Original photo by White House Photo/ Alamy Stock Photo

In the sibling department, every President has had, at minimum, one half-brother or half-sister. However, a few Presidents are sometimes considered to have been raised as only children — most notably Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose only half-sibling (his father’s oldest son, James) was 28 years FDR’s senior. Bill Clinton’s half-brother, Roger, is about a decade younger than him. Barack Obama also has a 10-year age gap with his younger half-sister Maya, although he learned later in life that he possessed at least five more half-siblings on his father’s side. Meanwhile, Gerald Ford is the only child his mother and father produced, but he was raised with three younger half-brothers after his mother remarried, and as a teen, learned that he also had three younger half-sisters, via his father. 

Almost one-third of U.S. Presidents were born in either Ohio or Virginia.

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Of the 46 commanders-in-chief so far, seven have been born in Ohio, while eight were born in Virginia when it was either a colony or a state. Only 21 states have produced a President so far.

The no-only-children rule isn’t the only presidential birth quirk. Fifteen Presidents, including Joe Biden, are firstborns. Just seven occupants of the Oval Office have been the babies of their families, among them Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan. That means 23 Presidents have fallen somewhere in the middle of the birth order, with the likes of Grover Cleveland and Herbert Hoover being true middle children (they were born to families with nine and three offspring, respectively). John Tyler, the 10th President, fathered the most youngsters himself: 15

Numbers Don't Lie

Numbers Don't Lie

Highest number of siblings to each reach 100 years old, a milestone achieved by the Clarke family of Ireland
6
Largest official quantity of children born to one mother, a Russian peasant who delivered 27 sets of multiples
69
Most nations visited by a sitting U.S. President, a record shared by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
74
Year Harry Truman became the first U.S. President to receive a Secret Service code name (“General”)
1945

Before she was a First Lady, only child ______ worked as a public school teacher and librarian.

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Before she was a First Lady, only child Laura Bush worked as a public school teacher and librarian.

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The only U.S. President to get married at the White House was Grover Cleveland.

Grover Cleveland is often remembered for being the sole President elected to non-consecutive terms. Yet he was also the only U.S. President to serve as a groom while in office. His wedding to Frances Folsom fell on June 2, 1886, less than 15 months after his first inauguration. The bride, 22, was a recent Wells College graduate, and Cleveland was the 49-year-old commander-in-chief. Once law partners with Frances’ father, Oscar, Cleveland had known her since she was an infant. After Oscar died in an 1875 carriage accident, Cleveland oversaw the Folsom estate and Frances’ schooling. A decade later, Cleveland proposed in a letter; the pair kept their engagement secret until five days before the wedding. The ceremony occurred in the Blue Room and was attended by 28 guests. Rather than use the line vowing to “honor, love, and obey” in the bride’s vows, Frances and Cleveland replaced the last word with “keep.” During Cleveland’s time as America’s 24th President, Frances also gave birth to the lone child ever born to a sitting President in the White House: Esther Cleveland came into the world on September 9, 1893. The couple’s second child of five, Esther was born in her parents’ bedroom.

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