Anthony Joshua
Joshua in 2012, photo by Prphotos.com
Birth Name: Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua
Place of Birth: Watford, Hertfordshire, England, U.K.
Date of Birth: 15 October, 1989
Ethnicity:
*75% Nigerian
*25% English
Anthony Joshua is a British professional boxer. He competes in the heavyweight division, and is a two-time unified world heavyweight champion, who has held the World Boxing Association (WBA) (Super version), International Boxing Federation (IBF), and World Boxing Organization (WBO) titles twice. He is also known as AJ. He is 6′6″.
Anthony is the son of Yetunde Adebukunola (Odusanya) and Jonathan Joshua. His father is of Nigerian and English descent, and his mother is of Nigerian ancestry. His Nigerian ancestry is Yoruba. Anthony has a son with dance teacher Nicole Osbourne.
Anthony’s paternal grandparents met while his Nigerian grandfather was studying abroad.
Anthony’s paternal grandfather was named Isaaco Joshua (the son of Omo-Oba Daniel Adebambo Joshua). Isaaco was Nigerian. Omo-Oba translates to “Prince.”
Anthony’s paternal grandmother was Moya Veronica Harper (the daughter of Albert Harper and Alice Mary Hussey). Moya was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, and was a white, English woman. Albert was the son of Frederick George Harper and Ellen Braithwaite. Alice was the daughter of Robert Hussey and Alice Mary Helm.
Anthony’s maternal grandfather was named James A. Odusanya.
Anthony’s maternal grandmother was named Olufunmilayo Solanke.
Sources: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Marriage record of Anthony’s parents – https://familysearch.org
Marriage record of Anthony’s maternal grandparents, James A. Odusanya and Olufunmilayo Solanke – https://familysearch.org
”Joshua’s father Jonathan is the grandson of one of Sagamu’s greatest men. Born in 1882, their late patriarch Omo-Oba Daniel Adebambo Joshua was one of the first Nigerians to engage in trade with Europeans in the early 20th century. The title ‘Omo-Oba’ literally translates to ‘Prince’.”
”This meant that although he had 12 wives and numerous offspring, he could still afford to send his children to school abroad. It was while studying in the United Kingdom that one of his sons, AJ’s grandfather, met and married an Irish woman.”
https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/19288636/anthony-joshua-stirs-emotion-nigerian-town-sagamu
madman,
Just an update, but I was doing some more research on the “Hussey” surname. It appears at least according to this popular websites that there are two different branches of this, one English (from the Norman Conquest) and one Irish from the Gaelic “Ó hEodhusa.”
https://www.houseofnames.com/hussey-family-crest
https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=Hussey
So far, as far as I can tell “Harper” is Scottish, and “Hussey” is English or Irish, but all we know is that Moya was born in England. I think that the only thing we can say for certain unless we trace the Hussey line further back is that she was of “British” or “British Isles” origin. Even in the case that she did have Irish ancestry, it wouldn’t be the largest part of his ancestry unless I got the origins of “Harper” incorrect and it’s actually Irish.
Mixed race. But racist Americans only allow mixed race people who are mostly white to claim their quarter black ancestry
Has anyone ever been able to nail down who his Irish ancestor was? I believe he’s personally claimed it was his paternal grandmother “and so on and so forth,” which makes it sound like it’s not something confirmed. Have we found anything about his grandparents on his father’s side?
His paternal grandparents were Isaaco Joshua and Moya V. Harper (the daughter of parents surnames Harper and Hussey).
What’s the source for this? Do we know where they were born? It’d be nice to be able to update this page with sources for the paternal grandparents.
The sources are their birth records on familysearch.com. I normally don’t link those since they are pretty easy to find on the site, and it can transform the source section into a long, boring birth/marriage record trail, but here they are.
Father: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV7P-CDTX
Paternal grandparents: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVD1-FC7N
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVD1-XNVZ
Paternal grandmother (almost sure): https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVQN-CFGQ
I can’t find any birth record for Isaaco, so I assume he was born in Nigeria. Moya was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. I don’t know who her parents are, so I can’t tell you if she was of Irish descent or not, but Hussey seems to be an Irish surname (correct me if I’m wrong).
Thanks for this. As for Hussey, from what I can find, it’s a vaguely British name, or at least no typically Irish. Doesn’t mean that she wasn’t; maybe her mother was. But it is a bit of evidence to they idea about all of this going around about an “Irish grandmother” is probably an exaggeration.
So I guess what we can say with some assurance is that Moya Hussey was probably a white British woman, at least.
Irish is a pretty popular ethnicity to claim, even if it’s just a minority of one’s ancestry. Like these two people, they were both said to have Irish fathers (not even “of Irish descent”, just Irish). There are many more examples.
http://ethnicelebs.com/michelle-branch
http://ethnicelebs.com/zahn-mcclarnon
According to this site, the name Hussey exists most densely in Ireland:
https://forebears.io/surnames/hussey
Parent’s mariage record:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVXJ-4Z9M
Mother’s birth record:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVW3-LTH2
Grandparents’ marriagge record:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV6C-F9W2