POLITICAL GENEALOGY

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. …

GENEALOGY LIFE

In April of 2001, a miracle occurred. Well, it certainly seemed that way at the time. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (SOLEIF) opened the American Family Immigration History Center (AFIHC), launching an online database — digitized and indexed — of the passenger records of millions of immigrants who took their first steps in America at Ellis Island.

Fast forward 20 years, and we expect genealogical companies to provide fresh databases weekly, but I’d like to try to convey what a big deal this was. It was — quite literally — national news. Don’t believe me? Here’s proof:

SOLEIF…

ANCESTRY TIPS

I don’t know if my great-grandfather, Peter Smolenyak, will ever forgive me. Several weeks ago, I wrote about using MyHeritage’s Deep Nostalgia tool to animate him, but now they’ve introduced fresh functionality to customize your animations, and I couldn’t resist playing with it.

Immediately drawn to the “special animations” menu, I tried experimenting with my great-grandfather. To give a sense of the kind of results you can expect, this trio of photos shows the original image I uploaded followed by a restored version, and then one that’s been both restored and colorized — all using MyHeritage.

POLITICAL GENEALOGY

Ireland loves to claim her own, so President Biden — who’s conspicuously proud of his 5/8 Irish ancestry — is a source of pride for many in the land of his ancestors. I first explored his heritage before he became Vice President, and later shared some of my findings in Irish America when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013. My research on his mother’s side of the family led to the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth and Ballina in County Mayo, where I was fortunate enough to find his Blewitt cousins. …

POLITICAL GENEALOGY

Over the years, my sleuthing has resulted in some curious outcomes, but few were as unexpected as the time I traced Barack Obama’s roots to the village of Moneygall in Ireland. At the time I did the research, I had no notion that he would wind up visiting his ancestral hometown as President, but that’s exactly what happened. Identifying his Irish hometown took both effort and luck (as it happens, a pair of tombstones would be instrumental), so I thought I’d share the trail that led me there.

How It Began

Back before he was even President, a St. Patrick’s…

GENEALOGY LIFE

Many of us have a particular ancestor who calls to us louder than others, one with whom we feel a special kinship. For me, this is one of my great-great-grandmothers, Ellen Nelligan. Perhaps it’s because my own grandmother — her granddaughter — told me tales of her life. Or maybe it’s because she anchors the bottom row of my pedigree — my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother. Or it could just be because her name is fun to say, giving the tongue a workout pronouncing the syllables. …

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…