Bush has Irish roots

Poststructural Pub
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US president may have family tie to Strongbow

From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 26th January, 2005

Local historians and genealogists in Wexford have discovered evidence to suggest that President George W. Bush is a direct descendant of Strongbow, the nobleman who led the Norman invasion of Ireland.

The president is also believed to be a direct descendant, through 30 generations, of Dermot McMorrough, the King of Leinster, reviled in many Irish history books as the man who betrayed his island for personal gain.

During his first presidential election campaign in 2000, genealogists discovered a direct link between Mr Bush and prominent Norman families in medieval England.

However, in the last month volunteers working on a tapestry of Ireland’s Norman heritage discovered a further link with two of the most notorious figures in Irish history.

It had already been established that Mr Bush had one of the most distinguished New England family histories that could be traced back to the first English in America.

One of his ancestors was Anne Marbury Hutchinson, a famous religious non-conformist who arrived in America in 1634 with the Rev John Lothrop’s group on the ship Griffin and settled in Boston. She was killed by Indians in 1643.

Hutchinson herself was a direct descendant of some of the most notable Norman families and figures of the 12th and 13th centuries, including Gilbert “the Red” le Clare, the Earl of Hertford. This was well documented as Gilbert the Red had married Joan of England, the daughter of King Edward 1st.

He in turn was the great grandson of Strongbow, Richard de la Clare, the Earl of Pembroke.

Strongbow famously landed in Bannow Bay, Co Wexford, in 1169, at the request of Dermot McMurrough, the King of Leinster, then embroiled in a bitter conflict with neighbouring kings.

With an army of 100 knights and 1,000 archers, he took much of Leinster, including Dublin, and consolidated his power through marriage to McMurrough’s daughter, Aoife.

His arrival heralded the beginning of the Norman invasion.

The link between Strongbow and President Bush was discovered by Ann Griffin Bernstorff, who is working on the Tapestry of Ros, an ambitious project to tell the story of Ireland’s Norman heritage.

She was researching the history of William Marshal, Strongbow’s son-in-law and effective successor in Leinster, who founded the town of New Ross.

“It’s all very intriguing really. We had heard rumours that it was a possibility,” she said. “Then one of our committee members had a Republican friend in Chicago. We got the genealogy chart from there and made the link to the de Clare family.”

The group does not believe President Bush is aware of his famous ancestor, after it made inquiries with the US embassy in Dublin. Officials told Ann Griffin Bernstorff they had no knowledge of any link with Ireland.

While a direct descendant, Ann Griffin Bernstorff does not believe Mr Bush to have any solid claim on the kingdom of Leinster, as the McMurrough line continues to this day through the McMurrough Kavanaghs in Borris, Co Carlow.

The president should be proud of his Irish roots, Ann Griffin Bernstorff said. “It’s an ancient Irish family, one of the oldest on the island, stretching back through the mists of time.”

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Everybody has Irish roots!

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Irish or not, I like him about as much as I do Paisley.

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Not if you keep applying the dye correctly. :slight_smile:

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Aw, jumping sweet stink! I just knew this was going to double post.

(Edited to remove the doubling and to vent my spleen at same. :angry: )

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Almost all of the caucasion families in the South have Scotch-Irish roots. I would be surprised if Bush did not.

–James

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It’s not just caucasian families. A large number of black families in the South also have at least some Irish heritage. Isn’t Bush really from Maine, though?

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The Bush family is pure eastern elite wealth. A great example of someone who runs from his heritage.

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The Bush family is pure eastern elite wealth. A great example of someone who runs from his heritage.

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Cran: With the exception of direct immigrants who came as whalers, many of the people from Maine have Massachussetts or general New England roots, as does Bush. I have a few ancestors who came to Kittery ME as whalers; they were Ulster Scots (Scots from Ireland).They intermarried with Mass. families, who also lived in New Hampshire and Vermont at various times. Think of Massachussetts as radiating people out into other parts of New England and upstate New York. I think that the Bush family might be that way, rather than Maine only.

Any Anglo or Celto-American whose family has been here since before 1700 (like Bush) is likely to have a complex heritage with many interrelations. Because of intermarriage possibilities once in America, many of their descendants are likely to have some notable figure in the distant past of the British Isles. Even someone who came here as an indentured servant was more likely to marry someone with a more illustrious past here in America. The more you do this kind of genealogy, the less amazing it gets and the concept of “six degrees of separation” seems modest. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bush had some very humble ancestors as well as those mentioned in the article.

Since you have been professing Quaker interests lately, you might be interested that Bush has Lippincott ancestors (far from elite, as Winterfield incorrectly stated). Richard Lippincott is a very well-known Quaker who came back and forth from Southern England (Devon) to the US. He was imprisoned several times for his beliefs, mostly in England, but many of his descendants finally ended up doing well as “wet” Quakers in Philadelphia (like the Lippincott publishing company). The early Quakers were often tortured and imprisoned by the NE Congregationalists so its likely that Bush has both oppressors and oppressed in his background, as I do. In older genealogy accounts, it may be likely that Quakers were expunged from family records, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some Bush’ denied the Lippincott heritage, but the Internet blew that wide open.

I have a ton of Quaker ancestors on my Dad’s side, including some who intermarried with Lippincotts over on the Burlington NJ side and in Pennsylvania. Quakers usually married only within the meeting so they are a somewhat tight, definable group of descendants with multiple relations. Some of the current distant cousins I have are cousins as many as five or six times over. Because Bush has these roots, he is likely related to millions of Americans, whether they like it or not.

Boring genealogy informational rant over.

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we’re all related, like it or not.

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Aw c’mon rh, this specific relation (to Bush) drives some people nuts, especially those who enjoy their humble Quaker roots!! But yes, your general point is well taken. :laughing:

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Actually, all life on earth shares common ancestry…so everything is related. Again, like it or not. But I at least think it’s a Good Thing. :slight_smile:

–James

P.S. I’m not sure this applies to Bush, as he sometimes seems to be from another planet.

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who knows, might make it easier to hit him up for a loan :laughing:

But yes, your general point is well taken. > :laughing:

thanks bro :smiley:

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Muhammad Ali (FKA Cassius Clay) also has Irish roots.

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It’s all relative(s)

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I actually wouldn’t mind being related to George W. Bush. I probably am. I’ve learned that one cannot choose or control their family members. We all have crazy family members or people to whom we sometimes wish we weren’t related, but there’s not really much we can do about it! :stuck_out_tongue:

Since you have been professing Quaker interests lately, you might be interested that Bush has Lippincott ancestors (far from elite, as Winterfield incorrectly stated). Richard Lippincott is a very well-known Quaker who came back and forth from Southern England (Devon) to the US. He was imprisoned several times for his beliefs, mostly in England, but many of his descendants finally ended up doing well as “wet” Quakers in Philadelphia (like the Lippincott publishing company). The early Quakers were often tortured and imprisoned by the NE Congregationalists so its likely that Bush has both oppressors and oppressed in his background, as I do. In older genealogy accounts, it may be likely that Quakers were expunged from family records, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some Bush’ denied the Lippincott heritage, but the Internet blew that wide open.

In the “olden days” if you married out of meeting, you often got completely disowned, so many many people in the US probably have Quaker heritage (which really just means English heritage because most of the early Quakers were just oridinary English people) and don’t know about it.

As far as I’ve been able to tell (and admittedly I haven’t researched 1/2 as much as I eventually want to), I am of mainly German and Dutch stock, with very little or no Irish blood. :blush:

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Oh, I don’t know, for many centuries Irish mercenaries were very widely traveled and in
great demand… and I don’t think they were celibate. I suspect there’s an infusion of
Irish blood in many german and dutch lines.

I’m 1/4 Irish heritage - my grandfather was a direct immigrant, and 1/4 Lithuanian…
my Great-grandparents on the other side were immigrants. The rest is dilute infusions
from all across Europe. I seem to be missing the requisite drop of Cherokee blood that
so many Americans have.

Of course, the Irish themselves are not a homogenous people. The ‘old Irish’ are a mix
of invading races - including the Keltoi whose culture came to dominate ireland - and
the anglo-Irish are the Norman-ancestory English and Scots who settle ireland in the late
medieval period.



–Chris

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Most Americans don’t have it. It’s a romantic myth type of thing. One of my ancestors was Native American, but we’re not sure what tribe. For all intents and purposes, I am white as paper.

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I don’t know about “most,” Cran. It’s pretty common to have some Indian blood somewhere, especially in the South and Plains states. You see it on many faces, anecdotally speakin.

To liven up the thread: lately, more and more genealogy types are submitting themselves for DNA testing. In California, several researchers are hunting down California Indian DNA and coming up with interesting facts, both about how the various groups are related to the larger Amerindian lines as well as the degree of intermixture with Spanish Californians and perceived Mexicans (like me, on my Mom’s side). In the more generalized sense, the testing is establishing if people are actually related within claimed families. Part of the research includes just mitochondrial DNA, which is your Grandmother’s mothers DNA which you carry in your cells outside of the nucleus. This is the stuff that goes waaaay back.

The results of DNA testing are likely to gladden some and humiliate others, for those who put perhaps too much stock in such things. You may be Brian Boru’s kin, through the MILKMAN!!

PS: Cran, as for Dutch and German, Bush has those as well. After this am post, I checked some online stuff about Bush and of course, they emphasized the mostly famous or high-bred ancestors of his, which included New York Dutch, like Schuyler etc etc. I know its obvious to some, but remember how your grandparents multiply as you go backwards, from 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 GGrandparents, 18 GG,..etc. The site I checked out had only a few of his, as I say, the more illustrious. i couldn’t download the whole tree though as it wasn’t Mac friendly.