It's O'Bama from Offaly . . . with a spring in his step
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US presidential hopeful Barack Obama is no less than the great-great-great-great-grandson of an Offaly shoemaker.
A Church of Ireland canon and researchers for genealogy website ancestry.co.uk say they have traced the roots of the US senator for Illinois - who will battle Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination to run for president - to the towns of Moneygall and neighbouring Shinrone in Co Offaly.
Canon Stephen Neill, rector of the Cloughjordan and Borrisokane group of parishes, which takes in Moneygall, confirmed that records show the man who could become America's first black president has Irish roots.
"We've unearthed records that show beyond doubt that Mr Obama's ancestors on his mother's side lived, worked, married and had children in the area," said Canon Neill.
Baptism and probate records linking the family line back to Moneygall have been unearthed with the assistance of Canon Neill in the Templeharry Rectory. The records had until recently been stored in a parishioner's home.
Canon Neill found baptism and probate records linking the family to the area following a call from the UK online genealogy group in March.
"The Ancestry group had already discovered Mr Obama's third great-grandfather Fulmuth Kearney had sailed to the US from Ireland in the mid-1800s but we have now discovered where Fulmuth's parents lived," said Canon Neill.
"I'm glad he's a Democrat," he added.
The young Democrat, who poses a serious threat to Hillary Clinton's election hopes, can now play the crucial Irish card on one side and the African-American card on his father's side.
While much has been written about his Kenyan ancestry, his European origins have until now been mostly overlooked.
Emigrate
"It was initially thought that Obama's third great-grandfather Fulmuth Kearney, who sailed from Ireland to New York aged 19 in 1850, was the only member of the family to emigrate," said Megan Smolenyak from the Ancestry.co.uk group.
"However the records reveal that other Kearney family members had in fact been in America since the 1790s.
"One member, Fulmuth's paternal uncle Francis, had bequeathed land to his brother, Fulmuth's father Joseph, with the condition that he emigrate in order to inherit.
"Joseph did so, along with his wife Phebe and four children, including Fulmuth, at various times in the mid-19th century."
The records show that Fulmuth was born to Joseph, a shoemaker, and Phebe Kearney.
- Dara deFaoite
