The Obama Family Tree, Explained

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A century in dates

Generation by generation

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.