The Obama Family Tree, Explained
A visual guide to the Obama family across four generations and three continents — from a Kenyan village and the Kansas plains to Chicago's South Side and the White House.
Few American families bridge as many worlds as the Obamas. Barack Obama's roots reach a Luo village on the shores of Lake Victoria, the wheat plains of Kansas, the islands of Hawaii and Indonesia, and the South Side of Chicago. This guide walks through who's who — the grandparents who raised him, his Kenyan father and American mother, his half-siblings on two continents, the Robinson family he married into, and the two daughters who grew up in the White House.
The family at a glance
- People
- 20
- Generations
- 4
- Years spanned
- 129 (1895–2024)
- Earliest born
- Hussein (1895)
- Latest born
- Natasha (2001)
How to read the graph
Each circle is a person. Lines connect parents to children, and spouses to each other. Click a node to focus on it; drag to rearrange the layout.
Barack Obama, 44th President
Barack Obama II
44th President of the United States
1961– · Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
44th President of the United States (2009–2017).
Married Michelle Robinson Obama
Three families, one household
The tree braids together three distinct lines: the Obama family of Nyang'oma Kogelo in Kenya, the Dunham family of Kansas and Hawaii, and the Robinson family of Chicago. Barack Obama II sits where the first two meet; his marriage to Michelle Robinson joins the third.
The Kansas grandparents who raised him
Stanley and Madelyn Dunham moved from Kansas to Hawaii, where their daughter Stanley Ann Dunham met a Kenyan student named Barack Obama Sr. After his parents separated, young Barack was largely raised by "Gramps" and "Toot" — Madelyn, a bank vice-president, was a steadying presence through his Honolulu childhood.
His mother, the anthropologist
Stanley Ann Dunham
Anthropologist
1942–1995 · Wichita, Kansas, USA
American anthropologist of Indonesian rural development; Barack II's mother.
Married Barack Obama Sr. · Lolo Soetoro
The Kenyan side
Barack Obama Sr. was the son of Hussein Onyango Obama, a cook and King's African Rifles veteran, and Habiba Akumu. Through his father's several marriages, Barack has a large set of paternal half-siblings in Kenya and beyond — including Malik, who was best man at Barack and Michelle's wedding, and Auma, the sociologist whose visit to Chicago opens his memoir Dreams from My Father.
Barack's paternal half-siblings
The Robinsons of Chicago
Michelle Robinson grew up on Chicago's South Side with her parents Fraser and Marian Robinson and her older brother Craig, a standout basketball player who became a college coach. Marian Robinson later moved into the White House to help raise her granddaughters — a constant presence behind two terms.
The lawyer who became First Lady
Michelle Robinson Obama
Lawyer; First Lady 2009–2017
1964– · Chicago, Illinois, USA
Lawyer and former First Lady (2009–2017), wife of Barack.
Married Barack Obama II
A century in dates
Births and deaths across the family
- 1895HOHussein Onyango Obama born
- 1918HAHabiba Akumu Obama born
- 1918SAStanley Armour Dunham born
- 1922
Sarah Onyango Obama born - 1922MPMadelyn Payne Dunham born
- 1934
Barack Obama Sr. born - 1935
Lolo Soetoro born - 1935FRFraser Robinson III born
- 1937
Marian Shields Robinson born - 1942Stanley Ann Dunham born
- 1958Malik Obama born
- 1960Auma Obama born
- 1961Barack Obama II born
- 1962
Craig Robinson born - 1964Michelle Robinson Obama born
- 1965Mark Obama Ndesandjo born
- 1970
Maya Soetoro-Ng born - 1975HOHussein Onyango Obama died
- 1982Barack Obama Sr. died
- 1982GHGeorge Hussein Onyango Obama born
- 1987Lolo Soetoro died
- 1991FRFraser Robinson III died
- 1992SAStanley Armour Dunham died
- 1995Stanley Ann Dunham died
- 1998
Malia Ann Obama born - 2001
Natasha "Sasha" Obama born - 2006HAHabiba Akumu Obama died
- 2008MPMadelyn Payne Dunham died
- 2021Sarah Onyango Obama died
- 2024Marian Shields Robinson died
Generation by generation
- HAHabiba
- HOHussein
- Sarah
- SAStanley
- MPMadelyn
- Barack
- Stanley Ann
- Lolo
- FRFraser
- Marian
- Malik
- Auma
- Mark
- GHGeorge
- Maya
- Barack
- Michelle
- Craig
- Malia
- Natasha
From Kenya and Kansas to the White House
The shortest path from Barack's Kenyan grandfather to his daughters runs through three generations — a single line linking a Luo village to a girl who grew up in the White House.
BarackBarackMaliaBy the numbers
Three continents, four generations, and a family story that runs from a Kenyan village to the Oval Office.
Common questions
- Who are Barack Obama's parents?
- Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan economist, and Ann Dunham, an American anthropologist.
- Does Barack Obama have siblings?
- Seven half-siblings — one through his mother, the rest through his father.
- Who is Maya Soetoro-Ng?
- Barack Obama's half-sister through his mother and her second husband, Lolo Soetoro.
- Who are Michelle Obama's parents?
- Fraser Robinson III and Marian Shields Robinson, of the South Side of Chicago.
- Who is Craig Robinson?
- Michelle Obama's older brother, a basketball coach.
- Who are the Obama daughters?
- Malia, born 1998, and Sasha, born 2001.
- Where was Barack Obama's father from?
- Nyang'oma Kogelo, in western Kenya.
- Who raised Barack Obama?
- Chiefly his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, in Hawaii.
- Is Barack Obama related to any other president?
- Genealogists have traced distant links to several, all of them very remote.
- Who is Auma Obama?
- Barack Obama's half-sister on his father's side, a sociologist in Kenya.