Colonial connection? Give me a break.

Obama's family tree on his mother's side
This is really rich. Some genealogical researchers are really reaching with this. If you read the story, it will claim that President Barack Obama’s Caucasian mother is related in some way to a family in colonial Virginia that in some way shape or form was related (or was that involved) with the first African-American slave in what is now the U.S.
I, literally, about fell off the couch laughing when my wife read this story to me. Then, reread the story on my computer. Talk about a stretch and I mean a real stretch.
Well, at least according to the article, the case has some really serious holes in in. Granted that in 1619, some indentured Africans were brought to the colony of Virginia, but note that is not “revolutionary” Virginia by about 160 years. Second, it was the Dutch, who six years later, who introduced African slaves to what was New Netherlands (Now New York) in 1625. Slavery, at the time, was not in Virginia and Africans, at least according to the history I learned, and have recent re-researched just to refresh my memory, initially were treated just as other indentured servants brought over from England in the 17^th century and release from their bond upon completion of seven years of service.
So, there is a little problem of timing.
Second, there is the absolute chasm spanning leap from Punch to Bunch. This assumption on the part of the genealogists that it is merely a variation in the spellings of the times is not beyond credulity, but it stretches it a bit. Slaves were often given the surname of the slaveholder’s family. Granted, the researcher admits the evidence is quite circumstantial but really, I would hope that there was just a little bit more to go on.
Heck, if I wanted to, I suppose, I could claim – as is claimed in my family legend – to be related to the current King of Sweden. I mean there is a vague resemblance between my grandfather, my brother and the king and supposedly my great-great-grandmother was a lesser princess in the royal house who was disowned for following true love and marrying a common wood cutter/forester.
I think, for whatever reason, somebody really is reaching in order to link the president to someone in early colonial American history. I guess it diverts people away from the birth certificate story (which is a non-story as far as I am concerned) about whether President Obama is a native-born American. Sorry, don’t care about that story, don’t believe it is a false certificate either.
But I guess, one could make the argument that linking President Obama to having one of his ancestors being an American slave gives him a better link to today’s African-Americans – many of whom really are descendants of slaves held more than 150 years ago – than his father’s family tree being from Kenya and East Africa, where few American slaves came from as the majority came from West Africa.
Personally, as Pappy used to say, I think it is a tempest in a teapot.
But then, it is almost August … and the Washington press corps always picks up the weirdest stories in August.
Addendum: And if you really want to get technical a Spanish colony in South Carolina in the 1500s (later abandoned) and the first permanent settlement in St.Augustine in 1565 also had African slaves.