Jack & Jill Politics

Son of presidents, thieves and tribal chiefs
In a five-page special report, Sun-Times Political Editor Scott Fornek reveals Barack Obama’s remarkably far-flung family tree

September 9, 2007
BY SCOTT FORNEK sfornek@suntimes.com

One of his ancestors accused a fellow New England colonist of witchcraft and later stole from the governor’s house.

Another had two brothers killed by American Indians, who scalped one brother and kidnapped the other’s daughter.

White House hopeful Barack Obama already has presidential timber in his family tree: He is distantly related to three U.S. presidents.

Still another ancestor was said to have been slain by pirates. Yet another lost a son in the Civil War to pro-slavery bushwackers who torched the man’s home and threw burning coals on his infant daughter.

And, four centuries ago, his great- great-great-great-great-great- great-great-grandfather was a respected warrior and leader in eastern Africa.

It would take an orchard to contain all of Sen. Barack Obama’s diverse ancestral branches.

Obama — who has seven half-brothers and half-sisters spread across more than 10,000 miles — has ancestors who were born in Kenya, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, the Sun-Times found in an exhaustive look at the South Side Democratic presidential hopeful’s family history.

Obama’s heritage is a key part of his public persona. He explored his ancestry in his memoir, Dreams From My Father, asking: “What is a family? Is it just a genetic chain, parents and offspring, people like me?”

And when he introduced himself to the nation in his 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote speech, Obama said he was “grateful for the diversity of my heritage.”

“I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth is my story even possible,” he told a packed convention hall in Boston.

Our research began with Obama’s own writings and genealogical work already done by William Addams Reitwiesner and other researchers. Then, we pored over documents on Ancestry.com and from other sources and interviewed descendants, historians and genealogists.

Like many Americans with deep roots in this country, Obama has ancestors who were slave owners. But unlike many African Americans, he is not known to have any who were slaves.