From slave roots to the White House-Michelle Obama family journey

Michelle Obama's family tree has slave branches on both her mother and father's side. One of her distant relatives was listed as a piece of her master's property in his will at the age of six-years-old . Her value was $475.

6-year-old slave Melvinia Shields of South Carolina was mentioned as a piece of property in her master's will and sold later for $475. In 1852 Melvinia was owned by David Patterson, a South Carolina plantation owner. She was one of 22 slaves mentioned in Patterson's will. It is believed Melvina had children with a Irish-American man with the surname of Shields in the mid-to-late 1800's. Shields was the son-in-law of Patterson. Melvinia is Obama's great-great-great-grandmother. The father of her son Dolphus Shields is not known. Shields or one of his four sons aged 19 to 24 could have been the father of Melvinia's eldest son Dolphus. The Daily Mail reports:

No one should be surprised anymore to hear about the number of rapes and the amount of sexual exploitation that took place under slavery,' said law professor Jason Gillmer.

Melvinia continued to be a farm labourer after slavery was abolished. She lived in a farm in Georgia. Dolphus was born when Melvinia was 15-years-old in 1859. He is said to have been light skinned, so much so that many thought he was a white man. He was in the first generation of free blacks in the United States. He lived as a carpenter in Birmingham, Alabama. By 1911 he owned his own carpentry business and was the father of two sons. Dolphus' son Robert Lee Shield was the great grandfather of Obama. He worked on the railroad as a labourer. He married Annie Lawson in 1906. In 1929 their son Purnell married Rebecca Jumper. Their daughter Marian is mother to Michelle Obama. It's impossible to find relatives past Melvinia who died in 1938. Under the space asking for parents on her death certificate is "don't know." Melvinia was 90 years old at the time of her death. On Michelle Obama's father side the family tree can be traced to a plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina. The research into Michelle Obama's roots was carried out by the New York Times using Genealogist Megan Smolenyak's talent.