Barack Obama Irish Ancestor1831

Falmouth Kearney 1831

Cullenwaine (Offaly) Dunkerrin (Offaly) Cullenwaine (Tipperary) Corbally (Offaly) Shinrone (Offaly)
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Place of migration
Migrated to/Born in USA

Falmouth Kearney aka Carney is the third great-grandfather of Barack Obama (44th President of the United States) on his maternal side. 

  • Falmouth's grandfather, William Kearny, a shoemaker (in Monegall and Roscrea) was the son of Joseph Kearney Jr. (William's brother, Tom Kearney, was the first to emigrate to Ohio). 

  • Falmouth's great-grandfather, Joseph Kearney Jr. a wool comber was the son of Joseph Kearny Sr. a farmer in Gortcreen (who had been gifted this farm by his successful wig-maker brother, Michael Kearney –  who traded in Georgian Dublin, Moneygall and Shinrone). 

Falmouth's father, Joseph Kearney (the eldest son of William Kearny, shoemaker) at the south end of Main Street also trading as a shoemaker. Falmouth's mother Phebe Donovan (b. 1804) a farmer’s daughter from Ballygorteen, married Kearney in 1825. Falmouth's uncle, Francis Kearney (1804-1848) had a farm in the Appalachian Mountains, Pickaway County, Ohio. Francis' untimely death caused Joseph Kearney to sell up and emigrate to take over in Ohio. 

  • Falmouth's father, Joseph Kearney, sailed from Liverpool on the Caroline Read, arriving in America on April 25, 1849.

  • In 1850, Falmouth and his sister Margaret (and her husband, William Cleary) followed him.

In Ohio, Falmouth Kearney married Ohio-born Charlotte Holloway and built a log cabin in Ross County. They later moved to Tipton County, Indiana.

  • Their youngest daughter, Mary Ann Kearney (the paternal grandmother of Stanley Dunham – President Obama's maternal grandfather) settled in Kansas Following Falmouth's death in 1878. 

  • Falmouth & Charlotte were interred at Labette County’s Fairview Cemetery, Kansas.

On 23 May 2011, while on a trip to Ireland, Barak & Michelle Obama (then President and First Lady) visited Moneygall to reconnect with his Irish ancestry. 

There, they visited the site where the Kearney family had lived, viewed the old records discovered by local rector Stephen Neal, and met with the President's relatives including Henry Healy, his 8th cousin (the Kearneys had married into the Healy family in the 18th century). The warm welcome from the people of Monegall resulted in the longest Presidential handshake session in modern history.

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Additional Information
Date of Birth 1st Jan 1831 (circa)
Date of Death 21st Mar 1878
Associated Building (s) Monegall St.Mary's Church of Ireland.  
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