Barack Obama’s long lost Irish American relatives not impressed by their presidential links

Distant relatives not eager to act on blood ties

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MOLLY MULDOON,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

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Obama receiving the traditional St. Patrick's Day shamrock

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Two U.S. pensioners who discovered they are related to President Barack Obama are not impressed.

Dorma Lee Reese (83) of Arizona, and Roma Joy Palmer (66) of Kansas, where traced to Barack Obama through his Irish ancestor Falmouth Kearney who emigrated to the U.S. during the Great Famine.

Through the lineage of the Irishman who came to the U.S when aged 19, Obama can now claim 28 living relatives based on a study by Ancestry.com.

Ms Reese, of Tucson, Arizona, said: ‘I'm not a Democrat, so I can't say I clapped.
‘I don't appreciate what he's done by any means, but I do appreciate that he holds that office,’ the retired brain-imaging technologist told the Daily Mail.

Joy Palmer from Mulvane is Kansas is equally indifferent to the revelations.
‘I really don't like to claim a relationship to Obama,’ the retired insurer said.

Adding: ‘He is not my favorite president. I don't have anything against him personally. But I don't think we have the same agenda.’

It was revealed in 2007 that Obama’s Irish ancestors fled the Emerald Isle and came to New York originally before moving to Ohio. Kearney had ten children before he finally settled in Indiana.

Obama’s mother Ann Dungan was a descendant from one of Kearney’s daughters, Mary Ann Kearney, and Jacob William Dunham.

The study by Ancestry.com  revealed much more details about the President’s distant relatives.
‘We had this idea of trying to look at a micro-study of how Irish immigrants have impacted the United States,’ Anastasia Harman, lead family historian of Ancestry.com, told the Daily Mail.

Obama’s other distant relatives include 63-year-old Vietnam War veteran Daniel Dillard, who is a retired college professor and Republican.

READ MORE- President Obama confirms Irish visit for May

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