The worlds of politics and genealogy recently converged when Ancestry.com completed the family tree of Barack Obama, which traces the President’s ancestors back to a man called John Punch, who shows up in the 1640s in the Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia, and is claimed to be the “first African documented to be enslaved for life in what would eventually become the United States.”

1704 Quit Rent for John Bunch II.

Mormons search family history so that members of the church can conduct “ordinances,” like sacraments, for deceased lineage, which adds names to the roster of members of the church.  The ordinance will be performed by proxy, where the living descendant stands in during the baptism or “sealing-marriage” for great-great-grandma Millie Lou McGarrity.