Does anyone really think that a 19 year from Kenya would have known, or cared, enough about American custom to place his son's birth announcement in the paper? It's virtually certain that the birth announcements were called into the newspapers, by Obama's American grandparents, who lived in Hawaii.
This is such a common practice, by grandparents, for children not born locally, that many newspapers have rules about the parents being local residents. The grandparents may well have provided a false address, to get around this rule. This would account for the neighbors believing that the Obama's never lived at the address given in the papers.
“It’s virtually certain that the birth announcements were called into the newspapers, by Obama’s American grandparents, who lived in Hawaii.”
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The “announcements” aren’t paid vanity announcements. They are in the birth listings from the Hawaii Dept. of Health Statistics.