Very Interesting NYT Article tracing a different branch of Michelle Obama's family tree.

[Pirate Smile]

In First Lady’s Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery


Fraser Robinson III and his wife, Marian, with their children, Craig and Michelle, now the first lady.

WASHINGTON — In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475.
In his will, she is described simply as the “negro girl Melvinia.” After his death, she was torn away from the people and places she knew and shipped to Georgia. While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time.

In the annals of American slavery, this painful story would be utterly unremarkable, save for one reason: This union, consummated some two years before the Civil War, marked the origins of a family line that would extend from rural Georgia, to Birmingham, Ala., to Chicago and, finally, to the White House.
Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama, the first lady.

Viewed by many as a powerful symbol of black advancement, Mrs. Obama grew up with only a vague sense of her ancestry, aides and relatives said. During the presidential campaign, the family learned about one paternal great-great-grandfather, a former slave from South Carolina, but the rest of Mrs. Obama’s roots were a mystery.
Now the more complete map of Mrs. Obama’s ancestors — including the slave mother, white father and their biracial son, Dolphus T. Shields — for the first time fully connects the first African-American first lady to the history of slavery, tracing their five-generation journey from bondage to a front-row seat to the presidency.

-snip-
But as his descendants moved forward, they lost touch with the past. Today, Dolphus Shields lies in a neglected black cemetery, where patches of grass grow knee-high and many tombstones have toppled.
Mrs. Holt, a retired nursing assistant, said he came to her in a dream last month. She dug up his photograph, never guessing that she would soon learn that Dolphus Shields was a great-great-grandfather of the first lady.
“Oh my God,” said Mrs. Holt, gasping at the news. “I always looked up to him, but I would never have imagined something like this. Praise God, we’ve come a long way.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/politics/08genealogy.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[Maccagirl]

1. Wonderful story.

Isn't Michelle the spitting image of her mother?

[OhioBlue]

3. she sure is. and I agree. wonderful story. n/t

[XemaSab]

2. Already posted in GD

:P

[Pirate Smile]

4. I know. I did a search and read your thread (I'll kick it) but I didn't think it was getting enough

attention today so I posted it again. :):hi:

[XemaSab]

8. Terrific

:hi:

[pnwmom]

6. It's okay to post in more than one forum. I missed it in GD. Glad to see it here. n/t

[pnwmom]

5. What a story. Thank you. n/t

[angee_is_mad]

7. kick

and recommend.

[Pirate Smile]

9. kick

[wicket]

10. Fascinating story

And my - her mom is such a beauty - Michelle looks just like her!

[Pirate Smile]

11. Good Morning America did a story on this article. Here it is:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/lady-michelle-obamas-roots-traced-back-19th-century/story?id=8779699

If someone was only going to either read the article or watch the video, they should read the article. :)

[HopeOverFear]

13. So did the Today Show. I get the distinct feeling, though

that it's their underhanded way of saying that her husband didn't come from slaves.

I don't trust it.

[Abq_Sarah]

14. Good looking family

And yes, she strongly resembles her mother.

[Captain Hilts]

12. I love this story and Irish Central has also picked it up, but WHY won't any source

use the word 'rape'? "Impregnated?" is the NYT's term for it.

But I like how this article makes history more real.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/First-Lady-Michelle-Obama-has-Irish-roots-in-her-family-tree.html

[Retrograde]

15. Because they don't know for sure?

Given Melvinia's age it's highly possible there was coercion of some sort. OTOH, there were some consensual interracial unions. No one involved is talking, but since the children existed it is accurate to say she was impregnated: the NYT article indicates that it may have been Shields or his sons, but doesn't say definitely.