Line from Slavery to the White House

Genealogist Who Traced Michelle Obama's Roots Shares Details on First Lady's Family Tree

(CBS)  First lady Michelle Obama's family tree, on both sides, leads to roots in slavery.

Though it was previously well-known that Michelle's roots on her father's side led to slavery, less was known about her mother's lineage.

However, an article in The New York Times Thursday, "In First Lady's Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery" traces Michelle's family tree back to the plantations on her mother's side, as well.

On "The Early Show", Megan Smolenyak, the genealogist who compiled the research for the report, shared some of the lesser-known details of Obama's family lines.

Smolenyak said she was drawn to one person in Obama's family tree: her great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia, a slave who was documented to be worth $475 in one plantation owner's will.

"She was just fascinating," Smolenyak said. " ... I found where she's first mentioned. ... She's only six years old, and in that document, her first owner, David Patterson, is leaving her to his wife when he passes away."

Smolenyak followed Melvinia's life. She found that, when Melvinia's owner died two years after the will was written, she was shipped against her will to a smaller Georgia plantation owned by the Shields family, which Patterson's daughter had married into.

Smolenyak said Melvinia had four children while with the Shields family. In a census document, some of the children were listed as "mulatto" or of mixed race, Smolenyak said. This could indicate, Smolenyak said, one of the white members of the Shields family was the father of Melvinia's children, meaning Melvinia and an unknown white man are the great-great-great grandparents of Michelle Obama.

"The first good guess would be somebody from the Shields family, but we don't know that," Smolenyak said.

Another of Michelle's forebears became a property and business owner in Birmingham by 1900 -- Melvinia's son, Dalphus T. Shields.

"(He) opened his own carpentry shop, owned his own home by 1900, which back then, put in context, very few people owned their own homes," Smolenyak said.

"Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith pointed out that, on the day Dalphus died, in the early 1950s, his funeral notice was listed on the front page of the black Birmingham newspaper on the same day the Jim Crow laws were outlawed by the Supreme Court.

"(It's) astonishing," Smolenyak said. "He was born into slavery, he lives long enough to see the baby steps of desegregation, and a descendant of his would wind up in the White House."

Dalphus was Michelle's great-great grandfather.

As for researching your own history, and particularly for African-Americans, Smolenyak said you have to be prepared for what you find.

"It's different to different people," she said. "It is jarring if your ancestors show up as a piece of property, so that's something you have to prepare yourself for, but most people just want to find the truth."

[Alvel_44]

My Dutch grandmother was adopted by a Mexican family after her family was wiped out by cholera in Sherman, Texas in the late 1800's. We found the adoption papers on a recent trip to Sherman and they were written up as if she was property. Her adoptive family later moved to Oklahoma where later she met my cowboy grandfather that drove cattle from Texas to sell to the Army at Ft. Sill. I remember he as a wonderful frontier lady that had so many great stories to tell about her life in the American West. However, it breaks my heart to see the lack of tolerance and still so much bigotry in this country we like to consider the "land of the free and home of the brave." It is no wonder to me that the so many around the world consider us hypocritical.

[triket63]

Thanks for your insight and you are sooo right!

[Iamthemango]

Michelle Obama has been searching for something to be proud about in America. Maybe now she can be "proud" that her ancestors were white.

[triket63]

That is a cruel comment! What are you proud of? Let me guess..being an American. And where did your ancestors come from? or don't you care?

[patty101558]

I find it odd that with the US finanical issues right now why are we focusing on where she came from ....Many Many black individuals family members were Slaves and did well for themselves and their familes....and far as a race is concerned find one that has not been mixed with a race of another race.....would not be easy if it can be found.....oh by the way the queen has many things flowing though her blood....................

[endurorob_5]

Queen Latifa?

[jaxs238]

Who really cares? she hasn't accomplished anything worthy of my attention....only 3.5 years left and they will be gone..thank God

[cs4466]

LOL. I bet the white slaver south is just grinding their teeth over this one. Err. Dentures.

[endurorob_5]

There are no more slavers in the south. Why do you find it necessary to take a good story like this and use it to preach your bigotry.