Buddies Matt Damon & Ben Affleck Are Also Distant Relatives

First Published: October 10, 2009 12:59 PM EDT Credit: Getty Images

Caption Ben Affleck and Matt Damon hit the red carpet at the ‘Ante Up for Africa’ celebrity poker tournament in Las Vegas on July 2, 2009

BOSTON, Mass. -- 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.”

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