Barack Obama's Family

Barack Obama's Family

Barack Obama has been fondly referred to as a “one-man melting pot.” With the branches of his family tree extending as far as Kenya and Indonesia, it is easy to see why.

Maternal Grandparents

In his book Dreams from my Father, Obama described his great-grandmother Leona McCurry in his mother’s side to have pure Cherokee blood. Up to the present, however, no evidence has surfaced confirming this claim.

Barack’s distant cousin, Gabriel Duvall, was a member of the US House of Representatives then later become a Supreme Court judge from 1811 to 1834. Duvall had 37 slaves.

His great-great-great grandparents, Louisa Eliza Stroup Dunham and Jacob Mackey Dunham, were farmers from Indiana who later established restaurants and a confectionary in the Oklahoma Territory.

Barack’s grandparents, Madelyne Lee Dunham and Stanley Armour Dunham, were from Kansas. They later moved to Hawaii in search for a better life. Born in 1922, Madelyne Lee Payne Dunham served as vice-president of a bank in Hawaii. She died on November 2, 2008. Meanwhile, Barack’s Obama grandfather Stanley Armour Dunham (1918-1992) was a US army sergeant and later took a job as a furniture salesman in Hawaii.

Barack’s mother

Barack Obama was born to Stanly Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. Ann Dunham was a student at the University of Hawaii when she met Obama Sr., a scholar from Kenya. Ann was 18 and Barack Sr was 25 when they married in on February 2, 1961. 6 months later, Barack Obama Jr was born.

In 1963, Barack Sr won a scholarship to Harvard for a graduate study. The relationship between Ann and his husband deteriorated. In 1964, Ann filed for a divorce and, shortly thereafter, started dating Lolo Soetero, an international student from Indonesia. In 1967, Ann and Lolo wedded in Hawaii, then moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, Soetero’s hometown. In 1970, Ann and Lolo produced a daughter they named Maya. In 1980, Ann filed a divorce from Lolo Soetero.

Barack Jr’s half-sister Maya Sotero is now married to Konrad Ng, a Canadian of Malaysian-Chinese immigrant parents from Kudat and Sandakan, Malaysia. Maya Soetero-Ng is a professor at the University of Hawaii while Konrad Ng is an assistant professor at the same university. The couple has a daughter named Suhaila.

Barack’s father

Barack Obama was named after his father, Barack Obama Sr (1936-1982), son of Hussein Onyango Obama (1895-1979) and Habiba Akumu Obama (Onyango’s second wife). In 1959, he won a scholarship which allowed him to get Western education. At 23, he left behind his first wife Kezia Obama and their baby son in Kenya to pursue a degree in mathematics and economics at the University of Hawaii.

In 1963, he won a scholarship to Harvard. After completing his PhD in economics in 1965, he returned to Kenya with his new wife Ruth Nidesand, an American.

With his first and third wives, Barack Obama has 6 half-brothers and 2 half-sisters. Barack Obama Jr’s half brothers are: Bernard Obama, Malik Obama, Abo Obama, Mark Ndesanjo, David Ndesanjo, and George Hussein Onyango Obama. Barack’s half sisters are: Auma Obama and Zeituni Onyango.

The First Family

In 1988, Barack Obama Jr met Michelle Robinson when he was working as an intern at a Chicago law firm. The two started dating and eventually married on October 10, 1992. Born in 1964, Michelle Robinson is also a product of Harvard Law School. She had also served as vice-president of the University of Chicago Hospital. The First Couple has two daughters: Malia and Sasha. The both attend the exclusive Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC.