https://www.thetimes.com/article/d1788dd7-da0c-4954-b838-716a8ad67959
JD Vance takes pride in declaring himself to be a “Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart” but a trawl of genealogy records has found no evidence linking the US vice-president to Ireland.
In an attempt to link Vance to Ulster, a DUP minister commissioned researchers to dig into the ancestral past of the controversial Republican Party politician.
A glossy 24-page dossier titled “The Family Footsteps of JD Vance” was produced, but researchers admitted they had “not established a conclusive family link” to Northern Ireland.
Gordon Lyons, the Northern Ireland minister for communities, had been hoping to present a copy of the report personally to Vance over the St Patrick’s Day period in Washington DC.
President Trump’s right-hand man has long claimed to have Celtic links, writing in his bestselling 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy: “To understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart.”
As Scots-Irish, or Ulster-Scots, his family history would be tied directly to plantation-era Scots settlers whose descendants, generations after arrival in Ireland, set out for America.
One historian in Northern Ireland had noted at the time that one of Vance’s ancestors might have been killed during the 1689 Siege of Derry, a powerful event in the unionist story during which Protestants held out in the walled city against Catholic forces for 105 days.
That point was raised within the Department for Communities, as research for the dossier was commissioned via the Public Records Office for Northern Ireland in November.
Emails obtained via a freedom of information request show that in February Lyons’s office was advised that “it has not been possible to establish conclusive proof of a direct Vance link back to Ulster at this stage”.
He noted that inquiries were continuing in the US but that the researcher had “run into the proverbial brick wall” and amid continuing work there was “no guarantee” of success.
An official at Lyons’s office said: “There is maybe a bit more to do locally to better trace [the vice-president’s] roots, but at this stage I think we have to go with what we have.”
He said that work should begin “to get a draft done in a day or so but this is a top priority”.
There was not enough time for a hardback edition, which the minister had requested, but a “coated paper” production of 25 copies was sanctioned, which Lyons would sign.
The finished product, while declaring no proven link to Ulster, lists family trees with gaps, carries a historical map of Ireland and one of Coagh, Co Tyrone, where it has been claimed Vance has roots.
The dossier, which includes images of the vice-president with his family and taking the oath of office, tracks his current bloodline in Ohio back to Virginia in the 1800s.
The family were at the time rooted in Appalachia, a narrative that Vance, 40, championed in his memoir.
Yet from there the trail runs cold, with no solid evidence linking to an Andrew Williamson Vance, born in Ireland circa 1666 and who emigrated circa 1733 to America.
He is a descendant of Lancelot Vance, who died in the Siege of Derry and who was the son of Reverend John Vance, who left Scotland for Ireland in 1611.
John Hagan, a Co Tyrone historian, said he had traced Vance’s ancestors to the village of Coagh, insisting ties existed to Reverend Vance.
However, the Vance Family Association, which traces their ancestry to settlers in Ulster in the 17th century, does not support claims that Vance is linked to Reverend John Vance.
Its president, Dave Vance, said it had been running a genealogical research project using DNA for a decade and was certain the vice-president had no direct connection to “the John Vance who is popularly assumed by many genealogists to be the sole progenitor of all Irish Vances”.
In his memoir Vance said that, rather than identifying with “white Anglo-Saxon Protestant” pioneers, he felt instead part of “the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree”.
Liam Kennedy, professor of American studies and director of the Clinton Institute at University College Dublin, said while the claim to “white working class Scots-Irish identity” had become vital to Vance’s projected image, it “merits more attention”.
He added: “It is an effort to claim a ‘real’ white working-class association — in the sense that it is based on pioneer not immigrant origins.”
A Department for Communities spokesman said: “The research results traced a potential link to an Andrew Williamson Vance who was born in Ireland circa 1666 and emigrated circa 1733 to America.
“The research has been passed to US government officials and is hoped to be formally presented at a future date.”
>>1408054 (OP)JD Weird admitted he lied about Haitians eating dogs. Why should we accept whatever a proven liar says? If the President of Vice said Pope Leo XIV was a Catholic I'd have to check on the Holy See's website to see for myself.
>>1408054 (OP)These motherfuckers cannot help but lie about every single thing.
>>1408062And it doesn't even matter if they get caught. Their followers are already so broken and controlled that it just doesn't matter at all.
This country has no future. None.
In fairness, claiming fake heritages is an American tradition. Like how our government pretends to be Greco-Roman while mostly ripping off Native American government.
>>1408054 (OP)I never get the idea of lying about heritage. It's so fucking easy to check, the benefits are pretty small all things considered, and the fallout from having it get found out as a lie is (usually) much more damaging than it was beneficiary.
>>1408054 (OP)What the fuck is wrong with EUqueers?
>>1408065>It's so fucking easy to checkThat very much fucking depends. If your family's only been here for a generation or 3, you might be fine, but basically anything that goes back to at least the mid 1800s is going to be potentially hard to track in spots. I've got a great great great great grandmother that was a half-Native American living under an assumed name. I've got fuck all clue who her parents were.
America census records are sealed for 72 years and past that people moved around a fucking ton, many people Anglicized their names, people ditched patronyms and matronyms, you'll end up with oddball cultural naming conventions where a man would give all his sons the same first name but different middle names which are less clearly tracked, people with minority ancestries hid that shit, anyone that goes back to slavery is fucked, adoption agencies deliberately destroyed their records, there's the bullshit with the Native American boarding schools, people in trouble would just ditch their old names and lives and move cross country for fresh starts, people coming into the country would get recorded down as whatever the processing official thought their name sounded like so tracking who came in when and where was complete nonsense, it's just a complete fucking mess.
>>1408065>I never get the idea of lying about heritageIs that what Vance did? Because it doesn't state that in the article
>>1408070>What the fuck is wrong with EUNothing
>What the fuck is wrong with JD 'Couchfucker' Weird the eyeliner-wearing queer?His entire existence
>>1408079How do you tell when a Republican is lying? They exist
>anything >>1408083 doesn't like must be 'Chatgpt'Thanks for admitting you're retarded. And your opinions are eternally wrong.
>please go awayIf someone said that to you, would you obey them? If your answer is no, you've just proved your own opinion wrong.
What
>>1408082 says stands, and you don't like that? Good
>>1408083 = NPC
^lmao @ the danger hair retard above me losing his shit. Keep running your bot script into the ground in a vain and futile effort
^the retard losing her shit because her opinions are wrong
>>1408070>>1408083>>1408115https://www.ravishly.com/2016/11/21/your-opinion-isnt-just-incorrect-its-wrong
>>1408217Dumbest shit I ever read. It simply pushes one turbo slut's pop mythos.
>>1408253but you read it nonetheless. It's in your mind now. It's in there rent free eternally. And your opinions will always be wrong.
>>1408272>Black people died when you deny systemic racismYep, it's in my head and I'm denying the fuck out of systemic racism.
What retarded shit.
I hope I kill 10 or more today.
^the retard losing her shit over an article
Vance isn't his birth name he was named Bowman and Hamel
>>1408054 (OP)Yeah but Obama was born in Hawaii and you're racist for questioning it
