Hello, friends. Welcome. So glad you're here today and I am thrilled to be bringing you

something exciting, something I know you're going to love. People are always asking me to share more about a

fascinating group of people that we traditionally learn very little about. It's often their spouses

that dominate the conversation. So of course, I'm talking about America's first ladies. Not all of our

first ladies were the spouses of presidents. And not all of our presidents had

first ladies by their side when they began their term in the White House. So let's take a deeper

look at different ways American first ladies have influenced their families, the presidency,

and the whole of the nation. I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's

where it gets interesting. Many of us know the fun presidential fact that George Washington was the

only president who didn't live in the White House. But did you know that Martha Washington

did live in the White House? But did you know that Martha Washington did live in the White House?

Let's just start at the beginning. Let's start at the beginning. That's a very good place to

start. So Martha Dandridge, who was the oldest daughter of a man named John Dandridge and a woman

named Francis Jones, was born in 1731 on her father's

plantation, which was called Chestnut Grove in the colony of Virginia. Virginia, not a state yet.

John Dandridge was an immigrant from England, but Francis, Martha mother was born in America, and she was the

granddaughter of a colonel who served on the House of Burgesses, which is the first representative

government in North America. It was still controlled by England. It allowed representatives

from the colonies to make their issues known

before the government across the pond. John and Francis went on to have seven more children

after Martha, and it's believed that Martha might also have an unrecognized half-sister named Anne who was born into slavery.

Martha is reported to have had a happy childhood at Chestnut Grove.

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