B'gora! He's Irish!

Barack Obama’s Irish Family Roots Confirmed in Offaly County
U.S. Presidential Hopeful’s Family Origins Traced to Moneygall; Records Found in Local Parishioner’s Cellar

PROVO, UTAH – May 3, 2007 — Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, is now able to confirm that U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s Irish ancestors originated in Moneygall and neighboring Shinrone in County Offaly, Ireland.

In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, Ancestry.com revealed on March 12th that Sen. Obama has Irish branches in his family tree. Following the news and in response to several inquiries, Ancestry.com continued its search of Obama’s Irish ancestors.

Baptism and probate records linking the family line back to Moneygall have been unearthed with the assistance of Canon Stephen Neill in the Templeharry Rectory records, which until recently were stored in a parishioner’s home.

“This research will once and for all put to rest any perceptions that Barack Obama is a first generation American, said Megan Smolenyak, Chief Family Historian for Ancestry.com. “Like most of us he has an interesting mix of ancestry, including some impressively early all-American roots.”

Researchers initially thought that Obama’s third great-grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, who sailed from Ireland to New York in 1850 at 19-years-old, was the only member of the family to emigrate. However, records reveal that other Kearney family members had in fact been in America since the 1790s.

One ancestor, Falmouth’s paternal uncle, Francis, had in fact bequeathed land to his brother, Falmouth’s father Joseph, with the condition that he emigrate in order to inherit. He did so along with his wife Phebe and four children, including Falmouth, although at various times in the mid-19th Century.