Connection found on the president’s mother’s side
We interrupt this election cycle of seemingly endless “birther” silliness with some serious research about the president’s ancestry.
From an Ancestry.com press release:
A research team from Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, has concluded that President Barack Obama is the 11thgreat-grandson of John Punch, the first documented African enslaved for life in American history. Remarkably, the connection was made through President Obama’s Caucasian mother’s side of the family.
The discovery is the result of years of research by Ancestry.com genealogists who, through early Virginia records and DNA analysis, linked Obama to John Punch. An indentured servant in Colonial Virginia, Punch was punished for trying to escape his servitude in 1640 by being enslaved for life. This marked the first actual documented case of slavery for life in the colonies, occurring decades before initial slavery laws were enacted in Virginia.
The New York Times has more details here.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is said to be reserving judgment until he sees Punch’s long-form birth certificate.
