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Generation 5 - Fulmouth Kearney

Fulmoth Kearney was Barack Obama's great-great-grandfather. This pedigree chart shows his parents, Joseph and Phoebe Kearney, and Fulmoth's siblings.

• Joseph Kearney was referred to on a lease dated 1 May 1800 (Minchin to Kearney) as the son of William Kearney. The lease was cited in a Landed Estates Court document of 1851.

• Timothy Kearney was described as the son of Joseph and Triphenia Kearney of Moneygall, hence the dotted line as we can not be sure this is the same couple. Its almost certain that this child was born of the same parents Joseph Kearney and Phoebe (nee Donovan). However there is strong circumstantial evidence that this child baptised as 'Timothy', may in fact be President Obama's ancestor 'Falmouth'.

First, the Moneygall registers records Timothy's father as Joseph Kearney, and his mother's maiden name is given as Donovan. However, this is the only Joseph Kearney/Donovan baptismal record in the Moneygall registers where the mother's christian name is 'Triphenia'. Of course its not impossible that there was a second Kearney/Donovan marriage in Moneygall which produced children at the same time, however, there is no record of any such marriage nor are there baptismal records for any other children born to such a couple.

Second, if we consider how the clergyman may have mistakenly recorded Phoebe as Triphenia. Obviously there's a phonetic resonance between the two names. The christian name, 'Triphenia' is also extremely rare, especially in an Irish context. However further research shows that it occurs within Phoebe Donovan's own family. Phoebe's own cousin Triphenia Donovan married another cousin Thomas Benn in 1811 (Killaloe MLB). In fact all these christian names, Falmouth, Triphenia and Phoebe, originate with the extended Donovan, Benn and Kingsley family of Gurgreen.

We should also point out that no baptismal record has been found for Fulmouth/ Falmouth Kearney in Moneygall or Shinrone. The baptism of this child Timothy falls within the correct time-frame when the president's ancestor was known to have been born. Of course this is an inference, not evidence, but when all these things are taken together, they're all strong indicators that Timothy and Falmouth may in fact be the same person.

This of course begs the question of how complete the surviving Moneygall parish registers are.

Find out about Joseph Kearney's parents and siblings - generation 6 of the Kearney family.

Find out about Phoebe Donovan's family.

Back to Kearney Family History