Wow...According to a new study, President Obama is likely related to John Punch, the first enslaved

[one_voice]

Last edited Mon Jul 30, 2012, 03:19 PM - Edit history (2)

African in the American colonies — by way of his white mother.

“Two of the most historically significant African Americans in the history of our country are amazingly directly related,” said Ancestry.com genealogist Joseph Shumway in a release. “Punch was more than likely the genesis of legalized slavery in America. But after centuries of suffering, the Civil War, and decades of civil rights efforts, his 11th great-grandson became the leader of the free world and the ultimate realization of the American Dream.”

According to Ancestry.com researchers, Punch was an indentured servant in colonial Virginia in 1640, when he tried to escape his servitude. His punishment for his attempt to escape was lifetime enslavement.

Using colonial Virginia records and a DNA analysis, the researchers conclude that Obama definitely has African ties on his maternal side — and that Punch is the logical candidate. Obama's mother Stanley Ann Dunham is the descendent of landowners in colonial Virginia — ancestors who apparently have an African background.

Existing colonial records suggest that Punch had children with a white woman — and those children were born free of slavery thanks to their mother's race and status.

*snip*

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/07/obamas-maternal-ties-to-slavery-130455.html

I don't know how accurate this is but maybe this will help with the questions about his Iris ancestry.

http://irishfireside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/PresidentialTrail.pdf


edited to add:
http://hypervocal.com/news/2012/ancestry-com-obama-john-punch/ thanks to enlightenment post #5

[Sanity Claws]

1. I thought Ann Dunham's family emigrated from Ireland

in the 19th Century.
Can someone enlighten me?

[DURHAM D]

2. I have not read the story but

perhaps it is her father's ancestors who came from Ireland but this is from her mother's leg of the family tree.

[one_voice]

4. I found this...

http://irishfireside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/PresidentialTrail.pdf


I don't know how accurate it is...

[CBGLuthier]

6. Over the course of five or six generations someone married someone whose family was here longer.

I got family that came here in the 1700's. I also got family that came here 10,000 years ago. They married.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Nope.

Ann Dunham's great-grandfather emigrated from Ireland during the famine; her other seven great-grandparents were born in the US and her American ancestry goes back to the colonial era.

[monmouth]

3. As I recall when POTUS was in Ireland he introduced himself as Barack Obama of the (Can't remember

the name of the town) Obamas.

[enlightenment]

5. His mother's maternal side, perhaps?

This article has a little more detail.

http://hypervocal.com/news/2012/ancestry-com-obama-john-punch/

[one_voice]

7. I will add your link to the OP...

if it's ok with you..

[enlightenment]

8. Fine with me :)

It's an interesting story. I have some doubts about the conclusion, if it is indeed just based on spelling differences. While those are rife in early records, it would take a little more to convince me that there is a connection. Certainly the family 'secret' would seem to suggest something, though!

[loyalsister]

10. According to his great uncle

Obama's "great grandfather Clark's mother was a Davis - first cousin to Jefferson Davis." How's that for poetic Justice.
It's very interesting reading the biography of Obama's mother. Her older relatives were named Christopher Columbus Clark, and Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham, George Washington Clark, Thomas Jefferson Clark, Francis Marion Clark....

Of all the families to be accused of not being patriotic enough!