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

[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