[UPDATE BELOW]

The political establishment has spent countless man-hours trying to claim that we know for a fact that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. Yet, even seemingly simple aspects of his past history are shrouded in mystery. For example: when exactly did Obama's mother Stanley Ann Dunham moved from Hawaii back to Seattle to attend the University of Washington?

WorldNetDaily uncovered a college transcript from UW (emailed from UW and attached):

The transcript clearly documents that Dunham was enrolled at the University of Washington for two classes that began on Aug. 19, 1961: Anthropology 100, "Introduction to the Study of Man" and Political Science 201, "Modern Government." ...The transcript also shows Dunham was enrolled at the University of Washington as a "nonresident citizen"...

WND says those were night courses and indicate that Stanley was in Seattle in August of 1961; Obama supporters respond with the claim that those were in fact extension or correspondence courses which don't necessarily indicate that Stanley Dunham was present in Seattle in August 1961 (when Obama would have been just a few weeks old). Those supporters claim they could be UW courses offered in Hawaii (for examples, see the Wikipedia page at [7]).

Yet, a friend of Dunham describes a visit to Seattle in August 1961 [1].

Another account has a neighbor describing babysitting for Barack Obama in Seattle in the January to March of 1962 timeframe [2] [3]. Note that [3] references Stanley Obama attending night classes; whether that backs up claims that she was in Seattle in August 1961 isn't clear.

Another account says Stanley Dunham had returned to Seattle "by 1962" [4]

Yet another account says "[Stanley & Barack Obama's] stay was fairly short -- about a year -- and in 1962 they returned to Hawaii" [5] which would tend to place the arrival date near the very beginning of 1962 or the end of 1961.

Not only is Stanley Dunham's arrival date shrouded in mystery, but so too is whether she and Obama Sr. ever lived together either before or after her stay in Seattle [6].

On a sidenote, Wikipedia has responded to WND's UW transcript by blanking their discussion page for the Ann Dunham article, effectively hiding the controversy from public view [7].

Now, the above doesn't mean that Obama was born somewhere other than Hawaii. It's just further evidence that those who claim that we know all there is to know are lying and, in the case of Wikipedia, are actively trying to silence debate.

See the Obama citizenship page for extensive past coverage of this issue, including many examples of reporters and politicians lying about the basic facts of this matter.

UPDATE: From this:

As Obama tells the story [in Dreams from My Father], Obama Sr. had children with at least four different women, two of them American, two African. Ruth Nidesand, a white American, had two children by Obama Sr., Mark and David, the latter of whom died young in a motorcycle accident.

When Obama Sr. died in 1982, lawyers contacted anyone who might have claim to the estate. "Unlike my mum," Obama tells his half-sister Auma in "Dreams," "Ruth has all the documents needed to prove who Mark's father was."

Ruth obviously could produce a marriage license and a birth certificate for her son Mark. Although Obama alludes to finding his own "birth certificate" in "Dreams," Ann Dunham apparently could not produce one that tied him to Obama Sr., this despite a potential payoff if she did.

"Unlike my mum... Ruth has all the documents needed to prove who Mark's father was"?

And, there's this unverified bit:

In an online forum dated March 14, 2009, Ann's high-school classmate Joelle Hannum comments innocently, "I can remember the rumors about [Ann] and another classmate who were involved with and married African-American men, and believe me in those days it was looked at with a LOT of negativity." As another friend had earlier testified, Ann never dated "the crew-cut white boys."

A thorough investigator, Hardy called Joelle Hannum to follow up. He immediately wrote down what she told him: "By request of President Obama, we [she and her classmates] have decided not to give out any more information. I have to hang up now. Goodbye."

She might have hung up on him, or she might not have. And, even if she did, she might have just made up the part about Obama. However, I've run into something similar: several months ago, the Dean of the University of Hawaii Law School hung-up on me when I simply tried to ask him basic, completely fact-based questions about this matter.

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[1] On youtube.com/watch?v=advfrQEeIBY (cached), Susan Blake, former Mercer Island councilwoman and a high school friend of Stanley says:

"one afternoon in 1961 when Barry was just a few weeks old... she... we were sitting at my mom's house, late August afternoon..." Blake says she "changed Barry's diaper and showed her [i.e., Stanley] how to do it."

[2] "Babysitting Barack Obama on Seattle's Capitol Hill"
by Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson - Special to the SGN
Courtesy of the Seattle Museum of the Mysteries
sgn.org/sgnnews37_06/page3.cfm

[Mary Toutonghi] recalls as best she can the dates she babysat Barack as her daughter was 18 months old and was born in July of 1959 and that would have placed the months of babysitting Barack in January and February of 1962.

[3] redoubtreporter.blogspot.com/2009/01/
obama-baby-sitter-awaits-new-era.html
By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter ("a community newspaper for the Central Kenai Peninsula, published weekly in Soldotna")

[Mary Toutonghi] used to baby-sit President Obama when she was neighbors with his mother.

Toutonghi was living in Seattle at the time, in the early 1960s. Her husband was going to school at Seattle University, and she was a stay-at-home mom with their 18-month-old daughter.

They lived in a three-story house that had been converted into three inexpensive apartments. Toutonghi and her family lived in the basement apartment, and Ann Dunham — Obama’s mother — lived in the apartment directly upstairs.

Dunham attended night classes a few days a week at the University of Washington, and needed someone to take care of her son.

[4] seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/
2004334057_obama08m.html
Obama's mother known here as "uncommon"
By Jonathan Martin [not the one from Politico]

By 1962, Dunham had returned to Seattle as a single mother, enrolling in the UW for spring quarter and living in an apartment on Capitol Hill. But friends said she got overwhelmed and returned to her family in Hawaii, and formally divorced Obama Sr. in 1964.

[5] "This essay was updated on February 7, 2009. By Phil Dougherty, January 22, 2009"
historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=pf_output.cfm&file_id=8897 (cached)
Has a picture captioned "Anna Obama residence listed in Seattle Reverse Directory, 1961-1962" showing Joseph Toutonghi as a neighbor

Soon after Barack was born, Dunham and her new son moved to Seattle. They lived in Apartment 2 of the Villa Ria Apartments at 516 13th Avenue E on Capitol Hill, and she enrolled at the University of Washington. But their stay was fairly short -- about a year -- and in 1962 they returned to Hawaii. By this time the senior Barack Obama had left Hawaii to continue his education at Harvard, with eventual plans to return to his native Kenya with his family. Dunham felt otherwise and filed for divorce in 1964.

That page lists as sources:

Amanda Ripley, “The Story of Barack Obama’s Mother,” TIME, April 9, 2008, website accessed January 1, 2009 (http://www.time.com/); Tim Jones, “Barack Obama: Mother Not Just A Girl From Kansas,” Chicagotribune.com, March 27, 2007, website accessed January 1, 2009 (http://www.chicagotribune.com/); Jonathan Martin, “Obama’s Mother Known Here As ‘Uncommon,’” The Seattle Times, April 8, 2008, website accessed January 1, 2009 (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/); Patti Payne, “Obama’s Mother Went To Mercer Island High School; Rossi Recalls WSJ,” Puget Sound Business Journal, January 11, 2008, website accessed January 1, 2009 (http://masshightech.bizjornals.com/seattle); Charlotte LeFevre, “Barack Obama: From Capitol Hill to Capitol Hill,” CapitolHillTimes.com, January 9, 2009, website accessed January 10, 2009 (http://www.capitolhilltimes.com/); Phil Dougherty interview of Maxine Box, February 5, 2009, Seattle, Washington; Phil Dougherty interview of Susan Blake, January 18, 2009, Seattle Washington; Phil Dougherty interview of Tony Nugent, January 13, 2009, Seattle, Washington; Phil Dougherty interview of Iona Stenhouse, January 13, 2009, Seattle, Washington; Tony Nugent emails to Phil Dougherty, January 19, January 23, January 31, and February 2, 2009, in possession of Phil Dougherty, Sammamish, Washington.

[6] From the same WND article:

Stuart Lau, registrar at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, confirmed to WND that Dunham attended the fall term 1960 and did not resume studies at that university until the spring term 1963.

Lau also confirmed to WND that Barack Obama Sr. attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa from the fall term 1959 through the spring term 1962.

This confirms the conclusion that Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. never lived together as man and wife after the birth of Barack Obama Jr.

[7] On January 2, 2011, user Viriditas edited the Talk page for Ann_Dunham with this note: "archive old talk; move probation tag to top". The December 4, 2010 version of that page had a long section entitled "Article Should Include Evidence of Dunham's University Attendance in Washington State in 1961" linking to the WND article. Viriditas makes various excuses for not mentioning the WND article, including "the WND cannot be trusted".