Presidential Biographies | Kennedy Administration - Early Life

Early Life

Descended from Irish-Catholic immigrants, John Kennedy's achievements capped a four-generation long struggle for ascendancy in their adopted homeland. His great-grandfather, Patrick Kennedy, a barrel maker fleeing the famine in Ireland, emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts in 1849 from Dunganstown in County Wexford. His grandfather, Patrick J. Kennedy Jr., owned three saloons and branched out into banking and Boston politics. Intent on breaking the social barriers erected by Boston's Yankee Protestant elite, Kennedy's son, Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888–1969), gained admission to Harvard College, announced his goal of being a millionaire by age 30, and, in 1914, married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the spirited and attractive daughter of Boston mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald.

Joseph P. Kennedy Founds a Dynasty

Joseph P. Kennedy...