HISTORY

Denise Rodham talks to the press Monday.

Genealogists Unearth Clinton-Obama Ancestral Ties

CLEVELAND, Ohio (CAP) - Genealogists working for ancestry.com thought they had dropped the ultimate bombshell when they announced that they had proof that an ancestor of Strom Thurmond had once owned Al Sharpton's great-grandfather.

Amateur genealogists sifting through their voluminous supporting files now claim to have found evidence of a historical relationship which might be even more profound.

"It was pure chance, really," said Cleveland Family Tree Association (CFTA) president Harriet Smith. "According to the ancestry.com genealogists, Reverend Sharpton's great-grandfather Coleman Sharpton was freed and went on to organize an uprising with a number of other slaves, including one Jeremiah Obama. It's certainly a familiar name these days. Historically aroused, as we say, we looked into it further."

As the CFTA dove deeper into ancestry.com's research materials and added their own to the mix, a picture began to emerge of Jeremiah Obama. A relatively new middle-aged man acquired during a slaving raid into Kenya a couple of years before, Obama was toiling in the 1850's on a small Virginian plantation. The inexperienced Obama had trouble fitting in to the slave lifestyle, and by the time he met Coleman Sharpton at a local blacksmith shop in 1854, Obama was ready for action.

Together with a number of slaves with whom he had been allying himself over the course of several months, Obama revolted against his white owners in an orgy of bloodshed that swept across the countryside. The violence resulted in the deaths of almost two dozen plantation owners and their families before authorities were able to suppress it. Among the dead, Obama's own master, Samuel Rodham.

"Well, now I'm more excited than when I found out my old babysitter might have been related to George Washington's neice's hairdresser," Smith recalled. "We reverse-historied the family lines forward to the present day, and sure enough: presidential candidate Barak Obama's great, great uncle was once owned by presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's great, great, great second cousin."

While it is unclear at this point how the news will affect the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, neither side is taking a chance by ignoring it.

"We haven't verified it ourselves yet, but would anyone be surprised?" asked Senator Obama at a campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio. "The way she's raising money she probably thinks she can buy and sell anyone."

"It's a shame that my relative didn't instill in his relative a sense that sometimes you have to go to war," Senator Clinton said in a conference call with reporters. Over the past couple of months she has been on the receiving end of growing criticism from Obama and others over her vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq. "And when I say instill, I mean beat it right the fuck into him."

The candidates aren't the only ones who have shown an interest in the CFTA's findings. Internet activist Denise Rodham has for years been claiming that not only was a relative of Obama's owned by a relative of Rodham's, but that somewhere along the line the two families had actually merged and produced offspring.

Her proof? Well, herself, primarily.

"I've long known that I am a product of Rodham on Obama action," Denise Rodham said. She pointed to both Samuel Rodham and a daughter sired by Jeremiah Obama as the most likely candidates for being her own ancestors, and she's hoping that both campaigns will submit to DNA testing and finally put to rest a quest that has consumed her for the better part of two decades.

While neither campaign has agreed to such a course of action, both now tour with Red Cross volunteers in case public support suddenly shifts in favor of DNA testing. In the meantime, Denise Rodham waits, her lineage as uncertain as her upcoming vote in next year's California Democratic Primary.