Family Tree

Barack Obama’s official White House photo, taken by Pete Souza.

Jonathan Dunham is connected to former President Barack Obama through a direct line of Dunhams, ending with Obama’s mother. Here’s the link.

8th great-grandfather: Jonathan Singletary alias Dunham
(born  17 Jan. 1639/40 in Newbury, MA; died c. 1704 in Woodbridge, NJ. (Many sources put his year of death as 1724.)

7th great-grandfather: Benjamin Dunham
(born 22 Aug. 1681 in  Woodbridge, NJ; died 31 Dec. 1715 in Woodbridge, NJ)

6th great-grandfather: Jonathan Dunham
(born 7 Jan. 1709 in  Woodbridge, NJ; died 21 Sept. 1748 in Woodbridge, NJ)

5th great-grandfather: Samuel Dunham
(born 11 May 1742 in Woodbridge, NJ; died 18 Feb. 1824 in Berkeley County, VA [now WV])

4th great-grandfather: Jacob Dunham
(born 1 June 1795 in Berkeley County, VA [now WV]; died 20 July 1865 in Tipton County, IN)

3rd great-grandfather: Jacob Mackey Dunham
(born 7 May 1824 in Berkeley County, VA [now WV];
died 12 June 1907 in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma Territory)

2nd great-grandfather: Jacob William Dunham
(born 7 Feb. 1863 in Berkeley County, VA [now WV]; died 13 Aug. 1930 in Wichita, KS)

Great-grandfather: Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Sr.
(born 24 Dec. 1894 in Argonia, KS; died 4 Oct. 1970 in Wichita, KS)

Grandfather: Stanley Armour Dunham
(born 23 March 1918 in Wichita, KS; died 8 Feb. 1992 in Honolulu, HI)

Mother: Stanley Ann Dunham
(born 29 Nov. 1942 in Wichita, KS; died 7 Nov. 1995 in Honolulu, HI)

Barack Hussein Obama
(born 4 Aug. 1961 in Honolulu, HI)

This line of descendants is derived from a family tree compiled by William Addams Reitwiesner, an American genealogist who traced the ancestry of U.S. political figures and other notable people. While Reitwiesner died in November 2010, his work on Obama’s ancestors is available at archive.org. Other Obama family trees are posted at FamousKin, ThoughtCoWikiTree  and elsewhere.

Family-tree information for Obama is also found in “Ancestors of American Presidents,” by Gary Boyd Roberts. The tree appears in the 2009 version of the book, as well as a corrected 2012 reprint.

The first generation of the family tree linking Dunham to Obama — Dunham and Mary Bloomfield’s 10 children — is shown below. Details are based on an analysis of multiple Dunham/Singletary family trees in books and online.

Esther: Born c. 1659 in Haverhill, MA. Died Aug. 14, 1690, in Woodbridge, NJ.

Mary: Born Dec. 29, 1661 in Haverhill. Died before 1664 in Haverhill.

Mary (possibly Sarah Mary): Born Feb. 3, 1663 in Haverhill. Died after 1707 in Woodbridge.

Ruth: Born 1666 in Killingworth, CT. Died 1750 in unknown location.

Eunice: Born 1668 in Killingworth, CT. Died Dec. 5, 1684, in Woodbridge.

Jonathan: Born Sept. 24, 1672, in Woodbridge. Died Sept. 6, 1706, in Woodbridge.

David: Born March 10, 1674, in Woodbridge. Died 1753 in unknown location.

Nathaniel: Born Feb. 8, 1677, in Woodbridge. Died May 14, 1678, in Woodbridge.

Nathaniel: Born April 10, 1679, in Woodbridge. Died 1727 in unknown location.

Benjamin: Born Aug. 22, 1681, in Woodbridge. Died Dec, 31, 1715, in Woodbridge.