CELEBRITY GENEALOGY

Every one of us is an amalgamation not only of all our ancestors, but of their decisions, and in 1831, Ambrose Hawkins was contemplating moving his family from America to Africa. Had he done so, his son Joseph would have been raised in Liberia instead of North Carolina and never would have become Pharrell Williams’s third great-grandfather.

As it happens, Ambrose did go to Liberia, but opted for a solo round trip, rather than a family migration. If not for this last minute change of plans, the gene pool that would eventually produce Pharrell couldn’t have crystallized. He wouldn’t exist…

This is an updated version of an article that was first published in Irish America in 2013, but for obvious reasons, has become freshly relevant.

How can you not love a name like Finnegan Biden? I find it charming when family names are given fresh life in ensuing generations, and that’s exactly what happened in the lineage bracketing Joe Biden. His beloved mother Jean’s full name was Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden. Subtract “Catherine Eugenia” and you have the name of one of his granddaughters — Finnegan Biden. …

CELEBRITY GENEALOGY

As Irish-American Heritage Month begins, I thought I would highlight a hidden Irish American: Barry Manilow. Yes, I know, most think of him as a Jewish fellow from Brooklyn — and he is. But he’s also a quarter Irish, and due to certain circumstances in his family, that Irish share has had a disproportionate influence on his family tree.

Name Changing

Though he wouldn’t have known it, when Barry changed surnames, he was the third generation of Pincus men to do so. Born Barry Pincus, he decided to change his name around the time of his bar mitzvah. By then…

Some years ago, when Michelle Obama was a freshly minted First Lady, I spent eight months delving into her roots. One story unearthed by my research was featured on the front page of The New York Times, but there’s much more to be found in the other branches of her family tree — including her Jumper line which was free long before Emancipation.

If you look at the highlighted bit in the document above, you’ll spot Peter and Dolly Jumper, a pair of Michelle Obama’s 3rd great-grandparents. Let your eyes drift all the way to the right, and you’ll see…

Much has been made in recent years of the proclivity of celebrities to give their children unusual names. Who among us wasn’t at least a little befuddled upon first encountering the names Moon Unit Zappa, Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran, and Moxie Crimefighter Jillette? Contrary to popular belief, though, celebrities have nothing on the rest of us. Distinctive names have been with us through the ages. Want proof? I submit the following:

• Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin were far from the first to add an Apple to their family tree. …

ANCESTRY TIPS

Census records are a building block in genealogy for the simple reason that they provide so much information about our ancestors, particularly those since 1880. Every ten years, we get a snapshot — if we’re lucky, Mom, Dad, the kids, maybe another stray relative or two, their ages and birth places, occupations, and other data genealogists crave.

Admittedly, they can be frustrating as the details contained are only as accurate as the combination of census taker and respondent allow. Was the enumerator meticulous? Did he or she go to every door, rely on neighbors, or maybe skip some residences? Were…

We were riveted. Even those who don’t “get” poetry understood on Inauguration Day because Amanda Gorman spoke for all of us. This self-described “skinny Black girl descended from slaves” made us gape at our screens in silence as she led us up “The Hill We Climb.”

Like the countless others ambushed by her presence and immense talent, I had to know more about Amanda Gorman, so contributed to her inaugural Google spike. But as a genealogist, I kept going and dug deeper — four to six generations on every branch of her family tree to be exact. …

By now, just about everyone knows how proud Joe Biden is of his Irish heritage. I began researching his roots even before he became Vice President and wrote about his 5/8 Irish ancestry in 2013. That same year, I had the opportunity to meet him when he was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame, and since then, as is typical of his welcoming nature, he’s invited me to his St. Patrick’s Day events perhaps half a dozen times. Sure, he knows all the world leaders, but Joe has no problem mixing it up with “average Joes” like me.

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