Routes

"In the annals of American slavery, this painful story would be utterly unremarkable, save for one reason: This union, consummated some two years before the Civil War, marked the origins of a family line that would extend from rural Georgia, to Birmingham, Ala., to Chicago and, finally, to the White House."

In The New York Times, Rachel L. Swans and Jodi Kantor trace Michelle Obama's family tree.

And a variety of writers and professors offer their opinions.