Obama, Biden both feeling their Irish heritage today
By: Kiki Ryan and Jeff Dufour
Washington Examiner
03/17/09 12:05 AM EDT
Long lost brothers?
“What is it with Irish shoemakers that they spawn politicians?” So asks Megan Smolenyak, chief family historian at Ancestry.com, now that she’s delved deeper into the Irish roots of both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
ccording to Smolenyak, both Obama’s and Biden’s Irish relatives were shoemakers by trade, and arrived in the United States within six months of one another in the mid-19th century.
So we couldn’t help but ask: Might they be distant relatives?
"They come from slightly different parts of the country,” Smolenyak said, “and the surnames don’t match up. But never say never.”
Obama’s heritage can be traced back to the small towns of Moneygall and Shinrone in County Offaly, Ireland. His third great-grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, immigrated in 1849, his family following a year later. They ultimately settled in Fayette County, Ohio, among Irish relatives. Smolenyak found a tombstone in Ohio that had markings for a Kearney family.
Biden’s Irish family can likely be traced to Carlingford, County Louth. His great-great-grandfather, Owen Finnegan, immigrated in 1949, and his family also followed a year later. They would settle in Pennsylvania.
“Ireland is actually some of the toughest research out there,” said Smolenyak. “In 1922, many of the records were destroyed.”
But, she adds, “I’m sure [the ancestors] would never have imagined what their descendants would achieve.”
Below, a record of the 1852 marriage between Falmouth Kearney and Charlotte Holloway in Fayette County, Ohio, and a passenger list of a ship that landed in New York carrying Kearney. (Courtesy Ancestry.com)
To see President Obama's family tree, click here.
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