The nation's first African-American president may be descended from America's first documented slave

[maindawg]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Scurrilous (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: USA Today .com

President Obama is traditionally viewed as an African-American because of his father's heritage in Kenya. However, while researching his Caucasian mother, Stanley Ann Dunham's lineage, Ancestry.com genealogists found her to have African heritage as well, which piqued the researchers' interest and inspired further digging into Obama's African-American roots.

Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/07/obama-related-to-first-american-slave/1?csp=34news

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This is from Ancestory .com as reported by the USA Today news I think this is huge. I am proud to be an American in this kind of America.

[malthaussen]

1. Hell of a pedigree. How is he at dressage?

Ancestor-worship, such a funny thing. Are we not all brothers?

-- Mal

[Confusious]

2. It's not huge

go back far enough, and we're all related whether it be a slave or royalty.

As an example:

Watching QI, it's a British quiz show. The host, Stephen Fry, says " I have excited news, someone here is related to Richard the lion hearted." Later in the show, you find out everyone is.

The reason is,

you have two parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, pretty soon you get to more people then could possibly be alive at the time.

If a generation is 20 years, and it was 1640, that would be 18 generations ago. That would be 262,144 g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-grandparents.

In 1640, there were only 26,600 (estimated) people in the colonies.

I personally have have a grandfather from that time, John Edwards, who was an indentured servant living in the south.

[Downwinder]

3. African-American heritage of United States presidents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_heritage_of_United_States_presidents

"When asked directly about Chancellor's account, Harding did not make any effort to deny that he may have had an African-American ancestor. He said he did not know and demonstrated that it was not a significant issue. "

[Moltisanti]

4. Barack is also Kevin Bacon's 15th cousin....

http://www.geni.com/path/Kevin+Norwood+Bacon+is+related+to+Barack+H+Obama+44th+President+of+the+USA?from=6000000009325127022&to=6000000010349180549

[Yeah Its Spin]

5. Ancestory .com is owned by Bain

This is Hugh

[OverseaVisitor]

6. Good Grief he is an Earthlings

Not Alien

[struggle4progress]

7. It's really rather unlikely if you think about it. The announcement comes from a commercial

genealogical company ancestry.com traded openly on the NASDAQ, so it's natural to wonder whether purely commercial motives, including a desire for a big media hit, affect their credibility. The company is based in Provo UT

You can get their analysis here: http://www.ancestry.com/obama

The ancestry.com website points us to an 1827 transcript of a 1640 trial record (original lost c. 1865, enslaving John Punch for life), a 1662 land grant for John Bunch I (apparent father of John Bunch II), and 1704 quit rent agreement for John Bunch II (from which we are supposed to conclude John Bunch III has not yet reached majority)

The press release asserts: "the surviving paper trail points solely to John Punch as the logical candidate" -- but the fact is that almost all the records are long gone

[struggle4progress]

8. Here's someone else's completely different view of the history of John Bunch I:

John Bunch, Sr. (son of Thomas Bunce and Sarah) was born 1636 in England or Scotland, and died 1700 in New Kent County, Virginia ... http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/f/i/s/Jay-D-Fisk/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0869.html

[struggle4progress]

9. The Bunch y-DNA Project

... Thus far the project has identified 1 major lineage along with 3 incipient lines -- what I will call "proto-lineages." Interestingly, all three of the proto-lineages appear to have have ties back to Kentucky or Tennessee suggesting a possible Melungeon connection, but beyond that commonality (and the shared surname), there appears to be little linking them ...

Given that the surname "Bunch" can be traced back to Britain ... it shouldn't normally be considered unusual to find Bunch y-DNA lines that fall into typical British/European haplogroups. Yet, because of the early establishment of the E1b1a (African haplogroup -- see below) Bunches in America, their extensive proliferation and their well traced paper trails, there may be a tendency to interpret other haplogrouped Bunch lines as having derived from the E1b1a's via non-parental events of one sort or another ...

Haplogroup J2
Member B-06
... It's been possible to put together a family tree for him, but since contact with his family hasn't yet been established, the details remain to be confirmed ...

Haplogroup R1b1
Member B-07
... The "solid" paper trail for this participant's patriarchs only extends as far back as a 1900 census entry for Lawrence County, Indiana ...

http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/bunch/disc

[Scurrilous]

10. Locking: Not LBN

Article dated: Jul 30, 2012