Yes -- George is one of the Kilkenny Clooneys... 'Word of warning -- be prepared for skeletons'
The Hollywood stars digging up their Irish roots - and the Irish stars with surprising ancestors. By John Costello
The world's most eligible bachelor is unsurprisingly suave and sophisticated, but few would have realised he is also a Kilkenny man.
Yup, George Clooney is not only a cool customer but something of a cool cat after the Hollywood heartthrob's ancestry can be traced back to Tullahought in Kilkenny.
The man who previously traced President Barack Obama's roots to Offaly discovered Gorgeous George's great-great-grandfather Nicholas Clooney was born in the village in 1829.
Local records suggest he gathered his belongings and set sail for America in 1847.
But as the village prepares to welcome its long-lost son when Clooney embarks on his motorbike tour of Ireland in April, interest in retracing the footsteps of our forefathers has never been stronger.
"It is huge at the moment," says Mario Corrigan, executive librarian at Newbridge library, who helped the American celebrity Rosie O'Donnell uncover her Kildare roots.
"While traditionally it has been people from overseas who have been interested in discovering their family tree, in the last five years or so there has been a huge increase in the number of Irish families researching their roots.
"This has been made dramatically easier by the amount of information available online through the census archives.
"So even if people are just going on the internet and entering a name and seeing where it leads them, it is giving them a much greater interest."
While the saying may go that Irish people are all one generation away from the mountains and bogs, digging up family roots can reveal a far more colourful tapestry.
Most people are aware that Rosanna Davison's father Chris de Burgh has Argentinian roots, while Amanda Byram's Iranian heritage is visible in her stunningly sultry good looks. But swing from the branches of the family trees of some other homegrown celebrities and you could be surprised.
Joe Duffy may be seen as a true-blue Dub but his grandmother was born in India after her father was stationed there as a Connaught Ranger.
Amy Huberman's family history is far more extraordinary. She was born in Dublin and raised a Catholic, but her Jewish heritage stretches to Poland. Her father, the London-born fashion designer Harold Huberman, arrived in Dublin in his 30s where he met and married Amy's mother, Sandra, who had given up her job as a secondary school teacher to model for him.
However, growing up, Amy discovered her grandfather had left Poland before World War One and headed for London.
Eager to find out more about the life her grandfather had escaped from, Amy travelled to Auschwitz where she met two rabbis and an Auschwitz survivor.
"I was talking to the rabbi and I was explaining that I was brought up Catholic and he said, 'But your Dad is Jewish. You're a survivor and everyone here is a survivor.' If you think back two generations, what would have happened if my granddad hadn't left Poland? They had relatives there and they sent money back to them when the war started. They didn't hear from them again."
While Amy Huberman knew of her family roots as a child, Charlie Bird's family history was something of a blank page until he took part in the RTÉ's Who Do You Think You Are?
He was vaguely aware his grandfather had come to Ireland from Bermuda but knew little else.
The 1901 and 1911 Census (available online at census.nationalarchives.ie) confirmed his grandfather was born in Bermuda, but for some reason he had briefly changed his name from Thomas to Timothy.
A long search connected his family history to Bermuda, London and Ireland, finally revealing the family's hidden secret.
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Timothy Collins had actually married 17-year-old Agnes Smith in London in 1892. However, eight years later he arrived in Macroom in Cork where he married Jane O'Shea after declaring he was a bachelor and calling himself Thomas.
Another celebrity to get a shock was Diarmuid Gavin. His grandfather Michael had worked hard to get his family out of Dublin's inner city tenements. Indeed, his great-grandfather Joseph, known as 'The Blind Beggar', had lived in poverty. He was a father of five who had married his pregnant wife at the age of 19.
Diarmuid discovered his great grandfather's real name was actually Crichton Strachan Gavin. He had been born in Glasgow to a family that came from a long line of wealthy Scottish Presbyterians with interests in shipbuilding and distilleries. However, his great grandfather had been denied his inheritance when he moved to Dublin and he set up illegal shebeens across Dublin.
The conservative Presbyterian Gavins in Scotland frowned on young Crichton and disowned him. So Diarmuid's great grandfather had changed his name to Joseph, abandoned his father's religion and for the rest of his days claimed to be Dublin-born.
Linda Martin's family tree had been shrouded in mystery when she was growing up.
"On both sides no one really spoke about old family," she says. "But there were rumours of Italian roots in Belfast."
It was at the funeral of her father's sister that Linda decided to uncover the truth.
"At the funeral I was looking at the Martins as they sat together and it looked like they were all members of the mafia," she says with a laugh.
"I knew if I didn't look into it now it could be too late because no one was getting any younger."
She then discovered that her paternal grandfather, Thomas Martin, had lived in the Italian Quarter in Belfast. However, the big revelation came when she found out that Thomas's sister Rosalie was actually christened 'Martini' and not 'Martin'. She then realised her grandfather had turned his back on his Italian and Catholic heritage when he married a Protestant.
"For some reason he refused to have anything to do with the family and his background once he got married," says Linda. "So when it came to our family background he took every piece of knowledge to the grave."
With help from the Ulster Historical Foundation and the Belfast 1901 census, Linda discovered her great grandfather Francis Martin was actually born in Dublin and was the son of Italian immigrants John Martini and Rosanna Lazzaroni.
Her journey eventually led Linda to Milan to find her relatives, which turned out to be the famous biscuit-making Lazzaroni family. "It was amazing that the Lazzaronis who stayed in Italy became multi-millionaires," laughs Linda. "They even have streets named after them."
The experience proved an immensely rewarding one for Linda, who now recommends that everyone use the resources available to untangle their family roots.
But she does offer a word of warning.
"Be prepared for skeletons in the closet," she says, "because there are always illegitimate children and the likes. I discovered my grandmother Jane Green was something of a serial bigamist.
"When her marriages ended she simply changed her name and married again without getting a divorce. But I suppose you could get away with that before the internet!"
Irish Independent
