Palin’s family link to Diana

BARACK OBAMA and Dick Cheney are not the only political odd couple who share a family tree.

Sarah Palin is linked in her lineage to former US President Franklin D Roosevelt and she also has a connection with Diana, Princess of Wales.

Mr Roosevelt, the Depression-era Democrat president, is a distant cousin of Mrs Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, according to genealogists at Ancestry.com.

Mr Roosevelt is Mrs Palin’s ninth cousin once removed.

Mrs Palin also has ties to the late princess, the website’s researchers found. The Alaska governor is a 10th cousin of the former royal.

Last year, Mr Cheney’s wife, Lynne, discovered the ancestral ties between the Republican vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee while researching her book. She said the relationship was eighth cousin, though the Chicago Sun-Times has traced it as ninth cousins once removed.