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This new website can tell you if you're related to Donald Trump

A new website can tell you how related you are to Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. 

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Appropriately called Cousin Trump, the site was built by AncestorCloud, a genealogy site that connects family researchers with genealogists and historians who can help them piece together their family trees. Welsey Eames, co-founder and CEO, started AncestorCloud in 2014 with Mikey Murphy, the current CTO. 

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cousintrump.com

They said they created Cousin Trump a few months ago as an addition to AncestorCloud to garner interest in genealogy.

"We already have the technology to match up people, we thought it would be a fun way to get it out that you can know these things about your family," Eames told Tech Insider, "Trump is a hot topic so we started with him." 

For the purpose of Cousin Trump, the company uses an algorithm that can take the family trees of two individuals and determine the degrees of separation between them by finding one common ancestor. Users can have results in minutes, and all you have to do is log in using Facebook and add basic information about parents and grandparents. 

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It's hard to gauge the accuracy of the algorithm. If you've ever tried researching your family tree, you've doubtlessly stumbled across many wrong records before you find the relative you're searching for. Your Cousin Trump results should probably be taken with a grain of salt.

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cousintrump.com

That said, I had to try it. I logged in with Facebook (although I don't have any family members listed on my profile), and filled out the names, birth dates, and birthplaces of my parents and grandparents as best I could. I was able to fill out 86% of the information accurately, although I had to leave the birthplaces for my grandparents blank. 

Then came the moment of truth, I hit the "Match Me To Trump" button and waited while the algorithm sifted through thousands of family trees to find our common ancestor.

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CousinTrump.com

As it turns out, Cousin Trump found that Trump and I are distantly related — 19th cousins to be exact — which is closer than 80% of the rest of the world, according to the results page.

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Still, I'm not holding out for an invite to Trump Tower for a family reunion any time soon.

I ran my information through the site a few times just to double check the results, using the same information each time. My results didn't change, which suggests to me the site is at least consistent in its algorithm, though I can't be certain Donald Trump and I are truly related unless I delve into my ancestry.

And if Trump isn't your cup of tea, it's just a matter of time until you can check on your family ties with other celebrities. Eames told Tech Insider that Cousin Trump is "just the beginning." Cousin Clinton and other celebs are coming soon, so keep an eye out.  

Donald Trump
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