Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, First woman Nominee for President of the United States of America from a major political party. Source: Wikimedia Commons
July 26, 2016 will stand as a momentous date in the history of the United States of America! That night, last night (as I am writing this early on the 27th) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated to be the first woman President of the USA! It was such an exciting moment for more than half of our country, especially women. My hope is that she and other women leaders of other countries will help shape our world for the better!
Just recently, I discovered through my genealogical research that my DNA matched the Rodham surname! I was surprised and wondered if this might be Hillary Rodham’s family! Well, lo and behold it was, and I learned that I was the seventh cousin once removed of Hillary Rodham Clinton! That makes my children seventh cousins twice removed, and my grandchildren, seventh cousins three times removed! How exciting to share a kinship with the very first woman to win the nomination for President, and if she wins….the first woman President of the United States of America! That would be awesome!
It is especially exciting to me given the fact that it took 300 years after our country was first settled for women to gain the right to vote in America. African American men were finally granted the right to vote in 1870, after the Civil War. Women of all races had to wait until 1920--fifty more years! Now we might just have our first woman President!
I already knew that I had strong women in my family tree. I had learned in previous research, that my maternal 1st cousin, 3x removed, was one of the strongest advocates for women’s rights in the state of Virginia (where I was born, and grew up)! I am so proud of this ancestor and cousin– Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis! She was the founder and President of the Equal Suffrage Club in Lynchburg, Virginia, then became the Vice President of the Equal Suffrage League of the State of Virginia! From 1850 to 1920 many women activists worked tirelessly to lobby their lawmakers, and convince their sisters and coworkers that women should have a voice in electing those who “ruled” them, those who made their laws, those who affected their families and their very lives.
Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne, (Mrs. John Henry Lewis) 1851-1946 source: The Virginia Langhornes by James C. Callaway, 2013
My mother herself, Margaret Steptoe Kearse Youngblood, born in 1918, was a strong advocate for voting. She worked the polls on election day, and often took us, her four children, with her to teach us how voting worked, and to impress upon us its importance! The whole community knew her through this work. It surely impressed me as important! She would be thrilled that her seventh cousin might be the first female President of the United States!
Margaret Steptoe Kearse Youngblood, personal collection
What a moment in history we have with the nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton for our President. I will do the best I can to help her get elected in November, 2016--not because she is a woman, not even because she is my cousin, but because I believe she is the best candidate to lead our country and to continue working with our allies all over the world. It is an exciting time!
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (1947 - )
7th cousin 1x removed
father of Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton
mother of Hugh Ellsworth Rodham
father of Mary Bynum Jarnagin
father of Milton Preston Jarnagin
mother of Preston Bynum JARNAGIN
father of Mary Lavinia "Patsy" Witt
father of Charles C Witt
father of John Witt III
daughter of John Witt II
Abner Harbour (1730 - 1778)
son of Sarah Witt
son of Abner Harbour
daughter of Moses Harbour
daughter of Joyce Harbour
son of Nancy J Houchins
daughter of Walter Thomas Houchins
daughter of Katherine Steptoe Houchins
You are the daughter of Margaret Steptoe Kerse
Wishing you the very best, Helen Y. Holshouser
