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African Americans inspired by Obama tracing their Irish roots in greater numbers

EVELYN TIERNAN,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, May 24, 2011, 9:34 AM

Updated Tuesday, May 24, 2011, 9:45 AM

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Michelle and Barack Obama welcomed by the crowds in his ancestral home of Moneygall

Since U.S President Barack Obama’s connection with Ireland, many African Americans have been inspired to trace their Irish roots.

It appears that genealogical firms have been inundated with large numbers of queries of this kind from African Americans.

A leading academic recently revealed that Irish immigrants and African Americans married more than any other ethnic groups in the U.S. in the 19th century. That slave owners and poor immigrant workers are the two main groups of Irish ancestors being uncovered by African American looking into their past, the Daily Mail reports.

Eneclann, the Irish heritage company who discovered Mr Obama’s Irish ancestry says, ‘About half of the people we spoke to were descended from slave owners and half from poor Irish immigrants.’

Mr Obama owes his ancestry to Jane de Montmorency Wright, his closest living relative as sixth cousin, three times removed.

Jane says: ‘I am the same generation as Obama’s great-grandparents on the family tree. And my seven grandchildren, the oldest of whom is 17, appear to be a generation older than the President,' as read in the Daily Mail.

In 1850 Falmouth Kearney, the 19-year-old son of a shoemaker, left the Irish town of Moneygall for America, where he married Charlotte Holloway from Ohio. He was Mr Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather.

Moneygall welcomes home their most famous son Barack Obama - VIDEOS & PHOTOS

Live (Monday): President Obama's historic visit to Ireland

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goldenblade | Jun 02, 2011, 10:16 AM EDT

Its a wonderful thing to be able to trace one's family tree and embrace all of one's ancestors. I wonder what my ancestors would think looking down at me now LOL - "damn! we created a monster" (Ed. comment: A cute one)!!

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ellenfromcork | May 28, 2011, 10:17 AM EDT

" It's a wise man that knows his own father"

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abhainn | May 27, 2011, 05:49 PM EDT

You guys might be right: Col. Gaddafi could well have Irish ancestry: Gaffey is a common name in Ireland. Gaffey-Ghaddafi. What's the difference? ;-)

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abhainn | May 27, 2011, 05:39 PM EDT

It's funny: when Alex Haley wrote "Roots" in 1976, he probably did not anticipate an increase in African Americans' interest in their Irish ancestors. It makes sense, of course, that many Americans have diverse ancestry.

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antoman | May 25, 2011, 05:45 PM EDT

With an Irish passport.

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antoman | May 25, 2011, 02:46 PM EDT

@Kilsally-Would you believe I was going to come back here and type that in.Kidnapped and enslaved he was and brought to Ireland.He's Welsh.

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Kilsally | May 25, 2011, 02:25 PM EDT

antoman - didnt the `Irish` kidnap `Saint Patrick` from Wales or Scotland (Roman Briton anyhow) to be a slave?

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Kilsally | May 25, 2011, 02:23 PM EDT

Obama also claimed British heritage in his speech today on his mothers side.

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antoman | May 24, 2011, 07:14 PM EDT

jacersagain,Early explorers of America reported discovering a tribe of Indians whose hair was red in colour.I'm not going to suggest St.Brendan raped a tribe of Native American Indians but rather he was welcomed and had a damn good time.I don't know where Gaddafi got his skin from but it looks like it was hastily assembled and a botched job done of stapling it to his skull.Ghaddafi's personel bodyguard/warriors are all women and reportedly to enter into his service they must sleep with the man.But enough about Ghaddafi I don't want to endanger our oil supply.Coastal raiding has gone on for centuries would Dublin exist were it not for the vikings?

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jacersagain | May 24, 2011, 06:06 PM EDT

antoman, you of the Cork county – what about the raids made by the slave seekers of Nth Africa who raided Ireland’s southern shores, ripped the heart out many an Irish village and bred out of their captives into their own cultures? Where d’ye think that Libyan, Mr. Ghaddafi, got his fair skin from? Why do you think Ghaddafi favoured supporting the Irish republican cause? Why do you think many present-day Nth Africans feel at home in Ireland (says I, with a side-eye on GeorgeDillon). Who raped and pillaged who?

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antoman | May 24, 2011, 10:20 AM EDT

The rape sheds of Virginia.The English after forcefully removing the Irish to their plantations in America saw how we burned under the sun.So they put Irish women in sheds with black men so that the offspring would not burn while working the fields.The women gave to the children their surname.It comes as no surprise to me therefore that there are many black people in America of Irish ancestry.

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