Obama's diverse family tree. Interesting Chicago Sun TImes article:

[mucifer]

Son of presidents and tribal chiefs
In a special report, Sun-Times Political Editor Scott Fornek reveals Barack Obama's remarkably far-flung family tree
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September 9, 2007

BY SCOTT FORNEK Political Editor

One of his ancestors accused a fellow New England colonist of witchcraft and later stole from the governor's house.

Another had two brothers killed by American Indians, who scalped one brother and kidnapped the other's daughter.
» Click to enlarge image
White House hopeful Barack Obama already has presidential timber in his family tree: He is distantly related to three U.S. presidents.


Obama Family Tree

To trace Barack Obama's heritage, the Sun-Times started with his book, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, and the genealogical research of William Addams Reitwiesner on Reitwiesner's Web site, www.wargs.com. In addition, we verified information and dug up new facts with documents on Ancestry.com, in state archives, from public libraries and from other sources. Those who helped include Sam Dunnam of Dunham-Singletary Family Connections, Donna Dodson of the Newton County (Ark.) Historical Society, Virginia genealogist Brigitte Burkett, genealogist Christopher Challender Child of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, David Lee Dunham, Leon McCurry, Robert Mardock, Rae Janette McCurry Marshall, Virginia Goeldner and Maya Soetoro-Ng.

Still another ancestor was said to have been slain by pirates. Yet another lost a son in the Civil War to pro-slavery bushwackers who torched the man's home and threw burning coals on his infant daughter.

And, four centuries ago, his great- great-great-great-great-great- great-great-grandfather was a respected warrior and leader in eastern Africa. ...

snip

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/familytree/548552,CST-NWS-otreemain09.article

[BlooInBloo]

1. I would suspect that practically all American black folks have "interesting" family trees...

Due simply to the fact that black folks weren't important enough to white folks for the latter to keep the former's breeding behavior under tight control. White folks, on the other hand, kept their own breeding behavior under comparatively tight control. Maybe not Genesis-level genealogical boredom, but close.

[mucifer]

2. Well, his African ancestry was traced back 400 years in the article.

[BlooInBloo]

3. Yes, it was.

[FrenchieCat]

7. Obama is not the descendent of slaves, hence his family tree

is not quite the same as American Black Folks....interesting as many of those ancestries would be. So "breeding" here has nothing to do with the Chicago Sun Times Article.

[BlooInBloo]

9. True - but that just cuts to the chase a little bit faster for Obama than for the typical...

American black person.

Indeed, you pointing that out invites the conjecture: that the average Amercian black dude/ette has a *more* interesting tree than Obama. For precisely that reason you adduced.

[FrenchieCat]

11. Not neccessarily.......

as it is much more difficult for Black folks to trace their ancestry back to any specific place in Africa....and so the truth is not as certain as it is with Barack Obama, whose lineage there starts with his father. In addition, Black Americans tracing ancestry back to a particular plantation is no easy feat in itself, and to compound the unknown, to have records as to whether one is related to the slavemasters or not is just as sketchy, as that was not always information that was voluntarily divulged by Slave owners. That is, there are many American Blacks who are related to White Americans due to the going ons at the plantations in those days, but trying to trace such with any certainty would be quite an undertaking, if not impossible.

[BlooInBloo]

12. I'm using my "Specific Wording" lifeline Regis!

I merely said "HAS a more interesting genealogy", I made no claim about how easy or difficult it would be to discover and/or verify it.

:P

[mucifer]

15. as long as we are looking closely at words, I said Barack Obama's background is

diverse and the article is interesting. I didn't say his genealogy is interesting.

[BlooInBloo]

16. :) Then take everything I said, and wherever you see the word "geneaology"...

substitute "background".

Even magic requires skill in its application. :P

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Some of his ancestors are buried in Newton County AR

I hope some sort of marker is laid at their graves.

I did check out his family tree---rats, no connection between him and me. Wish there were.

[mucifer]

5. Michelle Obama has some Jewish relatives. But, alas, I'm not related to her.

:(

[BlooInBloo]

6. Not *recently*, at least, I suppose you mean.

[mucifer]

8. Here's some info:

http://www.forward.com/articles/14121/

Michelle Obama Has a Rabbi in Her Family
Capers Funnye, Leading Black Israelite, Is Aspiring First Lady’s Cousin
By Anthony Weiss
Tue. Sep 02, 2008

While Barack Obama has struggled to capture the Jewish vote, it turns out that one of his wife’s cousins is the country’s most prominent black rabbi — a fact that has gone largely unnoticed.

Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, and Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue on Chicago’s South Side, are first cousins once removed. Funnye’s mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (born Verdelle Robinson) and Michelle Obama’s paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were brother and sister.

Funnye (pronounced fuh-NAY) is chief rabbi at the Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in southwest Chicago. He is well-known in Jewish circles for acting as a bridge between mainstream Jewry and the much smaller, and largely separate, world of black Jewish congregations, sometimes known as black Hebrews or Israelites. He has often urged the larger Jewish community to be more accepting of Jews who are not white. Snip

It's possible we are related a long long time ago.

[BlooInBloo]

10. Cool - thanks!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. That's really cool!

It is said that everyone is at least 50th cousins.

[Clio the Leo]

13. The man shares blood lines with four different ethnic groups....

.... in his, well, not immediate family but pretty close. Native African (father), Caucasian (mother), Indonesian (sister) and Chinese (niece.)

And it's this cosmopolitan view of the world that's one of the many, many reasons I voted for him. We are so blessed to have him leading this nation.