In genealogy research, you never quite know where a perfectly ordinary internet search is going to take you. I certainly wasn’t looking for Presidents the day I Googled the name of my 6X great grandfather, Samuel Dunham (1742-1824). I was simply doing what genealogists do – looking for anything I could find about another long-dead relative.

Then President Barack Obama showed up.

I had already traced my maternal line backward through the Watson family. My great grandmother, Mollie Glenn (Powers, Luttrell) Ryan’s mother was Sarah Jane “Jennie” (Watson) Powers (1862-1908). Following the Watson line eventually took me back to my 5X great grandfather, William Watson (1776-1853), whose wife was Hannah Arminta “Minty” Dunham (1778-1858). Hannah’s father was Samuel Dunham (1742-1824).

I then began searching for Samuel Dunham. One of the first things that popped up was the Jonathan Dunham House website https://jonathandunhamhouse.org/familytree/ which documents Barack Obama’s maternal Dunham ancestry. As I started reading, I had one of those genealogy moments when you stop and stare at the screen.

Wait. Samuel Dunham, my 6X great grandfather is also Barack Obama’s 5X great grandfather?

Samuel Dunham and his wife, Hannah Ruble were the parents of my 5X great grandmother, Hannah Arminta ‘Minty” Dunham, born in 1778. Sixteen years later they had another child named Jacob Dunham. Hannah is my direct line ancestor; her younger brother Jacob became Barack Obama’s 4X great grandfather.

My connection to Hannah comes with a wonderful piece of documentation. On December 15, 1797, she married William Watson in Berkeley County, Virginia – present day West Virginia. The surviving marriage bond names Samuel Dunham as surety. William did not sign his own name, instead making his ‘mark’ on the document while Samuel signed alongside him. A Berkeley County marriage index also records the marriage of ‘Wm. Watson’ and ‘Hannah Dunham’ on December 15, and again names Samuel Dunham as surety.

From there, Hannah and William’s descendants eventually lead to me. Jacob Dunham’s descendants went another direction, eventually leading through the Dunham line to Stanley Ann Dunham and her son, Barack Obama. The Jonathon Dunham House, which documents Obama’s maternal Dunham ancestry, traces that same line through Samuel and Jacob Dunham.

The result? According to the relationship calculator between our two documented branches, Barack Obama is my sixth cousin, once removed.

I’ll be honest. This unexpected discovery has been my very best to date. Unfortunately, I’m still waiting for that family dinner invitation.

Four generations. Woman standing is my great grandmother, Mollie Glenn (Powers, Luttrell) Ryan. Mollie is the daughter of Sarah Jane “Jennie” (Watson) Powers. Seated is Mollie’s father, William Warren Powers (husband of Jennie Watson). Standing is my maternal grandfather, Norris Luttrell. The young girl is my aunt Barbara (Luttrell) Nafziger born in 1932.