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US VICE PRESIDENT Joe Biden touches down in Ireland today for a visit during which he is expected to pay homage to his ancestral Irish roots.
In preparation, genealogists have been putting together his family tree. So just how Irish is Joe Biden?
Prepare yourself for quite a few ‘great-greats’ and even a few ‘great-great-great’ ancestors in there.
However, Biden’s closest link to Ireland is his great-grandfather, James Finnegan, who emigrated from Louth as a child in 1850.
Family history research company Ancestor Network carried out extensive research into the Vice President’s family tree ahead of his visit. And according to genealogist John Hamrock, his Irish roots are pretty strong.
According to Hamrock, all eight of Biden’s great-great-grandparents on his mother’s side were born in Ireland in the first half of the 19th century.
And two great-grandparents on his father’s side were born here too.
Having 10 of his 16 great-great-grandparents born in Ireland makes Biden five-eighths Irish.
“Biden’s family were labouring people, who came from fairly common stock. They were among a generation of Irish people who emigrated to America at the height of the Great Famine,” Hamrock told TheJournal.ie.
Joe Biden is quite proud of his Irish roots and it’s something he takes pretty seriously.
Let’s start at the beginning
Biden was born on November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and says he grew up in a family that was steeped in Irish values.
In an interview with RTÉ this week, Biden said the Irish trip means ” a great deal” to him, as it was a visit he had hoped to make with his son Beau, who died of cancer last year.
“My grandfather and grandmother Finnegan, all my mother’s brothers, and my father told us about the courage and commitment it took for our relatives to emigrate from Ireland – in the midst of tragedy to distant shores, where they didn’t know what awaited them. It took great courage,” he said.
Biden’s mother, Jean Finnegan, was born in the US to Ambrose Finnegan and Geraldine Blewitt.
According to the research, Ambrose’s dad, James Finnegan, arrived in New York on the SS Marchioness of Bute in 1850 with his mother and two younger brothers when he was just seven years old. The family came from the Cooley Peninsula in Louth.
His father, Owen Finnegan, a 24-year-old shoemaker, had arrived a year earlier on board the SS Isaac Wright.
James Finnegan later married Catherine Roche, whose parents Thomas and Bridget Roche were also born in Ireland, although it’s unclear where. Thomas Roche, who was born in 1813, is listed as being a stonemason.
Jean Finnegan’s mother, Geraldine Blewitt, also had strong Irish connections.
Her four grandparents – Patrick Blewitt, Catherine Scanlon, Mary Arthurs and James Stanton – were all born in Ireland between 1830 and 1845, according to the research.
The most is known about the Blewitts, who are believed to have come from Rappacastle, near Ballina, Co Mayo.
Biden’s great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt emigrated to the US in 1851 on board the SS Excelsior. He was accompanied by his wife Mary Mulderrig and their seven children, including Patrick Blewitt – Biden’s great-great-grandfather.
Patrick Blewitt, then aged 18, was listed as a sailor on board the ship.
A couple of Irish figures also popped up in Biden’s father’s side of the family.
His great-great-grandparents John Hanafy and Mary Ward were born in Ireland. Mary Ward’s parents (Biden’s great-great-great-grandparents) John and Mary Ward were from Co Galway, according to the research.
Hamrock said researching Biden’s family tree took “quite a bit of detective work”, with census, parish records, land records, trade directories and birth, death and marriage records all used to aid the search.
“It’s more challenging the further back you go,” Hamrock said, adding records in Ireland were often patchy when it came to ship passenger lists and Catholic Church records prior to 1850.
“It takes good methodology and perseverance.”
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He can’t be more Irish than Barack O’Bama, surely?
That’s quite funny really because the majority of Obama’s ancestors are from shinrone not moneygall. As has been known since 2008, Shinrone, only 10 miles from Moneygall, is actually the farthest back to which President Obama’s Kearney family history has been traced and was regarded by them as the ancestral home. The president’s seventh-great-grandparents, Joseph (who was born in 1698 and lived to age 93) and Cicely Kearney, are buried at the graveyard here, along with many members of the Kearney family.
https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/shinrone-birthplace-and-resting-place-of-obamas-irish-ancestors-134924-May2011/&ved=0ahUKEwiK2-LxhbnNAhWBAsAKHQkxDSEQFggdMAE&usg=AFQjCNHTatyPsAWU1WmSHu3B5XPaqre-tA
@Damocles
Oh for crying out loud, would you look at the lick-ars* grovelling you are at. Going so far as to try to jokingly associate his african islamic name as being Irish, yet behind the joke is the agenda which says the Irish have no distinct lineage to a western European white people. How childish and what an example of the low self esteem mentality that pervades this country, no real pride in being Irish. We have a distinct ethnic composition and origin which is white western European, this is just fact, we are not an ethnic group of people from anywhere and made up of just anyone.
Every other ethnicity of every other race is permitted to proclaim their ethnic origins and lineage with pride, bout time the Irish did too.
A bit more Irish than O’ Bama, but not as Irish as Eddie Murphy.
sure if we go back far enough we’re all related!! ;)
I think it’s great that Americans take great pride in their heritage and roots.After all,99% of them are from somewhere else.On a side note,I only found out recently that a Cork man named the ‘United States of America’.
http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/The-forgotten-Irishman-who-named-the-United-States-of-America.html
I would be more interested in his sons fracking company and how many government contracts it picked up
Honestly, who really cares?
So the closest link to Ireland is someone who Emigrated 166 years ago,…..It`s a pity he can`t play for Ireland using the “Parentage rule”, as he falls out of that category by a few generations.
And we could have done with another midfielder for Italy on Wednesday…
Your idea is not as far fetched as its sounds in relation to the Rep of Ireland v Belgium .
Actually if Bidens dad put his name on the FBR before Biden was born then VP Biden could put his name on the FBR and become an Irish citizen himself…. And play for Ireland….
Whoop whoop!!
* meant to say his mam not his dad
Every yank thinks they are Irish.
Except the Polish, chinese, African, Italian, Greek, German, Korean, Vietnamese Yanks, but then again, they don’t think they are Yanks either, so maybe the Yanks are descended from the original western European stock, so you are partially correct, seeing as the Irish and Scots-Irish made up a significant number of the founding people of the United States.
Yea but many Irish are from norse blow in stock…
No, not all Yanks think they’re Irish, but there are over 35 million in the US with Irish ancestry, and they are proud of it. Nothing wrong with that. And naturally you’d see many of them visiting Ireland because it’s in their genealogy.
Oh Jases… Not another one..
If Ireland were able to embarrass themsleves claiming the coloured Barack Obama is Irish I don’t think the “experts” are needed to pretend Biden has Irish roots.
You know what coloured implies yes?
10 of 16 great-great grandparents = “5/8 irish” is it? Good grief! Everything grand in Syria now is it?
Syria?
They are all proud of their roots that they only visit for a few days and run back. Can’t say I blame them this place has nothing only scenery. U.S has everything and more
Was in Canada on a family RV holiday in 80s as a teenager. One KOA campsite owner said he’d recently been to Ireland. I asked what he thought of Ireland and he answered “Depressing”…
I’m born and raised US and have visited Ireland more than once. Love it there! Great people, beautiful scenery, great food & drink. Prices were a bit higher for most things, but the euro had much to do with that.
Yes, the US has pretty much “everything”, but there are also some negative aspects that you don’t get as much of in Ireland. Both have good and bad points, but there’s just something incredibly charming about the Irish that makes it well worth a visit!
Shotgun Paddy
Who cares????
He’s from Scranton, the Electric City
Hay
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