In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475.
In his will, she is described simply as the “negro girl Melvinia.” After his death, she was shipped to Georgia. While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time. Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama, the first lady.
In his will, she is described simply as the “negro girl Melvinia.” After his death, she was shipped to Georgia. While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time. Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama, the first lady.
During the presidential campaign, the family learned about one paternal great-great-grandfather, a former slave from South Carolina, but the rest of Mrs. Obama’s roots remained a mystery.
The newly discovered story of Mrs. Obama’s maternal ancestors for the first time fully connects the first African-American first lady to the history of slavery. The findings, uncovered by Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist, and The New York Times, substantiate what Mrs. Obama has called longstanding family rumors about a white forbear.
You can read more about this story in the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/politics/08genealogy.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1an and you can also watch a video slide show featuring Megan Smolenyak who provides a LOT more information on Roots Television at http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_africanroots3.php?bctid=35742160001&bclid=4865138001. The video includes details about Michelle's Native and Irish heritage, free and enslaved ancestors, 10 states that claim a piece of Michelle's past, and which relative invented a marble shooter.
