One of the most enduring presidential scandals in U.S. history was that of 29th President, Warren G. Harding. For nearly a century, the claims of Nan Britton, who said she had a steamy affair with Harding in a White House coat closet and bore his love child, went dismissed.
Although she was accused of lying in order to tear down Harding's presidential legacy, a modern DNA test proved once and for all that Britton was indeed telling the truth. Her daughter, Elizabeth Ann Blaesing was, in fact, the biological child, born out of wedlock, of Harding.
The test was conducted by the AncestryDNA division of the genealogy site Ancestry.com. The genetic testing was initiated by Harding's own grand-nephew, Peter Harding, who decided he wanted the mystery solved after he read a copy of Nan Britton's book about the affair, published in 1923, after Harding died in office.
Although Britton said that President Harding privately acknowledged his daughter and even provided some support, after his death, his family denied her claims and the tensions between the two families continued for decades after.
However, although Peter Harding was always told that his grand-uncle was sterile due to childhood mumps, he noticed the similarities in the way Britton described the President and the way he corresponded with another one of his revealed mistresses through letters released last year by the Library of Congress.
Determined to solve the "Shakespearean" mystery once and for all, Peter Harding, along with his cousin, Abigail Harding reached out to James Blaesing, the son of President Harding's alleged love child.
Blaesing was only too happy to participate.
"I wanted to prove who she was and prove everyone wrong. I went through this growing up in school. They belittled him and her," the 65-year old said to the Times.
Although some members of Harding's family still want more substantial testing to be done to prove once and for all that Blaesing was the former President's child, for James Blaesing, who now lives in Portland, Oregon, the current DNA evidence serves as vindication for his mother that she was telling the truth all those years.
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