U.S. Presidential Offspring Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Tyler

John Tyler, our 10th President, had fifteen children; eight with his first wife, Letitia and seven with his second wife, Julia. He had seven sons and eight daughters: Letitia's kids are Mary, Robert, John, Letitia, Elizabeth (that's Tyler!), Anne Contesse, Alice and Tazewell (from the standard to the unusual). Julia's kids are David Gardiner, John 'Alex' Alexander, Julia Gardiner, Lachlan Gardiner, Lyon Gardiner, Robert 'Fitz' Fitzwalter and Pearl. You will note (if you're still awake) that his first son, Robert, was alive when he named the second Robert, who was called Fitz, perhaps to avoid confusion.

Answer: Malia and Sasha

At the time of Barack Obama's second election to the presidency in November, 2012, Malia was 14 and Sasha was 11 years old. They have grown up in the public eye but seem to remain "down to earth", e.g., on Election Night it seemed that Sasha was wearing a skirt previously worn by Malia in 2011...austerity in Office?! But they do get their perks too, as in having the popular British boy band "One Direction" perform for them at the White House. What's next, dating?

Answer: Margaret Truman

Mary 'Margaret' Truman-Daniel, the only child of Harry and Bess Truman, was born in Independence, Missouri in 1924 and died in Chicago, Illinois in 2008. In between, she went to George Washington University where she majored in history and graduated in 1946.

She also had operatic vocal training and performed on stage, radio and television until the mid-1950s. In 1956, she married "New York Times" reporter Clifton Daniel and had four sons: Clifton Truman Daniel, William Wallace Daniel, Harrison Gates Daniel and Thomas Washington Daniel.

In 1980, she wrote "Murder in the White House" which was turned into a film "Murder at 1600", starring Wesley Snipes.

Answer: Sally Hemings

Sarah 'Sally' Hemings was a slave born around 1773 and owned by Thomas Jefferson "through his wife's inheritance". She had six children of which four grew to adulthood, i.e., Beverly, Harriet, Madison and Eston, and were rumored to resemble President Jefferson.

There has been an on-going controversy with regard to the paternity of Ms. Hemings' progeny and, in 1998, a DNA study found a match between the Jefferson lineage and a descendant of Sally Hemings' last son, Eston. Jefferson freed all four of the children as they came of age.

Hemings never married but lived to see a grandchild "born in a house which her sons owned".

Answer: Washington, Jackson and Reagan

Ironically, Washington is known as "The Father of Our Country" and yet had no children of his own. In 1759, he married the widow Martha Dandridge Custis and assumed responsibility for the upbringing of her two children, John (Jacky) Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis, and informally adopted Jacky's two youngest children ('Nelly' and 'Wash') after their father's early death.

The Jacksons (Andrew, not Joe) had three adopted children: Andrew Jackson Jr. (his brother's son), Lyncoya (an orphaned Native American), and Andrew Jackson Hutchings (from Rachel's family).

As for President Reagan, he and his wife at the time, Jane Wyman, adopted Michael four years after the birth of Maureen.

Answer: Tricia and Julie

Patricia 'Tricia' Nixon is the oldest daughter of Richard and Pat Nixon. She was born in 1946 and played a larger role in her father's political career than her sister, Julie. Tricia married Harvard law student, Edward Cox, in a ceremony held at the White House Rose Garden on June 12, 1971. Julie Nixon was born in 1948, and in 1968 one month before her father took office, she married David Eisenhower, grandson of the former President (and Vice President Nixon's running mate in 1952 and 1956), General Dwight David Eisenhower.

In 2010, Julie and David co-authored "Going Home to Glory: a Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower", a biography about the president's final years.

Answer: Cleveland and Harding

Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President, was our only non-consecutive president and the second bachelor to take office (before marrying Frances Folsom). His campaign slogan was "Public Office is a Public Trust". In 1884, a story broke alluding to the fact that Cleveland had "seduced" Maria Halprin who was now raising their ten-year-old son, born out-of-wedlock. Cleveland dealt with the scandal by telling the truth (how refreshingly odd), taking responsibility for the child and sending money.

In 1916, Harding began an affair with Nan Britton and, in 1919, they conceived a child named Elizabeth Ann Christian out-of-wedlock.

Answer: James Buchanan

James Buchanan served as our fifteenth president from 1857 to 1861. Having no wife, the hostess chores fell to his niece, Harriet Lane; in fact, Harriet Lane was the first woman to be called "First Lady" while serving in that role. One of Buchanan's most famous quotes is "What is right and what is practicable are two different things", which may explain why he never married, nor did he sire any offspring (at least, that we know of). To note another first for Buchanan, his inauguration was the first one to be photographed.

He also served as both a congressman and a senator, representing the state of Pennsylvania and was the seventeenth US Secretary of State.

Answer: Madison and Polk

James Madison (1751-1836) was the fourth President of the United States and is known as the "Father of the Constitution" and author of the US Bill of Rights. He owned 108 slaves who worked on his tobacco plantation in Virginia, known as Montpelier; he worked with George Washington to help organize the new Federal Government; he was Jefferson's Secretary of State (1801 to 1809) and he married Dolley Todd in 1794 and adopted her son, John Payne Todd.

Although James Knox Polk, our eleventh president from 1845 to 1849, was born in North Carolina as the first of ten children, he never had any children of his own with his wife, Sarah Childress.

Answer: Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson ('LBJ') was our 36th President from November 22, 1963 until January 20, 1969. He and Claudia Alta Taylor 'Lady Bird' Johnson had two daughters: Lynda Bird Johnson, born in 1944 was the eldest; in 1967, she married US Marine Corps Captain Charles Robb in the East Room of the White House. Robb, a Vietnam veteran, became Lieutenant Governor and later Governor of Virginia, making Lynda Bird "First Lady" of Virginia. Luci Baines Johnson was born in 1947 and her name was spelled Lucy, which she changed to Luci in her teens.

At nineteen, she married Patrick Nugent and they had four children; they later divorced and she married Ian Turpin in 1984.