Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe are ninth cousins, once removed, according to a new genealogy study tracing their families back four centuries. The discovery adds an unexpected footnote to comparisons between two Hollywood stars. Sweeney has repeatedly embraced Monroe-inspired glamour, including recreating the pose and dress associated with one of Monroe’s famous LIFE magazine appearances.

Now, that resemblance has a family-tree explanation, however distant.

A family resemblance gets a literal twist when the paper trail stretches back four centuries. MyHeritage researchers found that Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe share Ezra Perry, an ancestor who lived in Sandwich, Massachusetts, during the 1600s. The connection runs through Sweeney’s father, Steven Sweeney, and Monroe’s biological father, Charles Stanley Gifford.

The women are ninth cousins, once removed, putting centuries between their shared ancestor and two Hollywood names (via Entertainment Weekly). Sweeney was born in Spokane, Washington, in 1997 before moving to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue acting. She broke through with Euphoria and later starred in The White Lotus, Anyone But You and other films. Further, reports have identified Irish and German roots in her family history.

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In fact, Hollywood’s family trees have a habit of producing stranger connections than any casting department could invent.

For starters, Meryl Streep, for instance, has a documented distant relationship to William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. PBS genealogy research traced Streep’s maternal ancestry through Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, while her wider family history includes German and Swiss roots.

Tom Hanks has been identified as a distant relative of Abraham Lincoln, while Benedict Cumberbatch is related to King Richard III. Robert Pattinson’s family tree has also been linked to Vlad the Impaler, the historical figure associated with Dracula’s legend.

Even more, Marilyn Monroe has appeared in other celebrity genealogy stories, including connections involving Paris Hilton.

What makes Sydney Sweeney’s discovery especially neat is that the family connection arrives alongside an existing cultural resemblance. She has long drawn comparisons to Monroe, but the research adds a literal link beneath the surface. As it turns out, four centuries ago, two branches of one family tree were already moving toward Hollywood’s most unlikely meeting.

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What do you think of the two actresses' shared heritage? Let us know in the comments.