His grandmother was from Augusta Kansas, so that has been my bet all along in this. I think they got middle initial wrong in genealogy. Someone in Kansas needs to go to county clerks office in county which Augusta is in and check this out. If his great uncle is actually Charles W payne, then Obama is certainly lying, and the burden of proof will be on him to provide some sort of evidence that his great uncle served in Army rather than the Navy as it appears now.
I suspect the phone at the Butler County courthouse is already ringing. If anyone is in the area, the address follows for a little public-records digging. Don't be surprised, though, if older records are in some sort of limited-access storage facility offsite. This could take the better part of a day to run down.
Here' 'tis:
Butler County Courhouse
205 West Central
El Dorado, KS 67042
Phone: (316) 322-4300
I’ve been checking genealogy records for my family and am amazed at all the misspellings, wrong dates for grandparents births, etc. Records are not always accurate, and it’s very frustrating!
I agree with you. I think the middle initial “W” listed in some of the geneology trees is possibly wrong. If you are a member of ancestry.com, and examine family trees, different trees have variations of the same name (misspelled, different initials, even different first names). I think the place listed on the induction list is more telling. Grandparents were in Augusta, the 1930 census lists the Payne family (Rolla and Leona Payne, children Madelyn, Charles and Arlene) living in Augusta, Butler County. Madelyn was married to Dunham at the time of Dunham’s enlistment and he was listed as in Augusta, Butler County. It just makes sense that a 17 year old brother would be living close to family and not in Kansas City.