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Fred, all

I looked over that thread you linked to; I too am stumped.

Would the new info from the foia’d INA docs, that BHO SR was born in 1934- not 1936- help clear up any confusion about that five year gap?

Does the dates 1954 marriage, 1958 birth, 1960 birth, help peg the Kezia timeline better, since they relate to a national archive entry?

Then we have the 1961 event to figure.

If this 1961 event is tied in with the 1961 Kenya info found in that out of the way library (light yellow typewritten paper) showing number of people came to the us from kenya, then that frames things.

I’m talking about starting with national archives and govt beancounter ‘database’ entries and use those to adjust the interviews.... the archive type data is contemporaneous, while the interviews rely on peoples memories which may get the dates off.

I can't answer your questions, I don't know why there's a five year gap. It's always been there. Maybe it's because we don't know enough about the period between 1954 and 1959 other than what we have been spoon-fed.

I doubt there's much to be learned from trying to fix a chronology to events, it was patently obvious in 2008 that the reason 'Dreams' has no chronology is so that the protagonists could not be followed. You'll learn more from the mistakes and omissions if you look for them - no lies are ever perfect, and they do make mistakes.

As for the record of airline arrivals in the period from July 1961 up to the end of June, 1962, one needs to remember that the younger brother Omar, who was introduced in 'Dreams' as the one who 'went away and got lost' attended a private high school in Boston CLASS OF 1966, and if that was a four year high school, he would have arrived in that period shown, which means he and the kenyan both arrived in Boston in the summer of 1962 and it is recorded, they shared accommodation.

170 Magazine Street, Cambridge.

Articles about Omar Obama, or Obama Onyango as he now calls himself, state his commencement as 1963, but I have my doubts...Class of 1966 commences in 1962 by my calculations.

It seems to make sense that the brothers would arrive in Boston at the same time, doesn't it?

“...The only African student at the school, Obama stood out in a number of other respects. Not only was he three years older than most of the boys in the sophomore class, his arch colonial accent immediately marked him as different. That he initially lived with his brother in a rented apartment in Cambridge, a place often churning with visiting Kenyan students, added to his exoticism. But within a few weeks the normally reserved Obama had made a large number of close friends, many of whom remember his sunny disposition nearly half a century later...

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Originally posted FR comment

One of seven children born to the president’s grandfather, Hussein Onyango, Omar Obama arrived in the United States with the help of his half-brother Barack, who was working toward his doctorate in economics at Harvard University and paid $300 towards his traveling expenses. Omar was directed to Browne & Nichols, a prestigious private boys school, by Ellen Frost, a friend of the elder Barack’s whose father was the preparatory school’s treasurer. Frost recalls the 19-year-old Omar on his arrival in Cambridge as, “a happy, bubbly outgoing boy. He loved to tell stories about lions and the wild animals of his youth. I don’t know if they were true, but the other boys were completely fascinated by him; he was so completely different from everyone else at the school.’’ The only African student at the school, Obama stood out in a number of other respects. Not only was he three years older than most of the boys in the sophomore class, his arch colonial accent immediately marked him as different. That he initially lived with his brother in a rented apartment in Cambridge, a place often churning with visiting Kenyan students, added to his exoticism. But within a few weeks the normally reserved Obama had made a large number of close friends, many of whom remember his sunny disposition nearly half a century later. “Omar was great, friendly and very open,’’ recalled classmate Robert Krim, an assistant professor of management at Clark University in Worcester. “This was a time of civil rights and I was a white kid from Newton. So here comes Omar, black and African. I found this fellow completely exciting. It was as though he dropped in from somewhere completely different, which I guess he had.’’ Nonetheless, Obama seemed to fit right in. He joined the debate and newspaper clubs. He posed for class photographs of the Class of 1966 in his crisp white shirt and tweed blazer. And when the varsity soccer team headed to the field, with Obama as its lead striker, many on campus flocked to watch him.

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