In a speech in Virginia today, Democratic Senator Jim Webb, stumping for Barack Obama, told the audience they should accept Obama as one of them, because his mother comes from Kansas "by way of Kentucky."
What?! Commenter "slb" at Talking Points Memo explains:
No, it's not made up: One of Obama's 4g-grandfathers was George Washington Overall, who was born in Bullitt County, KY in 1820, and who married Louisiana Duvall of Nelson County, KY.
George Washington Overall and Louisiana Duvall are discussed in this message from the DUVALL listserv archives. The poster was apparently unaware that Barack Obama was a descendant of that couple. Incidently, the Susan Overall Clark and C[hristopher] C[olumbus] Clark mentioned in that message were Obama's 3g-grandparents. Notice that C.C. Clark was enumerated in Kansas in the 1930 census.
It is through these ancestors that Obama is linked to Dick Cheney; the Duvall line goes back to Mareen Duval who died in Maryland in 1694.
George Washington Overall was not Obama's only Kentucky ancestor; one of his 6g-grandfathers was Philip Ament (1755-1836) of Bourbon County, KY. There may be others, too, but those were two that I spotted quickly in a set of charts prepared by genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts illustrating Obama's connections to prominent Americans.
Since August, Obama has gone from 30 points down in Kentucky to just 10 points down. Now that we know he's a native son, he HAS to come visit. And once he visits, we HAVE to make sure he gets Kentucky's eight Electoral Votes.
Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.
