Leona Belle Payne

Barack Obama is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His family has a diverse ancestry, including Kenyan (Luo), African-American, and Old Stock American origins, with ancestors from English, Scots-Irish, Welsh, German, and Swiss backgrounds.

Obama's immediate family includes his wife, Michelle Obama, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama was born on January 17, 1964. She holds degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and worked as a lawyer, university administrator, and writer. She was the first African-American First Lady of the United States during Obama's presidency. Michelle Obama was raised on the South Side of Chicago and worked at Sidley Austin law firm, where she met Barack Obama. She also served as associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago and as vice president for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle and Barack Obama were married in 1992.

The couple’s daughters are Malia Ann Obama, born July 4, 1998, and Natasha Marian (commonly known as Sasha), born June 10, 2001. Both daughters were born at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Sasha was the youngest child to reside in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1961. Prior to his inauguration, President Obama wrote an open letter to his daughters expressing his hopes for their future. Malia and Sasha attended the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., beginning in 2009. Before moving to Washington, D.C., they attended the University of Chicago Laboratory School.

The family adopted a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo in April 2009, given as a gift by Senator Ted Kennedy. They later adopted a second dog, Sunny, in 2013. Malia Obama spent summers working in television studios in New York and Los Angeles in 2014 and 2015 and interned at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid in 2016. Sasha worked at a seafood restaurant in Martha’s Vineyard in 2016. Malia also participated in international travels, including trips to Bolivia and Peru in 2016.

Malia Obama began studies at Harvard University in 2017, graduating in 2021, and subsequently worked as a writer on the television series "Swarm" on Amazon Prime Video. In 2023, it was announced that she was working on a short film for a production company, which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024.

Sasha Obama graduated from Sidwell Friends School in 2019 and initially enrolled at the University of Michigan before transferring and graduating from the University of Southern California in 2023.

Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, resided in the White House during the Obama presidency. Michelle Obama’s parents, Stanley Ann Dunham and Stanley Armour Dunham, played significant roles in her life. Ann Dunham, born in 1942, was an anthropologist who earned her PhD from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and worked with various organizations to promote microcredit and rural development. She passed away in 1995. Michelle has often cited her mother as a primary influence.

Stanley Armour Dunham served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War II and was related to six U.S. presidents. He and his wife, Madelyn Dunham, raised Barack Obama in Honolulu, Hawaii. Madelyn, born in 1922, worked in banking and became a bank vice president in Hawaii. She died in 2008.

Barack Obama’s maternal lineage is primarily of English descent, with smaller amounts of German, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, and Swiss ancestry. In 2012, a genealogical study suggested he is likely descended from the African slave John Punch through his mother’s lineage, with subsequent generations of African Americans intermarrying with white landowners in colonial Virginia.

Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, was an anthropologist specializing in economic anthropology and rural development. She worked for the United States Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation, and Women’s World Banking. His maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, were influential figures in his upbringing.

His maternal ancestors include several notable family members, among them the maternal grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham, and grandmother, Madelyn Dunham. His great-uncle, Charles Thomas Payne, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and his family history has notable connections to several U.S. presidents.