[Brown Deer]

...when they concluded that Barry descended from the slave John Punch.

You are distorting the facts. That was not their conclusion. It was only a sugggestion. So, why does a person who claims to "try to avoid declarative statements of fact for which I have no evidence", post a lie such as that?

btw, John Punch Wasn't the First Slave in America, as stated by those same researchers.

[Seizethecarp]

FReepers can judge for themselves whether Ancestry.com made a declarative sentence, with which I agree after reviewing their substantial circumstancial evidence (circumstantial evidence can be conclusive. Remember that Scott Peterson was convicted on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to death.):

http://www.ancestry.com/obama

“We explored thousands of historical documents in our research and discovered that John Punch, the first African enslaved for life in America, was the 11th great-grandfather of President Barack Obama.”