Post by earl on May 16, 2007 15:54:12 GMT
MONEYGALL, Ireland — Here they call him O’Bama.
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Democratic candidate for president, is the talk of this village because recently unearthed records indicate he is a son of Moneygall.
Stephen Neill, a local Anglican rector, said church documents that he has found, along with census, immigration and other records tracked down by U.S. genealogists, appear to show that Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather, Fulmuth Kearney, was reared in Moneygall and left for the United States in 1850 when he was 19.
Megan Smolenyak, chief family historian for Ancestry.com, an online repository of family history records, said that although no single “smoking gun” document was found, about 20 different records when pieced together make her “absolutely certain” of Obama’s Moneygall roots.
Kearney sailed to New York aboard the S.S. Marmion at a time when legions of Irish were leaving their famine-stricken island. The shoemaker’s son made a new life, and his family line eventually produced Ann Durham, who was born in Kansas, according to Ancestry.com.
Durham married a Kenyan, also named Barack Obama, who was studying in Hawaii, and in 1961 they had a son, now a leading candidate to become president of the United States.
While neither Obama nor his campaign has confirmed the connection, it has created a buzz in Moneygall, which has one stoplight, two pubs and a population of 298.
“Sure, it’s great!” said Henry Healy, 22, a villager who said family records indicate he is distantly related to Obama.
Like many Moneygall residents, he is suddenly following the U.S. presidential race more closely and rooting for his kinsman. “It would be brilliant if he won because for one thing, he is related to me, and also it would be good for the village.”
When Ronald Reagan became president, it brought fame and tourism to his ancestral home in Ballyporeen, County Tipperary. Moneygall, on the Tipperary-Offaly border, wouldn’t mind that kind of a boost; there is already talk here of a need for a coffee shop to cater to the curious who might stop by.
Many U.S. presidents, including Bill Clinton, have Irish roots, but none so famously as John F. Kennedy, who toured Ireland in 1963 when nearly the whole country seemed to turn out to greet him.
Despite Ireland’s rapid urbanization, Moneygall remains a quiet stop on the busy N7 road that runs through the green, hilly heart of the country, a place where families still have cows and time to chat.
“It’s brought an uplift to the village,” said Daphne Powell, who serves soft ice cream on the main street. There hasn’t been such excitement here since Papillon, a locally bred horse, won the prestigious Grand National in England seven years ago, overcoming 33-1 odds.
Kyle Betit, a U.S. genealogist involved in the Obama research, said that “many pieces of evidence on both sides of the water” link Obama to Moneygall.
www.buffalonews.com/180/story/75915.html
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Democratic candidate for president, is the talk of this village because recently unearthed records indicate he is a son of Moneygall.
Stephen Neill, a local Anglican rector, said church documents that he has found, along with census, immigration and other records tracked down by U.S. genealogists, appear to show that Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather, Fulmuth Kearney, was reared in Moneygall and left for the United States in 1850 when he was 19.
Megan Smolenyak, chief family historian for Ancestry.com, an online repository of family history records, said that although no single “smoking gun” document was found, about 20 different records when pieced together make her “absolutely certain” of Obama’s Moneygall roots.
Kearney sailed to New York aboard the S.S. Marmion at a time when legions of Irish were leaving their famine-stricken island. The shoemaker’s son made a new life, and his family line eventually produced Ann Durham, who was born in Kansas, according to Ancestry.com.
Durham married a Kenyan, also named Barack Obama, who was studying in Hawaii, and in 1961 they had a son, now a leading candidate to become president of the United States.
While neither Obama nor his campaign has confirmed the connection, it has created a buzz in Moneygall, which has one stoplight, two pubs and a population of 298.
“Sure, it’s great!” said Henry Healy, 22, a villager who said family records indicate he is distantly related to Obama.
Like many Moneygall residents, he is suddenly following the U.S. presidential race more closely and rooting for his kinsman. “It would be brilliant if he won because for one thing, he is related to me, and also it would be good for the village.”
When Ronald Reagan became president, it brought fame and tourism to his ancestral home in Ballyporeen, County Tipperary. Moneygall, on the Tipperary-Offaly border, wouldn’t mind that kind of a boost; there is already talk here of a need for a coffee shop to cater to the curious who might stop by.
Many U.S. presidents, including Bill Clinton, have Irish roots, but none so famously as John F. Kennedy, who toured Ireland in 1963 when nearly the whole country seemed to turn out to greet him.
Despite Ireland’s rapid urbanization, Moneygall remains a quiet stop on the busy N7 road that runs through the green, hilly heart of the country, a place where families still have cows and time to chat.
“It’s brought an uplift to the village,” said Daphne Powell, who serves soft ice cream on the main street. There hasn’t been such excitement here since Papillon, a locally bred horse, won the prestigious Grand National in England seven years ago, overcoming 33-1 odds.
Kyle Betit, a U.S. genealogist involved in the Obama research, said that “many pieces of evidence on both sides of the water” link Obama to Moneygall.
www.buffalonews.com/180/story/75915.html
;D ;D ;D