Michelle Obama 'descended from white Irish immigrants'

[joebloggs]

The First Lady's great-great-great-grandmother, a slave called Melvinia, was made pregnant in 1859 at the age of about 15 by Charles Shields, one of her owners' sons, according to a comprehensive new book.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/michelle-obama/9337179/Michelle-Obama-descended-from-white-Irish-immigrants.html

[grahamw48]

Why do people cling to what....10% of their DNA ? :rolleyes:

What is more nonsensical is calling her husband 'Black', when his mother is White.

He's 50/50...unless his mother can find a slave in her background. :NoNo:

It suited the political agenda of course.:rolleyes:

[Terpe]

Do I recall correctly, a news video clip of President Obama sinking a couple of pints of Guiness in a local pub during his visit to Ireland?
I think he was also claiming Irish ancestry.

Maybe he's interested in the EEA route too :D

[grahamw48]

He'll need 25% then, like the rest of us. :ReadIt:

[joebloggs]

Maybe he's interested in the EEA route too :D

maybe that could be an answer to the 18k6 question roots in other European countries :rolleyes:

[grahamw48]

How far can we go back...Vikings ? :D

[CBM]

There have been some studies on the DNA of various populations; one problem with using DNA as a marker is that the easy one to trace is mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited solely from the mother; thus where a bunch of murdering rapists arrive, kill the men and rape the women, as may have happened more than once in British history, with the Saxons and then the Vikings, they leave no trace on the mitochondrial DNA.

One interesting bit of research concerns Madagascar; the island was settled not by Africans but by Malayo-Polynesians, it seems that one ship, quite possibly carrying an export cargo of female slaves, drifted across the Indian Ocean and made Madagascar; the exact number of women on the ship can be established from mitochondrial DNA.

On the basis of linguistic markers, Jared Diamond suggests that all the Malayo-Polynesians, from Easter Island to Madagascar via Java Malaysia and the Philippines, originated from Taiwan, via the Philippines.

[CBM]

Why do people cling to what....10% of their DNA ? :rolleyes:

What is more nonsensical is calling her husband 'Black', when his mother is White.

He's 50/50...unless his mother can find a slave in her background. :NoNo:

It suited the political agenda of course.:rolleyes:

Yes, its all to do with votes. Actually MOST US Presidents can claim descent from Protestant Irish settlers. Fewer descend from Catholic Irish immigrants but it suits everyone to muddle this up!

[Dedworth]

I'm surprised such a daft story was printed in the Telegraph - I wonder if I have any of the travelling fraternity in me from 10 generations back - my Great Grandfather was a Customs & Excise Officer in Dublin so thats getting a bit closer

[grahamw48]

Oh Dedworth I thought we must be related ! :D

[Dedworth]

Oh Dedworth I thought we must be related ! :D

That accounts for why we both frequent the Pikey shelf in Tesco :D

[Iani]

From what I understand, the slave owners classified anyone with black parentage, even if not 100%, as "black", therefore Obama calling himself black, is only following a precedent.

Same could be said of Halle Berry, who despite her occasional whinges is clearly not black.

Maybe this is more an American thing though. I'd say a huge proportion of the UK has Irish ancestry in them, but you don't see many painting themselves green on St Paddys day. Contrast this with America :NoNo:

[grahamw48]

That accounts for why we both frequent the Pikey shelf in Tesco :D

Yeah but we pay. :rolleyes: