This article in the Everett (Washington State) Herald shows that Obama is the great-great-great grandson of a Civil War solder who served with Company A in the 145th Ohio National Guard infantry near the end of the war. It was a 100-day regiment formed to protect Washington, D.C., during the major campaigns that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant led into Virginia in the spring of 1864,
http://www.heraldnet.com/...
Eric Stevick of the Everett Herald reported in Sunday's paper:
Wolfley's marker would no doubt still be buried beneath the cemetery sod were it not for her famous great-great-great grandson, who on Nov. 4 could be elected the next president of the United States.
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Wolfley, the widow of a Civil War veteran, spent the last few years of her life living with her daughter and son-in-law at 3611 Hoyt Ave. in Everett. Her grave marker on a hill overlooking I-5 was unearthed and cleaned Oct. 14 after her identity was confirmed.
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Wolfley died Feb. 8, 1911, was buried four days later. She is next to her son-in-law and daughter, Nathan and Addie Butts, Obama's great-great aunt, who died in 1936 and 1937, respectively.
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"What you found is accurate," said Joshua Field, campaign director for Obama's campaign in Washington state, after checking records. "It's interesting. I don't think people realize his Washington state ties."
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Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, lived on Mercer Island before moving to Hawaii after she finished high school. Obama's mother died in 1995 of ovarian cancer. Obama took time off the campaign trail Thursday and Friday to fly to Hawaii to visit his ailing 85-year-old grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham, who helped raise him. Rachel Wolfley is a great-grandmother to Madelyn Payne Dunham.