Obama related to 18th century Dublin businessman

[Hope And Change]

Obama related to 18th century Dublin businessman

Thursday August 07 2008

US presidential candidate Barack Obama reportedly has stronger links to Ireland than previously thought.

The Illinois Senator is already known to have ancestral links in Co Offaly.

However, reports this morning say researchers at Trinity College have found that he is also descended from an 18th century Dublin wig-maker.

The researchers have found that Obama's great-uncle, Michael Kearney, was a well-known businessman in the capital at the time.

The American also had a distant cousin who became provost of Trinity College and later bishop of Ossory in the 19th century.


http://www.kerryman.ie/breaking-news/national-news/obama-related-to-18th-century-dublin-businessman-1448394.html">Link

[CJCRANE]

1. O' Bama nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. I think that should be a multiple-great uncle

Since a great-uncle is the same generation as a grandfather, we can safely say no great-uncle of his was "well-known businessman in the capital at the time" of "an 18th century Dublin wig-maker".

Here's a family tree for him: http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html

There's a Falmouth Kearney, born Ireland, around 1832; and his daughter Mary Ann Kearney, born Tipton Co., Ind., 19 Sept. 1869. See http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0315/obamab.html

Ah yes - more detail in this story:

The Kearneys prospered in the 18th century, with John Kearney, a distant cousin, becoming provost of Trinity College and later bishop of Ossory.

Michael Kearney, described as Obama's sixth great granduncle, entered the guild of barber surgeons and periwigmakers in 1717, and was enrolled as a hairdresser in the freemen's rolls in 1718. He had the right to vote in elections to the city council in Dublin.

In the 1750s, "when the aristocracy tried to gerrymander elections in Dublin city council, to put in their own candidates", Michael Kearney was prominent among guildsmen in opposing them.

After the 1780s, the fortunes of this line of the Kearneys declined because of economic changes after the Act of Union and a downturn in the fashion of wig-making.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0807/1218047756312.html

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[Hope And Change]

3. Interesting.Thanks for posting.