notforsale

One of U.S. history’s mysteries has been solved thanks to DNA, and the answer is right in Portland, KGW reports (http://tinyurl.com/wharding1).

The 29th president, Warren G. Harding (pictured inset), who was married, died suddenly during his presidency in 1923. After he died, his mistress, Nan Britton, publicly claimed that he was the father of her child, Elizabeth Ann Blaesing (the president’s only known offspring).

Harding’s family was outraged, not to mention scandalized, and even more so when Britton’s memoir, “The President’s Daughter,” was published in 1927. They denied that the child was Harding’s (even insisting he was sterile), and many people flat out called Britton a liar. Historians tended to side with the family, and Harding is usually mentioned as being childless.

Until Ancestry.com jumped into the fray, that is. DNA testing was done on Elizabeth Blaesing’s son, James Blaesing (pictured), 65, of Portland, and some Harding descendants. The results? It’s a 99.9 percent certainty that Nan Britton was telling the truth all along — making James Blaesing Warren Harding’s grandson. He is pictured, courtesy of KGW.

“You know what this is? It’s a love story,” Blaesing said of his grandparents. “It was true love, especially on her side, and I know he felt the same way. And he got trapped.”

“I was so jazzed,” he told KGW. “It was just so exciting to find out. Here it was, after all my grandmother and my mom went through, and here’s the truth.”

— Elleda Wilson