Share this article:

Buddies Damon, Affleck are also distant relatives

Posted on October 10, 2009 at 7:40 AM

Updated Thursday, Oct 15 at 4:22 PM

BOSTON (AP) -- It seems Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are more than childhood pals and Hollywood collaborators.

According to the New England Genealogical Society, they're also cousins. Tenth cousins, once removed, that is.

Society researchers dug up evidence that both Damon and Affleck are descended from William Knowlton Jr. He was a bricklayer who came to the U.S. from England in the 1630s and settled in Ipswich.

The society said Friday that Affleck has lots of other famous relatives, including 16 U.S. presidents -- Barack Obama among them -- and the late Princess Diana.

Affleck and Damon were friends growing up in the Boston area and teamed up as writers and co-stars for the 1997 film "Good Will Hunting."

------

On the Net:

New England Historic Genealogical Society: http://www.newenglandancestors.org

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Share this article:

To add a comment, please register or login.

Leave your comment

Remember Please be respectful of others when posting comments. Play nice. IP addresses are logged and can be banned.

HTML is not allowed.

The username shown above is displayed with all comments you post. If you wish to update your username please click in the box to edit your username.

1000 characters remaining

Enter both words below, separated by a space, in the field located to the lower right. Can't read the words below? Try different words or an audio captcha. What's this?

Submit