MAREEN DUVALL
'No more striking figure'
Born Mareen DuVal, Obama's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was a French Protestant -- called Huguenots -- who fled his homeland sometime around 1650 to escape religious persecution from Catholics and the French Crown. After a stay in England, he settled in Maryland, changing his name along the way to Duvall.
"No more striking figure in colonial history is found than the personal achievements of this fleeing immigrant," J.D. Warfield wrote in The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland (1905). "He came as one of the one hundred and fifty adventurers, brought over by Colonel William Burgess. He settled near Colonel Burgess, in Anne Arundel County, on the south side of South River and became one of the most successful merchants and planters of that favored section."
"No more striking figure in colonial history is found than the personal achievements of this fleeing immigrant," J.D. Warfield wrote in The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland (1905). "He came as one of the one hundred and fifty adventurers, brought over by Colonel William Burgess. He settled near Colonel Burgess, in Anne Arundel County, on the south side of South River and became one of the most successful merchants and planters of that favored section."
Burgess was a leading figure in 17th century Maryland, at one point serving as deputy governor. And Duvall did pretty well, too.
(AP file)
(AP file)
Burgess was a leading figure in 17th century Maryland, at one point serving as deputy governor. And Duvall did pretty well, too.
"The land records of Anne Arundel and Prince George Counties show that this Huguenot planter and merchant held a vast estate, and left his widow and third wife so attractive as to become the third wife of Colonel Henry Ridgely, and later the wife of Rev. Mr. Henderson, the commissary of the Church of England," Warfield writes.
One of Mareen Duvall's sons, "Mareen the Younger," apparently was not crazy about his step-mother's first remarriage.
"The younger Mareen objected to his guardian, Col. Ridgeley, but the courts did not sustain him," Warfield writes.
Mareen Duvall Sr.'s great-grandson, John Miles Duvall, had a pretty adventurous life himself.
He served in the Revolutionary War. And, after that, he traded along the Atlantic Coast, but met his end at the hands of pirates in 1787, according to Kentucky: A History of the State (1887).
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Mareen Duvall is also the link between Barack Obama and Harry Truman (Duvall is his ninth-great grandfather as well) and Barack Obama and Vice President Dick Cheney (Duvall is Cheney's eighth-great grandfather).
Sources: The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland: A genealogical and biographical review from wills, deeds and church records by J. D. Warfield. (1905). Source: Kentucky: A History of the State (1887).