 | | A genealogist recently discovered that Michelle Obama has some relatives she doesn't know about. | |
 | | Debbie Shields just found out she and the First Lady share a common ancestor, who died in 1916 | |
 | | Debbie and her son Brandon are excited about their familial link to the first Family. | |
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With her blonde hair and blue eyes, Debbie Shields looks nothing like First Lady Michelle Obama, but they actually share a common bond -- they're related.
Debbie's great-great-grandfather is also Michelle Obama's great-great-great-grandfather.
"You were told that you were Michelle Obama's fourth cousin. What was your reaction?" asks INSIDE EDITION's Les Trent.
"I said, 'Awesome!' "
"Did you believe it?"
"No, not at first. [I] thought it was a joke," Shields says.
The man believed to be the family link between Debbie Shields and Michelle Obama was a white slave owner named Charles Marion Shields. He died 93 years ago, in 1916.
"It is the fabric of America, a very American story, very universal," says professional genealogist Megan Smolenyak. Smolenyak made headlines recently when The New York Times reported her findings about the First Lady's roots.
It was discovered that Michelle's great-great-great-grandmother was a slave named Melvinia. When she was 6-years-old Melvinia was sent to a farm where she was one of three slaves living with the Shields family of Rex, Georgia. At age 15, Melvinia was impregnated by a white man, presumed to be Charles Marion Shields.
Melvinia's name appears in the 1870 census, five years after the Civil War ended slavery in America. She is grouped under the last name Shields, as are her four children. Three of the children were listed as "M" standing for "mulatto," the now-archaic term describing someone of mixed race.
Melvinia's first born was Dolphus Shields. His great-granddaughter is Marion Shields, who married Frasier Robinson, a Chicago city worker. Their daughter is Michelle Obama.
President Obama talked about his wife's heritage during the presidential campaign, in his now-famous speech on race in Philadelphia. 'I am married to a Black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners," he said.
Debbie Shields says it fills her with pride to be related to the First Family.
"What goes through your head? You, a white woman, when you find out you may possibly be related to the first African American First Lady?" Les Trent asks.
"I think it's great. I would like to sit down and talk with her and share memories, share memories, share photographs, stories," says Shields.
Genealogist Megan Smolenyak tells INSIDE EDITION, "I think [the story is] a really useful history lesson. On the one hand it asks us face a part of our history we'd rather forget, on the other hand it does make us realize how far we've come in a relatively short time."
It's not lost on Shields's 17-year-old son Brandon, who now finds himself absorbing the remarkable information that he is Michelle Obama's fourth cousin. "I think it's incredible, the history of it, you can go from slavery to White House," Brandon says.
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