The First Family: A New Glimpse of Michelle Obama’s White AncestorsPosted in Articles, History, Media Archive, Slavery, United States, Women on 2012-06-26 01:00Z by Steven |
The First Family: A New Glimpse of Michelle Obama’s White Ancestors
The New York Times
2016-06-22
Rachel L. Swarns, Correspondent
New York Times
We knew that the Sunday article about Mrs. Obama’s white ancestors would stir considerable interest so we decided to invite readers to pose questions and make comments. We never imagined that one of those readers would provide us with the first glimpse of two key figures in the first lady’s family tree: The white man who owned Mrs. Obama’s great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia Shields, and his son, who most likely fathered Melvinia’s child.
The photograph of those two men and their relatives, which is believed to have been taken in Georgia sometime around 1884, is being published here for the first time.
The slaveowner was Henry Wells Shields, who inherited Melvinia when his father-in-law died in 1852. DNA testing and research indicate that he and his wife, Christian Patterson Shields, are the first lady’s great-great-great-great grandparents…
Read the entire article here.