DNA TESTING REVEALS MICHELLE OBAMA'S WHITE ANCESTRY AND LEADS TO FAMILY REUNION IN GEORGIA

MICHELLE OBAMA

First Lady Michelle Obama always suspected that she had white ancestors. But she had no idea who they were. With DNA testing and research, that mystery was solved and finally the identity of the white forbears who had remained hidden in her family tree for more than a century were revealed.

Mrs. Obama’s white ancestors belonged to the white Shields family that had owned her great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia Shields. So several descendants of the black and white Shields were persuaded to do DNA testing.

The results showed that the two families were related. The DNA testing indicated that Melvinia’s owner’s son was the likely father of Melvinia’s biracial child, Dolphus Shields. (Dolphus Shields is the first lady’s great-great grandfather.)

This was painful news for many of the Shields descendants. They knew that Melvinia might have been raped and that their kinship originated during slavery, one of the darkest chapters of our history.

But last month, members of both sides of the family – black and white — put aside the pain of the past. They got together for the very first time in Rex, Georgia at a ceremony to commemorate Melvinia’s life. They swapped family stories, posed for photographs, exchanged phone numbers and had a meal together.



David Applin, who is Melvinia’s great-grandson, said the reunion was “wonderful.” And Jarrod Shields, who is the great-great-great grandson of Melvinia’s owner, described it as a day “my family will never forget.”