President Obama, My Cousin

One of the particularly neat things about ancestry research is recognizing when you are related to someone significant, such as the president. President Barack Hussein Obama II is my 10^th cousin once removed on my father’s side. Our common ancestor and an immigrant from England, Richard Singletary may have been married to a ‘Goodwife Singletary’ who died ca. 1638 and then to Susanna Cooke. These are President Obama’s 9^th great-grandparents and my 10^th. While President Obama descends from Richard’s oldest son Jonathan, I descend from daughter Eunice, likely the second of seven kids.

                

Richard Singletary and Susanna Cooke

Eunice Singletary m. Thomas Eaton              Jonathan Singletary Dunham m. Mary Bloomfield  

Jonathan Eaton m. Sarah Saunders               Benjamin Singletary Dunham m. Mary Rolph

James Eaton m. Rachel Kimball                      Jonathan Dunham m. Mary Smith

Enoch Eaton m. Ester Williams                       Samuel Dunham m. Hannah

Frazier Eaton m. Lucinda Blakeslee                Jacob Dunham m. Catherine Goodnight

Jesse Eaton m. Elizabeth Locke                      Jacob Mackey Dunham m. Louise Eliza Stroup

Mortimer Eaton m. Sophia Weld                    Jacob William Dunham m. Mary Ann Kearney

Mable Eaton m. George Mutch                       Ralph W.E. Dunham Sr. m. Ruth Lucille Armour

Clarence Mutch m. (G-Grandma) Bliesner     Stanley Armour Dunham m. Madelyn Lee Payne

*(Grandma) Mutch m. (Grandpa) Chapin     Ann Stanley Dunham m. Barack Hussein Obama

*(Dad) Chapin m. (Mom) Maddox                 Barack Hussein Obama II m. Michelle Robinson

*Me

You may be wondering why Jonathan Singletary Dunham has the last name Dunham when his father’s name was Richard Singletary. I will share with you the various possibilities for that and you will probably still wonder. One claim is that Jonathan’s mother was ‘Goodwife Singletary,’ that her last name was Dunham and he took the name in tribute to her. However, there is no evidence of his mother being a Dunham. His mother might even be Susanna Cooke. Another legend is that Richard Singletary was an heir of the Dunham’s in England, and a nursemaid who had been instructed to kill him as a child had instead brought him to New York where she left him with a ship captain and called him Single-tarry because he was all alone in the New World. The nurse apparently confessed on her death bed. Still one more version of events is that Jonathan had angered puritan leaders in Massachusetts and ticked off some Quakers and when he moved with his wife’s family to Woodbridge, New Jersey, he took Dunham as an alias. Based on numerous records it does appear that he generally went by Jonathan Dunham in New Jersey and Jonathan Singletary in Massachusetts. Perhaps the most interesting document is one in which Jonathan Singletary Dunham’s children granted him power of attorney over land from Richard and Susanna, and nearly the entire family signed their names, Dunham alias Singletary. Subsequent generations of Jonathan Singletary Dunham’s descendants went by Dunham.  

*As a precaution, I choose not to give full names of family who are living except the President and First Lady, because you already know who they are. Plus they have Secret Service.