The Illinois senator had good reason to skip over the state in the Democratic Party primary in Arkansas. In that contest, he essentially competed against power couple Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, Arkansas' world-famous son. Obama secured 26 percent of the primary vote; Hillary Clinton won 70 percent.

Still, recent genealogical research shows the presumed Democratic nominee for president can claim personal ties to the state. As traced by Madison County genealogist Joy Russell, Obama's ancestors lived in the Republican stronghold of northwest Arkansas in the 19th century.

Historian Michael Dougan of Jonesboro says Obama likely has distant cousins still living in the state today. An article by Russell in the Madison County Record says Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was Nathaniel Bunch, a blacksmith and mechanic from Virginia who moved to Newton County in the Ozarks in the 1840s with his wife, Sarah.

The Bunches and their daughter, Anna Bunch, were buried in Liberty Cemetery in Dinsmore. Anna Bunch was Obama's great-great-great-great-grandmother. The line to Obama continued through Frances Allred, Margaret Wright, Leona McCurry, Madelyn Payne, and Shirley Dunham, Obama's mother.