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Susan Walsh / AP file
President Barack Obama walks from Marine One after returning to the White House on the South Lawn in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2012.
CHICAGO -- A family history website claims it has linked President Barack Obama to the first documented African slave in the American colonies.
Research by Ancestry.com from early Virginia records and DNA analysis shows Obama is the 11th great-grandson of John Punch, an indentured servant in Colonial Virginia who became enslaved for life after trying to escape in 1640, according to the website.
The findings were released about 100 days out from the presidential election. Obama's campaign headquarters are based in Chicago.
"Remarkably, the connection was made through President Obama's Caucasian mother's side of the family," the site said in a statement.
View NBCChicago.com's story on Ancestry.com claims
Ancestry.com genealogists researched Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and discovered her land-owner ancestors descended from Punch. According to the site, Punch had children with a white woman who passed her free status to her children, who went on to become successful land owners in Colonial Virginia.
"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 statement. "John 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."
Ancestry.com called on a past Board for Certification of Genealogists president to perform a third-party review of the research.
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"A careful consideration of the evidence convinces me that the Y-DNA evidence of African origin is indisputable," said Elizabeth Shown Mills in a statement, "and the surviving paper trail points solely to John Punch as the logical candidate."
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Leave a Comment:
Was that on his Irish side?
Who cares.........
This is such bullsh!t. His mom is white, his dad was a scumbag drunk from Africa. Anyone that believes this needs their head examined.
And both his parents hated America, and what it stood for. And that was how he was raised.
He looks like a slave; she was born in Kenya.
Funny, the way I heard it Obama and Feisty were 1st cousins....
How about we stop wasting space with this drivel and focus on things that really matter like job creation, reducing unemployment, cutting the defecit in a MEANINGFUL way, following the Rule of Law, etc.
So Obama's white mother is a descendant from slaves? Puts a whole new twist on demands for compensation for injustices done to distant ancestors, doesn't it?
WoW. Hot on the trail. If they find a real birth certificate and even mabye some college transcrips, let us know.
That is nothing , if you trace obama your welfare momma himself back to his roots in chicago you will find he is tied to a band of gypsys and thieves , and he was the ring leader, those were his ebonics days , now he speaks and reads gibberish
What absolute twaddle!
Horse Pucky!!
The media can figure Obama is related to the first slave , but they can`t put a finger on why the justice department sells guns to Mexican drug lords... NBC is awesome !
Seriously this is b.s. The odds of finding exact and correct records dating so far back is nearly impossible.
Imagine dat. Hussein be my long lost cousin. He cuz, whats up, dude?
Oh PLEASE............. Give me a break. I find it hard to believe that the first African slave to the United States had sex with a white woman. Come on, think about it people!! If Barak Obummer is related to the first slave to America, than he has to be my uncle. I can't wait until this moron we have to call our president is gone!!!! Heck, he'll probably right another book about the "dreams of my great grandfather X11". Im sure he probably will come up with some first hand accounts of his life in the 1600's as well!! What a disgrace!!!!!!!!!!
The fact is that most "white" Americans whose families have been in the US for a few generations have some African blood in their veins. There was just too much mixing early on - and too much "passing" later - for there to be any other mathematical possibility.
More Lies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I must be related to Obama too. He treats me just as crappy as he treats his brother and aunt. His partisan socialist ajenda disagrees with everything I stand for.
We would all be surprised at what our DNA tells us about our ancestors. There is not one race of people that is "pure". We are all a mixture of various races and we cannot deny the blood that runs through our veins. The recent finding traces the President's lineage back centuries in this country. How can he then not be called an "American"?
Really????? And so is every other African-American.
This B.S. artist is one of everything according the "Honest to Gosh Truth Media", wink wink.
He has not said the truth so farf...why take his word on anything
I call bu!!sh!t on this.
That is like saying "Every person who drinks orange juice will die". A stupid statement. Yea, it is election year and he is grasping at straws. Maybe he slept in a manjer as well
So this is from his white mothers side?
Once you go black, you never go back? damn, that was in 1620.
Please, please, just stop. I can't take it anymore. I'll tell you what, I'll make you all a deal. If we give him another four years in the White House, another Nobel Peace Prize, get the Catholic Church to make him a saint in January, then have him ascend to heaven on a cloud in 2016 where we can worship him forever, will you just leave us alone to let us humans work out our own problems? I just really can't take it anymore; it's too much. Please?
You all realize he's just a guy, right? Just a man like the rest of us. Even with all of the dazzling stuff he's performed over the past four years with his magic wand, he's really just one of us.
I mean really....
100 days before the election and Obama is now traced to the first slave. Not the 87th, or 1257th, but the FIRST. AND, thru his white mother. I'd call BS on that, but then I'd be labeled a racist. Sounds to me anyway like the NY girlfriend in his auto-biography. At leaset he has admitted that story was made up...