Meet Your Cousin, the First Lady: A Family Story, Long Hidden

[Blue_Tires]

REX, Ga. — Joan Tribble held tightly to her cane as she ventured into the overgrown cemetery where her people were buried. There lay the pioneers who once populated north Georgia’s rugged frontier, where striving white men planted corn and cotton, fought for the Confederacy and owned slaves.

Sherry George, a member of the Shields family, has struggled with the discovery that Michelle Obama is a descendant of a slave owned by the Shieldses. More Photos »

The settlers interred here were mostly forgotten over the decades as their progeny scattered across the South, embracing unassuming lives. But one line of her family took another path, heading north on a tumultuous, winding journey that ultimately led to the White House.

The white men and women buried here are the forebears of Mrs. Tribble, a retired bookkeeper who delights in her two grandchildren and her Sunday church mornings. They are also ancestors of Michelle Obama, the first lady.

The discovery of this unexpected family tie between the nation’s most prominent black woman and a white, silver-haired grandmother from the Atlanta suburbs underscores the entangled histories and racial intermingling that continue to bind countless American families more than 140 years after the Civil War.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/us/dna-gives-new-insights-into-michelle-obamas-roots.html?src=me&ref=general

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I read this yesterday

It's well - kind of neat when you find those connections. Years ago - fresh out of University I was hired by a snowmaking company. My last name got me in the door (i.e. Father's family). One, it was unusual in the area and two, it was the name of an employee (Regional Sales Manager) out in Utah. We met a month after I was working and were at the NY Ski Area Assoc annual meeting - and we put two and two together. Daddy My Last name (that's what they called him - much older man) and Baby My Last Name (I was as much of a little 'old man' pain in the ass even though I was young woman as he was :roll - were 'connected'.

We had a had a family reunion of sorts in 1997 down in Talladega Alabama. It was interesting to see how the abolitionist and anti-war branch of that family (my co-worker) interacted with those who stood in the South.

Ironically - 4 months later - after we met - we would be at the Western Areas Ski Association show in Lake Tahoe and they (my employers) would learn it was my MOTHER'S father that should have gotten me in the door. He was a legend in the ski business due to the innovations he pushed - like snow making! And I never said a word until the elderly father of Hunter Mountain threw me under the bus. He had been very good friends with my maternal grandfather.

Just when you think nepotism and legacy lets you in the door in one way - that door slams shut and another opens.

[goclark]

2. I have a Post in GD

about the First Lady and her new cousin, one of my replies to another poster was this -----

My grandfather had blue eyes


and straight brown hair.

Let's just use my family as an example of what African Americans look like and why Michelle's family is not unique.

My dear grandfather always had to tell people that he was "proud to be a Colored Man."

His brothers and sisters all looked the same way.

I have pictures of his parents - his mother was from Virginia and her grandmother was from England. She looked White.

His father was from Maryland, he looked White too.
Can't prove it yet but in the town that his parents came from there were two families with the same odd name ---- One White and Rich in 1860 and one '
"Negro" and poor. Can't prove it yet but I believe there were some connections with the two families. Many shared the same first names. Somewhere along the way, the slaves probably mingled with the Owners.

My grandfather was a Butler for a wonderful White man named Mr. Brown.

Mr. Brown was much darker than my grandfather.

My grandmother was a lovely shade of Brown.

Her son was brown and my mother was what we as African Americans would call "High Yellow." My Dad was Brown with straight Black hair.

And then there is " Little Brown Me" probably a tiny bit lighter than Michelle Obama

[Major Hogwash]

3. When President Barack Obama is re-elected President of the United States,

He will be the President residing in the White House when the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War occurs in 2015.