Obama: Kansas Mother’s Son Gets More Irish
Ireland has laid claim to the son of a Kansas mother, Barack Obama.
Wait a minute, you’re thinking, we already know this. Didn’t somebody establish a while ago that Obama had an ancestor from Ireland?
You mean this:
Previous investigations had indicated that Obama’s third great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Fulmuth Kearney, had emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1850
Well that’s not Irish enough. Now new research has established that the Hawaiian born Illinois senator and possible 2008 presidential candidate, is descended from a shoemaker in Moneygall, Co Offaly. You see? Now he’s really Irish.
Stephen Neill, a Church of Ireland rector from Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary did the research after being tipped-off from America and facilitated by Ancestry.co.uk, though I’m not quite sure how that works:
-[rrring]
-Hello?
-Rector, I have a tip for ya. An American, he might be Irish.
-Who is this?
-Never mind. Look in the Offaly records for Fulmuth Kearney.
-I can’t afford the time for that sort of stuff.
-Don’t worry about that; the Brits will make contact and facilitate you.
-Who are you?
-I’m a genealogist. In Salt Lake City, Utah.
-But why should I do this?
-[click]
Canon Neill was able to scour the indexed records at the Templeharry Rectory, which go back as far as 1799, to find that Fulmuth’s parents were Joseph and Phoebe. He also found baptismal records of a number of Fulmuth’s siblings, which confirm that Joseph Kearney was a shoemaker from Moneygall.
UPDATE: Wouldn’t ya know it, but Stephen Neill keeps his own blog - see his comment below - so you can read the story from the horse’s mouth. (Hat-tip: Primal Sneeze)
See Also:
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Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Stephen’s a sound fella. He’s Paddy Anglican who was helping out Flirty on my site the other day.
Fek it! I fluffed the links. Can ya fix them, please?
EVERYONE in american politics has an irish ancestor; it’s one of the prerequisites for declaring as a candidate.
Primal - fixed the links and even removed the mean no-follows for you.
And good lord, how connected we all are! I think I better insert the link up there to Stephen’s own post on the matter.
Martha - ah yes, but we don’t actually want EVERY one of them!
Hmmmm - not far from the truth! Are you bugging my phone?
Thanks for the link
Stephen