Thursday, December 2, 2010
Barack Obama is the first African-American to be elected President of the United States with his wife Michelle Robinson Obama being the first African-American to become First Lady. Before being elected President, Obama was the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African-American to head up the Harvard Law Review. Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
His parents were Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. and Stanley Ann Durham. On his father's side, Obama is descended from a line of tribal chiefs from Kenya. His father was attending the East-West Institute at the University of Hawaii as a visiting student when he met Obama's mother. After a short marriage, his father returned to Kenya and his mother remarried to Lolo Soetoro and moved to Indonesia. From his mother's second marriage, Barack Obama as a half sister, Maya Soetoro.
After living in Indonesia briefly, Obama returned to Hawaii where he was primarily raised by his grandparents on his mother's side, Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Lee Payne. On his mother's side, Obama shares a common descent from Samuel Hinckley with President George W. Bush (his 11th cousin).
Obama also shares a common descent from Philip Arment and Maria Elizabeth Schmidt with former President Lyndon Johnson *his 4th cousin). Obama also shares a common descent from Michael Gutknecht with former President Harry Truman (his 7th cousin). Obama also shares a common descent from Adriian Gordy with former President Jimmy Carter (his 8th cousin), Obama also shares a common descent from Joseph Holley with former President Gerald Ford (his 10th cousin).
Obama also shares a common descent from Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, and Elizabeth Bohun, with former Presidents Franklin Rooseelt, John Quincy Adams, james Madison, and Zachary Taylor. From this line, President Obama is descended from English Royalty.
With former presidents George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Rooseelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Woodrow Wilson, Zachary Taylor, John Tyler, and Jimmy Carter, Obama shares a common descent from King Edward I of England, King Henry III of England, King John Lackland of England, King Henry II of England, King Henry I of England, King William I of England (i.e. William "the Conqueror"0, Count Baldwin of Flanders and his daughter Matilda, Kinng Robert Capet I of France, King Louis I of France, and Charlemagne. Obama also shares a common descent with former President George Washington with Halfdan, King of Denmark and Sweden and Woden Oden.
Obama also shares a common descent through Richard Eltonhead with Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain. His earliest known ancestor in America was Robert Hudson who arrived in Jamestown in 1622 on the ship "James." His mother's ancestors eventually migrated to the midwest, with his mother being from Wichita, Kansas. For a detailed family tree of his father's side, see http://www.gencircles.com/users/kristinhopper/3/data/13052 For a detailed family tree of his mother's side, see http://www.gencircles.com/users/kristinhopper/3/data/13053