⬅ Barack Obama: Family Tree

Obama's extensive family tree has been summarized graphically SEE BELOW. His family history on his father's side is notable for intelligence, temper, and four fatal/serious motor vehicle accidents. Obama's father was killed in one of these accidents.

Obama's family tree, as outlined in 1, is presented graphically below, followed by a key to the symbols, and notes about some members of the family.

How to read the family tree:

• Squares represent men. Circles represent women.
• A horizontal line connecting a man and woman indicate they were married or produced a child.
• Some horizontal lines are interrupted; arrowheads show how they would join.
• All members of a generation are plotted at the same horizontal level. Exception: Generation II is split across two lines.
• Within each generation, numbers indicate birth order.
• Within each generation, letters indicate marriage order.
• President Obama's direct ancestors are shaded in gray.
• Persons with non-unique names are assigned a number, e.g. Auma #2.
• In generation III and IV only, a diagonal line indicates death has occurred.

Unless otherwise indicated, the information about individuals, below, comes from 1, with the page number enclosed in square brackets.

• Paternal line (not shown), preceding Onyango
• The names of 10 generations of fathers preceding Onyango are known: Miwuru - Sigoma - Owiny - Kisodhi - Ogelo - Otondi - Obongo - Okoth - Opiyu - Obama [394] and then Onyango, who appears on the family tree graphic.
• Opiyu died "very young;" he sired Obama (Onyango's father) [395]
• Obama had 4 wives and "many" children [395] (but it was probably 5 wives lifetime, as his first wife seems not to have been included in the count [395])
• Akumu
• mother of Barack #1 and Sarah [333]
• second wife of Onyango [403]
• had borne 2 children by the time Granny entered household [408]
• left Onyango, for reasons not disclosed [334], while children young
• only a few years older than Granny [408]
• Onyango
• "Even from the time that he was a boy, our grandfather Onyango was strange. it is said of him that he had ants up his anus, because he could not sit still." Serious. Never laughed. Never made jokes. [397]
• was 6'0'' tall [426]
• in 1950s (the time of the "Emergency" according to wikipedia article on KANU), spent 6 months in a detention camp, emerging thin, dirty, with difficulty walking, and lice. "I had to help him bathe for a very long time... And from that day on, I saw that he was now an old man." [418]
• almost blind in last years [424]
• even as an old man, his hearing was "very keen" [363]
• was an herbalist [397]
• learned to read and write [400]
• had a temper [403]; "age did not soften his temper." [424]
• was 5th son of his mother, who was named Nyaoke [396]
• named Hussein Onyango [333]
• grave says: Hussein Onyango Obama, 1895-1979 [376]
• "Granny"
• true name is not given
• married at 16 [405]
• face similar to Sayid's: "smooth and big-boned" [374]
• is Zeituni's mother [334]
• raised Barack #1 and Sarah [334]
• only a few years younger than Akumu [408]
• Helima
• first wife of Onyango; unable to have children [402-403]
• "Burma"
• a white woman whom Onyango "married" in Burma in World War 2 [375]
• was wife #4 of Onyango [409]
• Stanley
• tall, prematurely gray [16]
• "often-violent temper" [21]
• died of prostate cancer about the time Obama marries [440]
• his mother died of suicide [14]
• Madelyn
• "just growing out of a bad case of asthma" at age 11 or 12 [19]
• smoked cigarettes [24]
• by early 1970s had thinning hair [56]
• some Cherokee ancestry [12] [13]
• her grandparents were Scottish-English [12]
• her grandparents: "Theirs were the faces of American Gothic" [12] (In medical school, Dr. Zebra learned that this type of look was common in alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency.)
• Sarah
• described as smart and independent [334]
• "was most like her father in personality. Strict, hardworking, easy to anger." [413]
• older sister of Barack #1 [318]; firstborn [333]
• three year difference between Sarah and Barack #1 [408]
• mother is Akumu [333]; raised by Granny [334]
• Auma #1
• mentioned [412]
• Barack #1 (Father of President Obama)
• on at least one occasion, beaten with a stick by his father "until Barack's back was bleeding" [418]
• met Kezia when he was 18; brief courtship. [420]
• while waiting "several months" for his college entrance examination to be scored, "was so nervous he could barely eat." [421]
• hairless arms and chest [129], but this may have been fiction
• began to drink alcohol heavily in Kenya as his career unraveled [215]
• car accident, before Auma #2 was 12 or 13, hospitalizing him for a long time and killing the other driver; shortly after release from hospital, visited Hawaii [216] where he used a cane
• died in car accident [5], six years before Barack #2's visit to Kenya [376,429]
• three year difference between Sarah and Barack #1 [408]
• mother is Akumu [333]; raised by Granny [334]
• Omar
• left Kenya for America in early 1960s [374]
• Omar and Zeituni are Granny's first children and are younger than Barack #1. [410]
• Zeituni
• is "sister" of Barack #1 [306]
• Omar and Zeituni are Granny's first children and are younger than Barack #1. [410]
• Jane
• presumably sister of Barack #1 [5, 316, 317]
• Yusuf
• brother of Barack #1 [373]
• Sayid
• face similar to Granny's: "smooth and big-boned" [374]
• youngest brother of Barack #1 [373]
• Kezia
• was pregnant (with Auma #2, presumably) when Barack #1 went to Hawaii [422]
• mother of Abo [335]
• Ann
• legal name was "Stanley Ann"
• Lolo
• native of Indonesia
• Ruth
• is white [341]
• has a son younger than Mark, named Joey [341], presumably son of her Tanzanian [339] husband
• Unknown name
• the "last girlfried" of Barack #1 [265-266]; she was "a young woman he was living with" [218]
• Roy
• was in a car accident; is not a good driver [264]
• is oldest son of Barack #1, older than Barack #2 [266]
• common mother: Roy and Auma [212]
• born one year after Barack #1 and Kezia married [420]
• takes his African name, Abongo [441]
• Auma #2
• suggests she was a child of father's first wife [212]
• born two years after Roy [420]
• common mother: Roy and Auma [212]
• common mother: Auma, Abo, Bernard (order of children for this mother appears to be: Roy, Auma, Abo, Bernard) [213]
• Abo
• Bernard and Abo have a strong mutual resemblance [384]
• common mother: Auma, Abo, Bernard (order of children for this mother appears to be: Roy, Auma, Abo, Bernard) [213]
• mother is Kezia [335]
• Abo older than Bernard [335]
• Abo and Bernard born after/while Barack #1 married to Ruth [335]
• Bernard
• "soft snores" [379]
• Bernard and Abo have a strong mutual resemblance [384]
• paternity is not certain [335]
• Abo older than Bernard [335]
• common mother: Auma, Abo, Bernard (order of children for this mother appears to be: Roy, Auma, Abo, Bernard) [213]
• Abo and Bernard born after/while Barack #1 married to Ruth [335]
• mentioned [316. 317]
• Barack #2
• 44th President of the United States
• Maya
• child of Lolo [47]
• Mark
• common mother (Ruth): Mark and David [213]
• Mark is older than David [339]
• David
• killed in a motor cycle accident [137]; alcohol was likely involved [366]
• common mother (Ruth): Mark and David [213]
• Mark is older than David [339]