All the president's women

The death of Obama's maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, within a whisker of his historic victory seems especially cruel when you consider the influence she had on him: 'It was my grandmother who taught me about hard work' Photograph: Obama for America

Sarah Ogwel Onyango, the step-grandmother who brought up his father from aged nine, provides an ongoing link with Obama's Kenyan roots. On hearing he had won, she declared herself 'so happy that I don't know if I will die of happiness!' Photograph: Paul Bronstein/Getty

'She was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known,' wrote Obama of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, in his memoir. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 53 Photograph: EPA/Obama for America/EPA

Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's younger half-sister, a high-school history teacher in Hawaii says, 'I've been calling him a feminist for the last year. People laugh but I think it's true' Photograph: Paul J Richards/AFP

From the start of the campaign, it was clear that his wife, Michelle, was never going to fit the stereotype of an adoring political wife. His daughters, meanwhile, want a puppy — which suggests that they are remarkably normal Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty