US First Lady Michelle Obama's family tree highlights the complicated racial intermingling in the bloodlines of many African-Americans. CNN's anchor Wolf Blitzer. on the show The Situation Room spoke about how research shows the first lady, Michelle Obama, is the direct descendant of a slave and a white ancestor.
Blitzer also said that the research and reporting is courtesy of The New York Times.
Michelle Obama lives in the White House partly built by slaves. This family tree begins with a six-year-old slave girl named Melvinia in South Carolina. Upon her master's death, she was shipped to her -- his relatives in Georgia. Her value? Four-hundred seventy- five dollars.
When she was about 15 years old, an unknown white man impregnated her. Her first son was named Dolphus Shields, the last name for the plantation master. Dolphus later married and became a successful carpenter and businessman in Birmingham, Alabama.
Among his children, Robert Shields. That son married and fathered Purnell Shields. Later, the family moved to Chicago. Once Purnell came of age, he married and fathered Marian Shields. Marian Shields (the mother-in-law of Barack Obama), she now lives in the White House, along with the child she gave birth to (Michelle Obama). Michelle was born to Marian Shields and her husband, the late Fraser Robinson back in 1964. That would be Michelle Robinson.
Of course, Michelle later became Mrs Barack, or rather Mrs Barack Obama, Michelle Obama. She became the first African-American first lady of the United States.
Rachel Swarns co-wrote the piece on the first lady's family tree in the New York Times.
Swarns spoke to Blitzer about why she decided to do it.
"Well, you know, we had worked with a genealogist in January who did a little research on Mrs Obama's family. And, unbeknownst to us, she spent the next six months digging and digging and digging, and gave us a call in September and said, You won't believe what I found. And we all got to work.
Wolf Blitzer: What did she find?
Rachel Swarns: The most interesting thing that she found was the first link to a white ancestor in Mrs Obama's family.
Wolf Blitzer: And, and we don't know who that ancestor is?
Rachel Swarns: We don't know who that is. We...
Wolf Blitzer: There are some hints.
Rachel Swarns: We -- there are some ideas. We can speculate.
Melvinia, the slave girl, lived on a farm that was owned by Henry Shields. He was in his 40s when her son was born. He had four sons who might have been of age. But, you know, we don't know who was passing through, who was visiting.
All we know is that in 1870, after emancipation, Melvinia is listed with a 9-year-old boy, Dolphus, who is described as mulatto in the census.
Wolf Blitzer: And that's the - the great, great grandfather of Michelle Obama?
Rachel Swarns: That's right.
Wolf Blitzer: Did the first family, did Mrs. Obama know you were doing all of this over these past several months?
Rachel Swarns: She did know that we were working on this. We updated her office frequently. We were very hopeful that we might get an interview, and we didn't in the end.
Wolf Blitzer: Was there any cooperation from her or other relatives about her family background?
Rachel Swarns: No. They decided it was a subject that was too personal, though we did get word today from the president's spokesman that she read the piece and she did not know this information. She said - at least Gibbs (ph) said that she enjoyed reading the piece.
Wolf Blitzer: She knew there were some slaves in her ancestry because the president publicly has spoken about that.
Rachel Swarns: That's right. And she also knew that there were long- standing rumors of a white ancestor, but they didn't know who or when or where.
Wolf Blitzer: So the information that you and your colleagues at The New York Times put together, some of that information was new to the - the First Lady and her family?
Rachel Swarns: That's right. The details. The details.
Wolf Blitzer: Did anybody on her staff give you a reaction? Was she happy to know this? Was she unhappy to know it? Did you get any sense of how she felt when she read The New York Times ?
Rachel Swarns: As I said, the president's spokesman today said that she enjoyed reading the piece and that she learned some things that she didn't know about her family.
Wolf Blitzer: Because we know a great deal about the president's family because he's written two books, basically, about all of that, less about the First Lady of the United States, and now, thanks to you and your colleagues, we're beginning to know more. It's by no means an unusual story, her background, given the nature of our country.
Rachel Swarns: That's right, and, in fact, there's a lot of attention paid to the president's background. He's biracial and there's been a lot of focus on that. But Mrs. Obama's background, this kind of racial intermingling is very, very common in many African-American families.
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