged illegitimate children. All full names with married names are given except for Theodore Roosevelt III and Herbert Charles Hoover. Currently there are 33 confirmed, known living presidential children, the oldest Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, the youngest Barron Trump. Two presidential children, John Quincy Adams and George W. Bush, have become president in their own right.

Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Carow Roosevelt with their children. Children from left to right: Quentin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., Archibald Roosevelt, Alice Longworth, Kermit Roosevelt, and Ethel Roosevelt Derby.

Presidential children have been studied individually and as a class. As individuals they are more often notable in their own right than most individuals: They disproportionately circulate among political and social leaders and the wealthier classes, and they are more likely to be scrutinized as part of celebrity culture. Additionally, as individuals they frequently have significant influence on other family members. For instance, a child may have had a significant influence on the child's parent: acting as a sounding board, or having behavioral issues that affected the parent's beliefs or performance. John Scott Harrison is the only person to be both a child of a U.S. president and a parent of another U.S. president, being a son of William Henry Harrison and the father of Benjamin Harrison.

As a class, the children of presidents have also occasioned significant study. Study has generally followed two paths: The issue of what access and inclusion within the circles of power does to individuals' lives, aspirations, and outcomes;[1] and the issue of their influence on society and politics.[2]

18th century

George Washington

with Martha Washington

No children together. Martha Washington had four children with Daniel Parke Custis. The two oldest (who died before her marriage to George Washington) are:
  1. Daniel Parke Custis (November 19, 1751 – February 19, 1754)
  2. Frances Parke Custis (April 12, 1753 – April 1, 1757)

The last two children were Martha’s grandchildren by her son John, who came to live with their grandparents after the death of their father. John’s two oldest children, Elizabeth and Martha, remained with their mother.

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alleged child with Venus (a slave)

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Thomas Posey was also rumored to be the illegitimate son of George Washington. His actual parentage is unclear.[4][5]

John and Abigail Adams

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19th century

Thomas Jefferson

with Martha Jefferson

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Martha Jefferson also had one son with her first husband Bathurst Skelton, who died before her marriage to Jefferson:

1. John Skelton (November 7, 1767 – June 10, 1771)

with Sally Hemings

Children with Sally Hemings; see Jefferson DNA data
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Thomas Woodson, the father of Lewis Woodson and Sarah Jane Woodson, was also claimed to be a child of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. However, DNA testing of the male Jefferson line and the male Woodson line showed no link.

James and Dolley Madison

No children together, but raised the older of Dolley's 2 sons from her first marriage to John Todd:

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James and Elizabeth Monroe

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John Quincy and Louisa Adams

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Andrew and Rachel Jackson

No biological children together, adopted two:
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Andrew and Rachel also served as guardians to eight children:
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Martin and Hannah Van Buren

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William Henry Harrison

with Anna Harrison

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alleged children with Dilsia (a slave)

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John Tyler

with Letitia Tyler

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alleged child with a slave

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with Julia Tyler

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James and Sarah Polk

The Polks remain the only presidential couple to never have children while together, biologically, adopted, or from previous marriage.

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Zachary and Margaret Taylor

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Millard and Abigail Fillmore

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Fillmore's second wife was Caroline Fillmore but they had no children.

Franklin and Jane Pierce

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James Buchanan

No biological children, and never married but had two nieces of whom he was the legal guardian
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Abraham and Mary Lincoln

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Andrew Johnson and Eliza McCardle Johnson

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Ulysses and Julia Grant

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Rutherford and Lucy Hayes

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James and Lucretia Garfield

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Chester and Ellen Arthur

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Grover Cleveland and Maria Halpin

See also section on Grover and Frances Cleveland
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Benjamin Harrison

with Caroline Harrison

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with Mary Harrison

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Grover and Frances Cleveland

See also section on Grover Cleveland and Maria Halpin
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William and Ida McKinley

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20th century

Theodore Roosevelt

with Alice Roosevelt

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with Edith Roosevelt

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William and Helen Taft

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Woodrow and Ellen Wilson

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Wilson's second wife Edith Wilson, with her first husband Norman Galt, had one son, who died in infancy before her marriage to Wilson.

Warren G. Harding

with Florence Harding

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with Nan Britton

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Calvin and Grace Coolidge

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Herbert and Lou Hoover

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Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt

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Harry and Bess Truman

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Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower

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John and Jackie Kennedy

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Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson

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Richard and Pat Nixon

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Gerald and Betty Ford

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Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

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Ronald Reagan

with Jane Wyman

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with Nancy Reagan

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George H. W. and Barbara Bush

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Bill and Hillary Clinton

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21st century

George W. and Laura Bush

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Barack and Michelle Obama

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Donald Trump

with Ivana Trump

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with Marla Maples

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with Melania Trump

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Joe Biden

with Neilia Hunter Biden

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with Jill Biden

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Living presidential children

As of April 2024, 33 presidential children are living. In order of their ages, they are:

  Current first child

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The most recent presidential child to die was Beau Biden, the eldest son of Joe Biden, who died on May 30, 2015, at the age of 46, before his father became president. The most recent presidential child to die who lived during their father's presidency was John Eisenhower, the only surviving son of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who died on December 21, 2013, at the age of 91. He was also the father-in-law of Julie Nixon Eisenhower, another presidential child.

See also

Notes

  1. James Monroe wrote that his only son died on September 28, 1800. The date of September 28, 1801 that is said to appear on the James Spence Monroe gravestone in the St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia) churchyard is not contemporaneous to the child's death, the location of the actual grave remains unknown.[14]
  2. He had a mistress, Eliza Dolph, who had a child, but it is unclear who the baby's father was.
  3. John Donelson was not related to Rachel Donelson Jackson
  4. Frances Parke Lewis was the step great-granddaughter of George Washington[19]
  5. Clarissa Pike was the daughter of Zebulon Pike, who discovered Pike's Peak
  6. William Henry Harrison Taylor was Anna Tuthill Harrison's cousin
  7. Some sources spell this name as Octavia Pannill Taylor.[32]
  8. Octavia's illness was described by her father as "bilious fever."[33]
  9. Margaret's illness was described by her father as "bilious fever."[33]

References

  1. See, e.g., Angelo, First Families.
  2. See, e.g., Zwicker, "America's Royalty", Presidential Studies Quarterly.
  3. Abramson, Jill (March 4, 2022). "Did George Washington Have an Enslaved Son?". The New Yorker.
  4. Posey, John Thornton (December 27, 1990). "Governor Thomas Posey: The Son of George Washington?". Indiana Magazine of History. 86 (1): 28–49. JSTOR 27791352.
  5. "Thomas Jefferson's Family". Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters (Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series). Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  6. Quinn, Sandra L.; Kanter, Sanford (1995). America's Royalty: All the Presidents' Children. Greenwood Publishing. p. 19. ISBN 9780313295355.
  7. Quinn, Sandra L.; Kanter, Sanford (1995). America's Royalty: All the Presidents' Children. Greenwood Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 9780313295355.
  8. "Lucy Jefferson (1782 – 1784)". monticello.org. Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  9. "Dolley Madison". Biography. April 23, 2021.
  10. Letter, April 10, 1788, James Monroe (Richmond, Virginia) to Thomas Jefferson (Paris)The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.: "...I think I mention'd to you in my last Mrs. M[onroe] had made us happy by giving us a daughter who is now 16 months old an[d] begins to talk..."
  11. February 3, 1840, The Observer (London, England), page 1: "BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS...DIED... [January] 27th, at her residence in the Champs Elysees, Paris, Mrs. Elizabeth K. M. Hay, relict of the late George Hay, Esq., of Virginia, and daughter of the late James Monroe, Esq., formerly President of the United States of America."
  12. Monroe, James. "James Spence Monroe". The Papers of James Monroe. University of Mary Washington. Retrieved February 2, 2018. An unhappy event has occurr'd which has overwhelmed us with grief. At ten last night our beloved babe departed this life after several days sickness
  13. Stuart, Leibiger, ed. (2012). A Companion to James Madison and James Monroe. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118281437.
  14. "Louisa Catherine Adams: A Father Reflects on the Death of his Infant Daughter". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved February 2, 2018. ...had been unwell for weeks. She experienced extreme discomfort due to teething (in his diary, JQA stated she was cutting seven teeth at the same time), had dysentery, and was feverish.
  15. "First Lady Biography: Louisa Adams". National First Ladies' Library. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  16. "Children | Andrew Jackson's Adopted Family". The Hermitage. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  17. Archived October 9, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, firstladies.org
  18. Quinn, Sandra L.; Kanter, Sanford (1995). America's Royalty: All the Presidents' Children. Greenwood Publishing. p. 338. ISBN 9780743446334.
  19. Family Search (subscription required)
  20. Janken, Kenneth Robert (2003). Walter White: Mr. NAACP. UNC Press. pp. 1–3. ISBN 978-0807857809.
  21. Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation at library.buffalo.edu/exhibits/ForeverFree/index.htm
  22. "Margaret Taylor Biography :: National First Ladies' Library". www.firstladies.org. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  23. "Millard Powers Fillmore Dead". The New York Times. November 16, 1889.
  24. Emerson, Jason. Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2012, P. 478.
  25. "Abraham Lincoln and Chicago (Abraham Lincoln's Classroom)". The Lincoln Institute. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  26. "The Lincoln Boys". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on October 23, 2013. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
    • Speer, W.S. (1888). "David T. Patterson". Sketches of prominent Tennesseans: Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee. Nashville: A. B. Tavel. pp. 531–533. LCCN 08019465. OCLC 4252171. OL 6998321M.
  27. Gould, Lewis L. (February 4, 2014). American First Ladies: Their Lives and Their Legacy. Routledge. ISBN 9781135311483.
  28. "Manning Force Hayes". Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  29. Kendall, Joshua (2016). First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama. Grand Central Publishing. p. 147. ISBN 9781455551965.
  30. Sibley, Katherine A.S., ed. (2016). A Companion to First Ladies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 269. ISBN 9781118732243.
  31. Matthew Yglesias (January 15, 2010). "Historic Sex Scandals". ThinkProgress. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  32. Serratore, Angela (September 26, 2013). "President Cleveland's Problem Child". smithsonianmag.com. Smithsonian/The Smithsonian. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  33. "Roosevelt Genealogy". fdrlibrary.marist.edu. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  34. "Herbert Clark Hoover (1903 – 1969)". Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  35. "David Boynton Roosevelt (1942-2022)". Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  36. "The Carter Family". jimmycarter.info. March 24, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  37. Haberman, Maggie (November 20, 2016). "Melania and Barron Trump Won't Immediately Move to White House". The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  38. Bostock, Bill (September 21, 2019). "A mother who claims Hunter Biden fathered her child went public with a DNA test because he stopped paying child support, lawyers say". Business Insider. Archived from the original on August 30, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
Sources
  • Bonnie Angelo, First Families: The Impact of the White House on Their Lives, ISBN 0-06-056356-7
  • William A. Degregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Wings Books, 1991
  • Doug Wead, All the President's Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America's First Families, Atria Books, New York, 2003, ISBN 0-7434-4631-3

Further reading

  • Larry D. Underwood. All the President's Children, Dageford Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-886225-85-0 (a children's book)
  • Quinn-Musgrove, Sandra L. and Kanter, Sanford, America's Royalty: All the President's Children, Olympic Marketing, ISBN 0-313-23645-3

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