“When Falmouth Kearney started out on his long Atlantic crossing, he might have dreamed, but hardly imagined, that one day his great- great- great- grandson would return as president of the United States,” Obama said in a May 23, 2011 speech in Dublin. His Irish visit also included an emotional stop at Moneygall, the village where Kearney was born ca. 1831.
His is a story many American genealogists can identify with. Thirty-seven million Americans claim Irish ancestry. Most descend from Irish immigrants of the mid 1800s who were refugees from a potato famine that killed hundreds of thousands of their neighbors and family.
Obama’s Irish Ancestry
Obama’s melting pot ancestry makes him 3.9 % Irish, according to research by the late William Addams Reitwiesner, a Library of Congress staffer who, with the help of other genealogists, compiled the ancestry of several famous Americans.
The President’s two Irish immigrant ancestors were Falmouth Kearney and John Wilson.
The Obama Descent from Ancestor John Wilson
Little is known about John Wilson, who died ca. 1830 in Missouri. He married Ruth Welborn/Wilburn, daughter of James and Mary (Teague) Welborn. James was born in St. George’s Parish (Baltimore), Maryland in 1736 and Mary was born in 1742 in Frederick Co., Virginia, where they were married.
The Welborns were in Rowan Co., North Carolina, when Ruth was born ca. 1774, but moved to Kentucky. John and Ruth Wilson lived in Missouri. This is the Obama descent from their daughter, Christine Wilson, who married Edward McCurry in 1815 in Barren Co., Kentucky.
- Harbin Wilburn McCurry (1823-1899) who wed Elizabeth Creekmore and settled in the Oklahoma Territory
- Thomas Creekmore McCurry (1850-1939) who married Margaret Wright (1869-1935) of Arkansas in 1885 in Chautauqua Co., Kansas
- Leona McCurry (1897-1968), married World War I veteran Rolla Charles Payne (1892-1968) in 1921 at Independence, Kansas.
- Madelyn (Payne) Dunham of Kansas and Hawaii, the bank president grandmother who helped raise her grandson, Barack Obama, and died two days before he was elected president.
Obama’s Kearney Genealogy
Much has been written about President Obama’s Kearney ancestry, which Irish Anglican priest Stephen Neill helped research for genealogy website Ancestry.com. Falmouth Kearney/Carney, the immigrant ancestor, was the son of Irish shoemaker Joseph Kearny and his wife Phoebe Donovan of Moneygall, County Offaly, and the Kearney line has been traced back to Joseph Kearney and his wife, Cicerly/Cicely. Joseph was born ca. 1698 and was buried at Shinrone, County Offaly, in 1791.
Falmouth Kearney was named for his maternal grandfather, Falmouth/Fulmoth Donovan of Ballygurteen, who married Mary Benn.
Falmouth’s father, Joseph Kearney, came to America in 1849 to obtain land in Ross County, Ohio. Falmouth came a year later and his mother came in 1851, with younger children William and Mary (or Anne). James Kearney, possibly an uncle, came earlier.
President's Irish Ancestor Wed Ohio Girl
Falmouth Kearney worked as a farm hand in Ohio, where he met and married Charlotte Holloway, daughter of Josiah and Martha (Mallow?) Holloway of Ross Co. Ohio. The ceremony was performed by Justice of the Peace William Kearney, possibly another uncle.
The 1860 census of Deerfield Twp. in Ross County, Ohio, lists Falmouth and Charlotte in the household of Joseph Holloway, 32, who is probably her brother. Nearby are the families of her parents and his, as well as two other Kearney households. Unlike so many other Irish families, these Kearneys had survived the Irish famine with most of the family intact.
Three Kearney Sisters Marry Three Dunham Brothers
Several members of the Kearney family moved to Jefferson in Tipton County, Indiana, where Falmouth and Charlotte had their own farm. The 1870 census list their children as Phoebe (Feba), Elizabeth, Martha, Margaret, William, Joseph, “Falmoth” and Mary.
Living nearby was the family of Jacob Dunham (born in Virginia), his wife, the former Louisa Stroup, and their children David, Jeptha, Catherine, Jacob and Joseph. Three of the Kearney daughters -- Phoebe, Martha and Mary Ann -- married three of the Dunham brothers.
Barack Obama's Kearney-Dunham Line of Descent
Mary Ann Kearney (1869-1936) married Jacob W. Dunham (1863-1930). Both died at Wichita, Kansas. Here is how President Obama descends from them:
- Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Sr. (1894-1970) married Ruth Lucille Armour (1900-1926) in 1915 at Wichita, Kansas.
- Stanley Armour Dunham (1918-1992) and Madelyn Lee Payne (1922-2008) were married in 1940 at Eldorado, Kansas and later moved to Hawaii. (See her Irish ancestry above.)
- Stanley Ann Dunham (1942-1995) was born in Wichita, Kansas and died in Honolulu. She married fellow student Barack Hussein Obama in Hawaii in 1961 and they were the parents of President Barack Obama, whose father later was a senior economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance.
An American Heritage
Barack Obama has a continuing interest in his family history. His African, English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Swiss and German ancestry reflects the diverse backgrounds of many U. S. citizens and a proud historic tradition that welcomed immigrants from numerous nationalities to American shores. In this century, however, there are some politicians who want to close the nation’s doors to some nationalities. Indeed, there are Americans who boast about their European background and at the same time they disparage Obama’s African heritage and spread false rumors about his ancestry.
(Companion articles cover Barack Obama’s French ancestry, his kinship with seven presidents and two kings, and his descent from 14 Revolutionary War soldiers.)
Sources:
- “Obama Talks about His Irish Kin, Falmouth Kearney, in Dublin Speech,” by Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times, May 23, 2011.
- “Falmouth Kearney,” by Scott Fornek, Sept. 9, 2007, Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 9, 2007.
- The website of genealogist William Addams Reitwiesner; accessed May 24, 2011.
- The website of Moneygall, Ireleand; accessed May 24, 2011
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