Utah genealogy firm digs up Obama's German roots

As President Barack Obama meets with German leaders Friday in Dresden, he may be walking among distant relatives. Provo-based Ancestry.com has found that Obama's lineage -- on his mother's side -- can be traced to Germany.

Using online sources and microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, genealogists hunted down a document that went as far back as Obama's eighth great-grandfather.

"One of the things that I love about this find is it really illustrates what you can find out about your family history," said Anastasia Tyler, lead genealogist on the project. "World history is our history. It's a personal thing. The decisions of your ancestors shape who you are and where you are."

Obama's mother was a white woman born in Kansas, and his father was Kenyan. Ancestry.com has pursued his lineage through his mother's side and previously found Irish ancestry, but decided to look into his German roots in time for his visit to the European nation.

Both civil and military service show up in Obama's blood. His eighth great-grandfather, Conrad Wolflin, served as a mayor in Orsingen, Germany, for 30 years. His son, Johann Martin Wolflin, was an Army medic for years and fought in the Austro-Turkish War in 1916-17 and was involved in the famous siege of Temesvar. In that raid, Habsburg Imperial armies led by Prince Eugene of Savoy took the last important Ottoman-Turk stronghold in Hungary, which today is the Romanian city of Timisoara. During the siege, the document notes, Wolflin was injured with an arrow shot from the fortress. It also states he was captured at some point in his military career by the French for a period of time.

His son, Obama's sixth great-grandfather, was born Johann Conrad Wolflin on Jan. 29, 1729 in Besigheim, Wuerttemberg, Germany (present-day Baden-Württemberg). In 1750, he boarded the ship Patience and resettled in Pennsylvania with fellow German immigrants. It was there his last name changed to Wolfley. He married and had children, including Ludwig Lewis Wolfley, the first U.S.-born relative in that branch of his family tree.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12522012