Name of Bono's Grandfather?

[Galeongirl]

So much on that site is wrong. First, Bono's birth date. He's got not only the year wrong but the day; it's not May 12th. Also, Jordan was born on May 10th, like her father. I had always heard that her middle name was Elizabeth; I've seen that many times. Yes, Flavia, Joy is Ali's mother's name. Finally, Eve's middle name is NOT Sunny Day; her full name is Memphis Eve.

and he also claims Norman to be born in 1952, wich should be 1953 since he's 7 years older than Bono
I thouhgt Norman still lived in Dublin, not in Limmerick
and no info at all on Ali..

Change it Merc!!!!

ack,.. but the L and N are pretty far from eachother.. How did I do that

 

[Merc]

and he also claims Normal to be born in 1952, wich should be 1953 since he's 7 years older than Bono
I thouhgt Norman still lived in Dublin, not in Limmerick
and no info at all on Ali..

Normal?!

Sorry gg, I know it is a typo, but still... "Normal"!

 

[Devlin]

Here you go! (From Hot Press, December 2001. This is just a small part of a really great read. It's available in its entirety in the
@u2 archives.)



ON THE BIRTH, IN JUNE 2001, OF JOHN


Niall Stokes: Can you tell me about the role of Chopper in the birth of John?

That was Ali's idea. I just got back from Chicago and everything was...she had a very cool aura about her as usual, not particularly bothered. The worry then started that I'd actually have to go back before the baby was born. So she suggested a scary movie and Chopper is a film made by a friend of ours. Ali doesn't like violent movies. In fact she often becomes violent at them. She bit me once during Scarface. She literally bit my shoulder and I had to leave! When we go to the movies together we don't always agree on what one. But she was up for it this time. So we put on Chopper and halfway through it she did disappear. And I went upstairs and I found her sitting on the bed with white warpaint on and I thought, "This is a bit much." But in fact she'd put a facepack on and I said, "Are you OK?" and she said, "No, it's started now," and I said, "Well, the movie worked then." And I said, "What do we do now?" and she said, "Look, it's going to be hours and hours, you should get some sleep." So I went to bed for an hour or so at about 2 in the morning. So at about four o'clock she woke me up, calm as usual, and said, "I think it's time to go." So I got out of bed and got everything organised and fired up the car and she came down and got in and we were driving along to the hospital, Mount Carmel, and she just quietly turned and said, "I think we should start breaking the lights now." Now Ali is very Protestant. She has a great respect for the law (laughs). So I put my foot on the pedal and 20 minutes after we arrived in the hospital she gave birth.

She /bit/ him.
I don't think I would be that calm for labor. She is now formally much too cool for her own good!

 

[Babydoll]

Awesome lady She really is too cool for her own good, lol.

 

[Maoilbheannacht]

and he also claims Norman to be born in 1952, wich should be 1953 since he's 7 years older than Bono
I thouhgt Norman still lived in Dublin, not in Limmerick
and no info at all on Ali..

Change it Merc!!!!

ack,.. but the L and N are pretty far from eachother.. How did I do that

But he knows when Norman was married, the name of his wife and the name of his childern. How many people here knew that? It appears Norman was married the Saturday before U2 went down to Limerick to be in the talent contest back in 1978. Normans wedding was on March 11, 1978 and the talent contest was on March 18, 1978.

 

[IsDinnerReady]

This is just so awesome...

Btw, everything u know is wrong, cos according to Bono we are all sons of Abraham...

 

[Schmeg]

This is a cool thread; I've just had the time now to read through all of it.

Just a thought on some of the inaccuracies. Maybe they were intentional so he wouldn't get tons of "oMg LiEk YoUr ToTaLlY rElAtEd To BoNo!!!111!" e-mails?

I find geneaology really interesting, mosly because my parents refuse to tell me anything about my great grandparents for one reason or anothre. The only great-grandparent name I'm sure of is my dad's paternal grandfather, because my dad is a Third.

 

[Galeongirl]

This is a cool thread; I've just had the time now to read through all of it.

Just a thought on some of the inaccuracies. Maybe they were intentional so he wouldn't get tons of "oMg LiEk YoUr ToTaLlY rElAtEd To BoNo!!!111!" e-mails?

the name Bono isn't mentioned there... so that would drop a lot of people... and I don't think most people would write those kinda emails...
this is a cool thread indeed!

 

[Miringeltje]

Can we do research on Larry's mom???....or any of the other guys......................Just a suggestion.................

This is a summary of what is mentioned about Larry's mom in the Unforgettable Fire book:

Maureen Gaffney - born in 1922 in Anna, a townland on tHe Leitrim-Roscommon border.
Her mother died giving birth to her.
She was reared by her maternal grandmother in Leitrim Village.

Larry Sr and Maureen met in the summer of 1954.
Married in 1956.
Within a year Cecilia was born (1957).
Larry Jr followed four years later, on 31 October 1961.
Another girl, Mary, was born 3 years later (1964), but died in 1973.

1 november 1978 demo recording at Keystone Studios Harcourt Street
Two weeks later, Maureen Mullen was tragically killed in a road accient in Raheny.

Don't know how accurate this is.

 

[IwantBono]

This was the ONLY thread I have read all the way through from beginning to end. Thanks for Bono's familial history. I loved reading all that. By the way, geneology is hawt!!

 

[Maoilbheannacht]

This is a summary of what is mentioned about Larry's mom in the Unforgettable Fire book:

Maureen Gaffney - born in 1922 in Anna, a townland on tHe Leitrim-Roscommon border.
Her mother died giving birth to her.
She was reared by her maternal grandmother in Leitrim Village.

I believe I have located the a website for Leitrim Village. At www.leitrimvillage.com under the information section it says the following:

Leitrim Village
Winner of a National Tidy Town competition, which has four pubs and restaurants. The Village is adjacent to the River Shannon and is five minutes from Carrick-on-Shannon and two hours from Dublin.

Carrick-On-Shannon has an extensive range of facilities including a leisure centre, golf course, restaurants, hotels and a mainline railway station


Is the spelling of that townland "Anna" correct? There is no townland in Ireland by the name of "Anna", but there are dozens of townlands called "Annagh" or Annaghbeg or Annaghmore etc. Problem is that there are several of these type of townlands, same name, on the Leitrim-Roscommon border. I wish the author stated the actual county as well as the "Civil Parish" the townland was in.

 

[SunBloc]

Very interesting thread . Have really enjoyed reading it!

 

[BonoFox1]

This is a summary of what is mentioned about Larry's mom in the Unforgettable Fire book:

Maureen Gaffney - born in 1922 in Anna, a townland on tHe Leitrim-Roscommon border.
Her mother died giving birth to her.
She was reared by her maternal grandmother in Leitrim Village.

Larry Sr and Maureen met in the summer of 1954.
Married in 1956.
Within a year Cecilia was born (1957).
Larry Jr followed four years later, on 31 October 1961.
Another girl, Mary, was born 3 years later (1964), but died in 1973.

1 november 1978 demo recording at Keystone Studios Harcourt Street
Two weeks later, Maureen Mullen was tragically killed in a road accient in Raheny.

Don't know how accurate this is.

Thank you so much for the breakdown!!...

I did read this in the Unfergettable Fire book..I think it was also mentioned that Larry sr. aspired to be a man of the cloth.....

It is so sad that Mary was 8 years old when she passed...and then Maureen..Very hard on the family

 

[Maoilbheannacht]

There are about four different townlands with the name "Annagh" on either side of the Leitrim-Roscommon border. No Gaffney's were living in Leitrim village on the 1901 census. Of course, it say that Larry's mother was raised by her Grandmother in Leitrm village. This of course raises a lot of questions. I wonder how much Larry Mullen knows about his own roots. Half of his family are not Dublin natives, but come from a part of Ireland that many people have never been to.

County Leitrim is the least populated county in Ireland. It has actually had the worst depletion in population since the 1845 famine. On the 1901 census, there are 57 Gaffney households in County Leitrim and 65 in County Roscommon. Leitrim village in County Leitrim, civil parish of Kiltoghert, did not have any Gaffney families at the time of the 1901 census.

Here is a good link for Leitrim County and Roscommon County research:

http://www.leitrim-roscommon.com/index.shtml

 

[BonoFox1]

^^^^WOW very intresting!!! You are getting very good at this!!!

 

[Maoilbheannacht]

Another interesting question is whether Maureen actually took her father's surname or that of her mothers family since she was raised by her maternal Grandmother. I would assume it was her fathers surname, but given the situation, there is always the possibility that it was the mothers.

 

[Maoilbheannacht]

There are 42 households in Leitrim Town on the 1901 census, in the civil Parish of Kiltoghert in County Leitrim. I believe this is the Leitrim Village refered to all though I'm not yet 100% sure.

One of those households probably has Maureen's mother and maternal grandmother. Here is the link:

http://www.leitrim-roscommon.com/cgi-bin/newcen-srch

Of course, this is the 1901 census, and Maureen was not born until 1922, still, in those days, people did not move around nearly as much as they do today.

 

[Maoilbheannacht]

In the Rorke Household in Leitrim Village on the 1901 census, there is an Anne Gaffney, age 70 (lodger/widow/born Co. Roscommon). Perhaps this Anne Gaffney was the mother of Maureen's husband. Thats probably assuming way to much though. Still, its likely that Maureen's mother and definitely her maternal Grandmother were located in Leitrim village at the time of the 1901 census and are listed among one of teh 42 households there. Problem is, we don't know which surname. All we have is the name Gaffney which is most likely the surname of the father.

 

[Maoilbheannacht]

Well, in doing some research on some Genealogy message boards, I was able to get into contact with a person who is a 2nd cousin to Bono's father. She confirmed that Bono's Grandfather was Robert Francis Hewson who married Anne Keogh in 1922. This confirms the information from Donald Rankin who is on Bono's mothers side of the family that Robert Francis Hewson is Bono's Grandfather. Robert Francis Hewson was a civil servent.

So combining new information from a 2nd cousin on Bono's paternal side with the information posted by Donald Rankin, a first Cousin on Bono's maternal side, we now have the following information on Bono's family tree.




Paul Hewson b. 1960


Parents:

Brendan Robert Hewson b. 1925
Iris Rankin b. 1926


Grandparents:

Robert Francis Hewson
Anne Keogh

Alexander Frederick Rankin b. 1898
Lilian Purcell b. 1905



Great Grandparents:

Thomas Hewson
Mary Barry

Patrick Keogh
?

David Rankin b. 1876
Ida Nugent

Arthur Purcell
?



The Irish registrar office has government birth, marriage and death records from 1864 through 1921 open to the public. So it simply a matter of obtaining the birth records of Lilian Purcell and Ann Keogh in order to find the names of their mothers and fill in the two blank spaces on the Great Grandparents list. Of course, unless you live in Dublin, you will have to get someone to look it up for you. The Registrar office can be used to trace the family on both sides back as far as 1864. Prior to 1864 your only option are Church records which in Dublin County can sometimes go back into the 1700s for some parishes.


When I first started this thread, I thought it might be rather difficult to get this information, but this has actually been rather easy, compared to some genealogy searches.

Donald Rankin of course has more information going beyond the Great Grandparents on Bono's maternal side. I was able to get a couple more generations back on the Hewson line beyond the Great Grandparents.

The parents of Thomas Hewson (Bono's Great Grandfather) are:

Robert Hewson and Mary Ann Mulhall who were married in 1870.

Robert Hewson above was the son of:

Robert Hewson and Anne Duggan.

 

[Galeongirl]

wow you found a lot already! Impressive!

 

[BonoFox1]

WOw youa re good...you should do mine!!...Im still not sure if my roots are Italian or German or Spaniard...<--That is my Paternal side...Im pretty sure of my maternal side....what is the best website to look into???

 

[Liesje]

I swear my mom spends more time of each day working genealogies than any other activity, including sleeping and work. If only we were Irish, or you were Dutch, then we could divide and conquer! We've reached a wall, so to speak, where the only way to continue is to do some digging over in the Netherlands, which no one in the family can afford at this point. We're as far back as the 1600s, but records that far back aren't online so someday someone will have to go back to the Motherland and go through physical records at various church locations. My mom is so obsessed, she's buddied up with a museum curator/archive keeper in the Netherlands who has enough free time to actually travel around the country and do her bidding.

 

[Maoilbheannacht]

WOw youa re good...you should do mine!!...Im still not sure if my roots are Italian or German or Spaniard...<--That is my Paternal side...Im pretty sure of my maternal side....what is the best website to look into???

The best website is www.ancestry.com . Depending on how long your family has lived in the United States, the best place to start is looking them up on the US Federal Census. The latest one, forward in time, you in can look at is the 1930 census. Ancestry.com has all the US Federal census's from 1790 through 1930 online, that you can look at if you pay either a monthly fee or the annual fee which is obviously more, but less per month. Start with what your family knows about where Grandparents and other ancestors lived and then start looking on the census's. Remember the census takers sometimes made mistakes or in fact got information from a neighbor, so ages, and other information are sometimes mistakes. Sometimes the information your own family have can be mistaken as well.

From the US Federal Census, you can then branch out into Civil Records of (birth, marriage and death), Church records of (baptism, marriage and death), Society Records, Military Records, Cemetary records, Obituary's, Wills and other legal documents, Naturalization Records, Immigration Records etc.

Ancestry.com will have some of these things. The best thing at ancestry is the federal census records for the United States.

If you know your four Grandparents surnames, go to www.infokey.com and type in their surnames. It will give you the distant origion of the surname, but that does not mean your first ancesters who came to the USA came from that specific place. All it means is that is where the surname was first found about 1,000 years ago when surnames first came into use.

I've got Spanish surnames in my ancestry, but when those ancestors first arrived in the United States, they were Scotchmen, not Spanish, at least from a cultural standpoint. What likely happened is at some point the family immigrated from Spain to Scotland and stayed there a few generations. By then, the only thing Spanish about them was the surname and perhaps some general traits that did not get too diluted when mixing with the Scotish over a few generations.

 

[Galeongirl]

I swear my mom spends more time of each day working genealogies than any other activity, including sleeping and work. If only we were Irish, or you were Dutch, then we could divide and conquer! We've reached a wall, so to speak, where the only way to continue is to do some digging over in the Netherlands, which no one in the family can afford at this point. We're as far back as the 1600s, but records that far back aren't online so someday someone will have to go back to the Motherland and go through physical records at various church locations. My mom is so obsessed, she's buddied up with a museum curator/archive keeper in the Netherlands who has enough free time to actually travel around the country and do her bidding.

I'm dutch, maybe I can help
your last name isn't Haan by chance now isn't it

 

[Babydoll]

Is the website only for US citizens and their families/ancestries?

 

[Liesje]

I'm dutch, maybe I can help
your last name isn't Haan by chance now isn't it

OMG, thank goodness no! Not that it's a bad name, but EVERYONE over here is Haan or de Haan. There's so many, we'd be running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to organize that genealogy. My mom's friend (genealogy bitch, I call him) in the Netherlands has helped us track every Rosema/Rozema in the United States. I'm not sure what surnames she's working on in the Netherlands. My dad is Rosema and Siegers and my mom is Van't Hof/van het Hof, Kluit/Kluijt, and Hofman/Hoffman....but those are only two-three generations back and I'm sure she's a lot farther back then that.

My website, dutchbingo.net, I bought to create a digital archive of our family tree because my mom has had so much success once she learned how to use the Internet. We want to get everything online in hopes that people we're looking for will be able to find us. I just haven't gotten around to it yet!

 

[Galeongirl]

hm, those names aren't that common..

and yes, it sucks to have my last name... >< I HATE it!
got bullied for it a lot aswell.. that sucks..

 

[Liesje]

hm, those names aren't that common..

and yes, it sucks to have my last name... >< I HATE it!
got bullied for it a lot aswell.. that sucks..

Luckily, around here there's barely anyone left in my generation that actually speaks or understands Dutch, Yankee Dutch, or Grunigs, so most people don't even know what the names mean.

 

[Bono'sZooBaby]

Have any of you seen the 40 best pranks on celebrities on VH1, there's this old irish man who goes to a U2 concert stating he is Bono's grandpa. He's in a wheel chair and has this little name tag on that says Bono's grandpa and he has this doctored photo to make it look like it's him with Bono. Then the sercurity beleives him or takes sympathy on him and let him into the front row in the heart (it's during the Elevation tour). Moral of the story, U2 needs to invest in some smarter security.

 

[Liesje]

Have any of you seen the 40 best pranks on celebrities on VH1, there's this old irish man who goes to a U2 concert stating he is Bono's grandpa. He's in a wheel chair and has this little name tag on that says Bono's grandpa and he has this doctored photo to make it look like it's him with Bono. Then the sercurity beleives him or takes sympathy on him and let him into the front row in the heart (it's during the Elevation tour). Moral of the story, U2 needs to invest in some smarter security.

Yup, I've seen that several times. It's hilarious!!

Most of the security, especially the people scanning tickets and letting you in, are just venue security, not U2's personal security. Eitherway, I'd LOVE to see an old dude at the front of the heart/ellipse.