great-great-great

Tracing the details of my own ancestry has been such a seminal moment in my life that when I die, I have already stipulated in my will that my obituary must highlight my jaw-dropping discovery of my long-lost great-great-great grandfather, Sandy Wills, who escaped the pit of slavery to go fight in the Civil War with five men who were like brothers to him.

Cheryl Wills: An Ancestral Revolution Cheryl Wills 2011

Tracing the details of my own ancestry has been such a seminal moment in my life that when I die, I have already stipulated in my will that my obituary must highlight my jaw-dropping discovery of my long-lost great-great-great grandfather, Sandy Wills, who escaped the pit of slavery to go fight in the Civil War with five men who were like brothers to him.

Cheryl Wills: An Ancestral Revolution Cheryl Wills 2011

The blood link extends to the president himself, whose great-great-great grandfather on his mother's side was born in Ireland in 1830 and emigrated to the U.S. 20 years later.

Obama: US 'Inspired' by Ireland's Efforts to Bring Peace to Northern Ireland 2011

Tracing the details of my own ancestry has been such a seminal moment in my life that when I die, I have already stipulated in my will that my obituary must highlight my jaw-dropping discovery of my long-lost great-great-great grandfather, Sandy Wills, who escaped the pit of slavery to go fight in the Civil War with five men who were like brothers to him.

Cheryl Wills: An Ancestral Revolution Cheryl Wills 2011

The blood link extends to the president himself, whose great-great-great grandfather on his mother's side was born in Ireland in 1830 and emigrated to the U.S. 20 years later.

Obama: US 'Inspired' by Ireland's Efforts to Bring Peace to Northern Ireland 2011

Despite the huge crowd in Dublin — reminiscent of Obama's speeches in Berlin in 2008 and Prague in 2009 — the president's most touching moments came in tiny Moneygall, population 296, where his great-great-great grandfather Falmouth Kearney lived before fleeing the Irish famine in 1850.

Obama 'comes home' to celebrate his Irish ancestry 2011

That moment marked the culmination of a three-day sojourn that has taken Obama from the small Irish house where his great-great-great grandfather was born in 1830 to Buckingham Palace, where he was feted by Queen Elizabeth II, and to Parliament, where he was welcomed as a "statesman" by House of Commons Speaker John Bercow.

Obama makes case for reshaping Mideast 2011

That moment marked the culmination of a three-day sojourn that has taken Obama from the small Irish house where his great-great-great grandfather was born in 1830 to Buckingham Palace, where he was feted by Queen Elizabeth II, and to Parliament, where he was welcomed as a "statesman" by House of Commons Speaker John Bercow.

Obama makes case for reshaping Mideast 2011

But before the high-level talks begin, Obama plans to visit the Irish hamlet of Moneygall, a village of 296 people where his great-great-great grandfather on his mother's side Falmouth Kearney was born in 1830 and lived before immigrating to the U.S. 20 years later.

Obama in Ireland to Start Six-Day, Four-Nation European Trip 2011

The blood link extends to the president himself, whose great-great-great grandfather on his mother's side was born in Ireland in 1830 and emigrated to the U.S. 20 years later.

Obama: US 'Inspired' by Ireland's Efforts to Bring Peace to Northern Ireland 2011