I'm worried about that. If you are correct we will win this because I doubt the Brits destroy stuff like this--Obama Sr. was a local establishment person planning to be President of the local country; doubt they would have done it in the bush. She was concerned about the records and legitimacy also. I am not too worried about that.
But I have heard that the birth documents were in Mombasa. Maybe copies? I have heard no response.
Do you know of a way to inquire in London?
Excerpted from a Chicago Tribune article:
That was only the first surprise. Stanley Ann began classes at the University of Hawaii in 1960, and shortly after that, Box received a letter saying that her friend had fallen in love with a grad student. He was black, from Kenya and named Obama.
About that same time, another letter crossed the Pacific, this one heading to Africa. It was from Barack Obama Sr. to his mother, Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama. Though the letter didn't go into great detail, it said he had met a young woman named Ann (not Stanley). There wasn't much on how they met or what the attraction was, but he announced their plans to wed.
SNIP
The self-assured and opinionated Obama spoke with a voice so deep that "he made James Earl Jones seem like a tenor," said Neil Abercrombie, a Democratic congressman from Hawaii who was part of those regular gatherings.
While Obama was impatient and energized, Stanley Ann, whom Abercrombie described as "the original feminist," was endlessly patient but quietly passionate in her arguments. She was the only woman in the group.
"I think she was attracted to his powerful personality," Abercrombie said, "and he was attracted to her beauty and her calmness.".
Six months after they wed, another letter arrived in Kenya, announcing the birth of Barack Hussein Obama, born Aug. 4, 1961. Despite her husband's continued anger, Sarah Obama said in a recent interview, she "was so happy to have a grandchild in the U.S."
SNIP
Although he didn't say it at the time, Abercrombie privately feared that the relationship would be short-lived. Obama was one of the most ambitious, self-focused men he had ever met. After Obama was accepted to study at Harvard, Stanley Ann disappeared from the University of Hawaii student gatherings, but she did not accompany her husband to Harvard. Abercrombie said he rarely saw her after that.
"I know he loved Ann," Abercrombie said, but "I think he didn't want the impediment of being responsible for a family. He expected great things of himself and he was going off to achieve them."
The marriage failed. Stanley Ann filed for divorce in 1964 and remarried two years later, when her son was 5. The senior Obama finished his work at Harvard and returned to Kenya, where he hoped to realize his big dreams of taking a place in the Kenyan government.
(http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0703270151mar27,0,7437761.story?page=4)
The Brits have a history of removing the records, presumably for safekeeping. There are New York records still in Ottowa.
Stanley Ann is reported by many sources to have been very interested in weaving. I don't know what kind of weaving in particular, but I did check her genealogy. She was a first cousin at about 7 removes, so we are talking about the same American line ~ all the way back to Loweville NY.
The "weaving" would be that appropriate for "baskets", but she may have been into cloth as well. Odds are good that she'd been on an airplane giving birth if it would give her a chance to visit with Luo weavers.