History is messy. It’s rarely the clean, sanitized version we get in textbooks, especially when power and reputation are on the line. For nearly a century, one of the biggest scandals in American political history was dismissed as a thirsty grab for fame or a delusional fantasy. I'm talking about the story of the president’s secret daughter, Elizabeth Ann Blaesing.
She was the child of Warren G. Harding.
For decades, the "official" word was that it never happened. Critics tore Nan Britton, the mother, to shreds. They called her a "degenerate" and a liar. But in 2015, the truth finally caught up with the rumors. DNA testing did what decades of courtroom battles couldn't. It proved, once and for all, that the girl who grew up in the shadows of the 1920s was indeed the biological child of the 29th President of the United States.
It’s a wild story. Honestly, it’s a bit heartbreaking too.
Why the President's Secret Daughter Was Ignored for Decades
When Nan Britton published The President's Daughter in 1927, she wasn't just sharing a juicy secret. She was trying to survive. Harding had died in office in 1923, and the financial support he had been secretly sending Nan vanished. She was a single mother in an era that was incredibly cruel to "unwed" women.
The book was a sensation. It was also the first time a woman had dared to publicly claim she had an illegitimate child with a sitting president. The backlash was nuclear.
The Harding family and the Republican establishment went into full-grown damage control mode. They didn't just deny it; they tried to erase her. They claimed Harding was sterile due to a childhood bout of mumps. They portrayed Nan as a "pathological" liar. They even had the book confiscated in some places. Because the public wanted to believe in the dignity of the office, many people just went along with the smear campaign.
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It’s crazy to think about now, but for 88 years, that was the status quo. If you brought up Elizabeth Ann, you were a conspiracy theorist.
The 2015 DNA Breakthrough That Changed Everything
Fast forward to the age of modern genomics. The descendants of Nan Britton and the descendants of Warren G. Harding finally decided to settle the score. They used AncestryDNA.
James Blaesing, Elizabeth Ann’s son, provided the samples. On the other side, Peter Harding and Abigail Harding (grand-nephew and grand-niece of the President) stepped up. The results weren't even close. They were a 99.9% match.
The "mumps" story? Total fiction.
The "delusional" mother? Vindicated, though she had been dead for over 20 years by the time the news broke.
This wasn't just a win for a family tree. It was a massive wake-up call for historians. It proved that sometimes the "scandalous" rumors are more accurate than the official records kept by people in suits. Peter Harding actually told The New York Times that he felt it was important to "get the truth out" because the family had lived under a cloud of doubt for so long.
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What life was like for Elizabeth Ann
Elizabeth didn't grow up in the White House. She grew up in hiding, basically.
She spent much of her childhood being moved around to different relatives and friends to keep her existence a secret while Harding was in office. Nan would visit her, but she couldn't live with her. Can you imagine that? Your father is the most powerful man in the world, his face is on every newspaper, and you’re being shuffled from house to house so nobody asks too many questions.
She eventually married, had children, and lived a relatively quiet life in Glendale, California. She passed away in 2005. She died without ever knowing for a scientific fact that she was who her mother said she was, though she reportedly never doubted it.
The Politics of Silence
We have to talk about why this stayed a "secret" for so long. It wasn't just about protecting Harding’s ghost. It was about protecting the institution.
Harding’s presidency was already riddled with scandals, like the Teapot Dome affair. His administration was viewed as one of the most corrupt in history. Admitting to the president's secret daughter would have been the final nail in the coffin for his legacy during the mid-20th century.
Historians like Francis Russell, who wrote The Shadow of Blooming Grove, actually found Harding's love letters to another woman, Carrie Fulton Phillips. But even with proof of his infidelity, the idea of a child was treated as a bridge too far. It shows a weird bias in how we record history: we can handle a president having an affair, but we struggle with the tangible, human consequences of those affairs.
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Looking at Other "Secret" Presidential Children
Harding isn't the only one. He’s just the one with the most definitive DNA proof recently.
- Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: This is the most famous case. For two centuries, the Jefferson family denied it. Then, in 1998, DNA testing showed a match between the Jefferson male line and the descendants of Eston Hemings.
- Grover Cleveland: He actually admitted it. Sort of. During his campaign, the chant "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" was everywhere. He didn't hide the fact that he was paying child support for Oscar Folsom Cleveland, though he claimed he wasn't 100% sure he was the father.
- Bill Clinton: There have been long-standing, though unproven and largely debunked by DNA tests in the late 90s, rumors regarding Danney Williams.
The difference with the Harding case is the sheer vitriol aimed at the mother. Nan Britton was treated like a criminal for telling the truth.
Lessons From the Harding Scandal
What do we actually do with this information? It's more than just gossip.
First, it’s a reminder that "official" sources have agendas. When a government or a powerful family tells you something is a lie, they might just be protecting an asset. Secondly, it highlights the importance of the right to privacy versus the public's right to know.
If you're researching genealogy or looking into your own family secrets, the Harding-Britton case is the ultimate blueprint. It shows that the truth usually comes out, even if it takes a century.
Next Steps for the Curious:
- Read the Source Material: If you can find a copy, Nan Britton’s The President's Daughter is a fascinating, if heartbreaking, look at the 1920s from the perspective of a woman on the outside looking in.
- Check the Library of Congress: They have digitized many of the Harding papers. Seeing the tone of the era helps explain why the secret stayed buried.
- Verify Your Own History: If you have family stories that don't "fit" the official record, modern autosomal DNA tests are the only way to bypass the gatekeepers of history.
The story of Elizabeth Ann Blaesing is finally part of the record. She isn't a "rumor" anymore. She's a daughter, a mother, and a piece of the American story that was almost erased.