Adopted British woman is stunned to discover the former US president, Barack Obama is a distant relative after spending years tracing her family tree (Details, pics)

An adopted British woman has been left stunned after discovering Barack Obama is her distant cousin after spending years tracing her family tree.

Janet Rolfe, 67, who lives in Exeter, Devon, was born in Manchester in 1950 and adopted without knowing who her birth parents were.

But she has now worked out that her seventh great-grandfather was the ninth great-grandfather of former US president Mr Obama - making them distant cousins.

Ms Rolfe said: 'I was told that my seventh great-grandfather was Mr Obama's ninth great-grandfather, which makes us distant cousins.

'It was absolutely astonishing news, I couldn't believe it. I'm so proud of my family and finding out more about them has been an amazing experience.'

Ms Rolfe managed to identify her real mother in Manchester but she died before they could meet.

She said: 'I did meet her son and brother who said they had no idea about me. I'd been a family secret but it was wonderful to be able to meet them.

'I was told that my father was in southern Ireland, but that route proved to be very difficult, so when I came across the website Ancestry DNA I thought I may as well give it a go.

'From that I managed to get an email address of a woman living in the US called Theresa who is a cousin of mine.'

As luck would have it, Ms Rolfe discovered that Theresa works as a genealogist and was able to trace their family history back to the 17th century.

She then learned her father had nothing to do with Ireland and was actually in the US Air Force; visiting England to assist with the Berlin Airlift in 1948.

It was during that time that Lieutenant Colonel Carroll Herndon Payne met Ms Rolfe's mother and she was born. He returned to the US in 1949.

After retiring from the Air Force, he set up a financial service company which helped military families. First Command Financial Services is still in existence today.

Born in 1914 and having grown up during the Great Depression, books have since been written on Mr Payne's rags to riches story. He died in June 1984.

Further DNA tests found Ms Rolfe's brother Chip was living in Texas, as an architect in Fort Worth. She also has two sisters, one of whom died two years ago at 58.

Mrs Rolfe added: 'Also in my family tree is Lord John and Lady Mary Bankes, formerly of Keswick, where John built a graphite mine.

'After building a poor house in Keswick they moved to Corfe Castle in Dorset.