Records shed light on candidates' ancestors

Although they are long gone, these three are heard about on occasion through the voices of their descendants -John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Now there's another way to get to know them. Under an agreement being announced Tuesday, a vast range of records held by the National Archives will become more easily available online, offering information on some 100 million ancestors.

McCain talks in the campaign about granddad "Slew," the brilliant, foul-mouthed seaman. Obama speaks of the "straight-backed" Methodist ways of his great-grandfather, Rolla Payne of Kansas.

Clinton talks about the times of Hugh Simpson Rodham, the grandfather who labored in a Scranton, Pa., lace factory, back when that was enough for a stable life.

The ancestors are anecdotes these days. Once they were making their own way.

The documents provide a snapshot of who these men were.

Among the papers: a 1910 census statement showing John Sidney McCain serving as an ensign aboard the USS Washington; a 1917 draft registration card of Payne; and a 1942 draft registration card of Rodham.

Payne was white. In a sign of those segregated times, his card is marked at the bottom, along the left: "If person is of African descent, tear off this corner."

Generations later, his great-grandson, of African descent on his father's side, is close to becoming the first black Democratic nominee for president.