Jim Webb

official U.S. Senate photo of Jim Webb c. 2006/2007

Birth Name: James Henry Webb, Jr.

Place of Birth: St. Joseph, Missouri, U.S.

Date of Birth: February 9, 1946

Ethnicity: Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, English, Irish, distant German and Dutch

Jim Webb is an American politician and author. He has also been known as James Webb. He has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, from May 3, 1984 to April 10, 1987, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, from May 1, 1987 to February 23, 1988, and a U.S. Senator from Virginia, from January 3, 2007 to January 3, 2013.

He was a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 2016.

Jim has Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, English, Irish, and distant German and Dutch, ancestry. He has written a book about the Scots-Irish in the United States, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (2004).

He is married to Vietnamese-born lawyer Hong Le Webb, with whom he has a daughter. He also has a daughter with his first wife, lawyer Barbara Samorajczyk, and three children with his second wife, health care lobbyist Jo Ann Krukar.

Jim’s paternal grandfather was Robert Lee Webb (the son of James Thomas Webb and Nancy Angeline Cox). Robert was born in Kentucky. James was the son of David George Webb and Mary Louisa Jewel. Nancy was the daughter of Gordon Harrison Cox and Salome Irra de Haven.

Jim’s paternal grandmother was Mary Ellen Smith (the daughter of Thomas Harvey Smith and Elizabeth McKnight). Mary Ellen was born in Missouri. Thomas was the son of Condley Smith and Mary Ellen Johnson. Elizabeth was the daughter of James M. McKnight and Rebecca Ann Miller.

Jim’s maternal grandfather was Birch Hays Hodges (the son of Asa William Hodges and Sarah T. Blankenship). Birch was born in Kentucky. Asa was the son of Ransom S. Hodges and Mary Ann Murphy. Sarah was the daughter of Thomas Blankenship and Sarah Burgess.

Jim’s maternal grandmother was Frankie Georgia Doyle (the daughter of Francis Adolphus Doyle and Margaret Louella Marsh). Frankie was born in Tennessee. Francis was the son of Zachariah Thomas Doyle and Sarah W. Davis. Margaret was the daughter of Samuel Jasper Marsh and Parmelia Long.

Sources: Genealogies of Jim Webb – http://www.wargs.com
http://www.geni.com

22 Responses

  1. bearboy says:

    Great guy I could see him making an Independent run for the White House.

  2. gel says:

    You are TOLD that but whats your evidence?

    Certainly there WAS a lot of inter-marriage.

  3. AdamMartin says:

    Scots Irish or Northern Irish is not a real ethnicity.These people are basically Scottish so why make a distinction between them and the Scots? It seems like a load of political fluff to me.
    There are a lot of grey areas between the Scots and Irish when it comes to surnames but “Doyle” and “Murphy” are unambiguously Irish.Religion should never be used as a clear marker,lots of Irish people converted to the reformed churches before they left for America and many more converted when they got there,especially in the south.

  4. Alice says:

    Another one with actual Irish ancestry with names like Murphy and Doyle in his family tree. These names are specifically Irish and not Scots. I do find it a bit irksome that Northern Irish is put as a separate category than Irish. You could just put Scots-Irish if they have that ancestry but most Northern Irish people do in fact have Irish ancestry.

    • follers says:

      I can’t trace Jim Webb’s “Murphy” and “Doyle” lines beyond American-born ancestors.

      In the U.S., Scots-Irish is considered a different ethnicity. Jim Webb is so attached to his Scots-Irish background that he even wrote a book about the group, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America.

      I don’t doubt that most Scots-Irish have Irish Catholic ancestry, and that most Irish Catholics probably have Scots-Irish ancestry. I guess it balances out.

      • Alice says:

        Murphy and Doyle are Irish and there is no ambiguity about those names. Some surnames like Murray could be either Scots or Irish but Murphy and Doyle have a definite Irish origin.

        http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Doyle
        http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Murphy

        His American born ancestors that are Murphy and Doyle obviously have Irish ancestry otherwise they wouldn’t have that surname.

        • follers says:

          Between name changes and a hundred other things (i.e. Tye Sheridan and Austine Mahone), especially considering how common these surnames are… Then there’s Eddie Murphy…

          • Alice says:

            You know I just knew someone would bring up Eddie Murphy. He was the first person that popped into my head after my post. I really doubt that a lot of people would be changing their names to Murphy and Doyle. Didn’t a lot of Scots-Irish try to distance themselves from the Irish? I doubt they would change their names to Murphy and Doyle.

          • follers says:

            “Meyer” could become “Murphy” and “Diehl” could become “Doyle”.

            By the way, Eddie Murphy’s full name is Edward Regan Murphy. After his father died, his mother married a man with the surname “Lynch”. Just shows you that, as you said, Irish people have a wide variety of looks.

          • Alice says:

            Irish ancestry but not “Irish”. To be Irish you need to be Irish born and with all Irish ancestry. Someone with 1/32% does not make someone Irish. I think you are going to extremes to dismiss Webb’s Irish ancestry.

          • Alice says:

            It’s a bit of a stretch to believe that Jim Webb’s German & Dutch ancestors would both pick typical Irish surnames.

      • gel says:

        There is NO Such thing as “Scots-Irish”.

        They were called – and called themselves – Irish. It was invented later.

      • Singh117 says:

        That is not true he may have separate Irish ancestry but the whole term Scots-Irish is an American term for Ulster Scots a collection of people from Lowland Scotland and Northern England who settled Northern Ireland. If you see the conflicts in Northern Ireland it is unlikely that the Protestant Scots-Irish actually intermingled with the native Irish Catholics. So he might have some Irish ancestors but it is unlikely that his primarily Scots-Irish ancestry had anything to do with the Irish.

    • GLXY says:

      The Scots-Irish in America had almost none Irish ancestry when they came. It wasn’t common for Ulster Scots to mingle with Irish Catholics in the 17th century and when they came in America, they mostly settled in southern states while most Irish went north.

      Of course we are in 2015 now and things have changed

      • gel says:

        How do you know these people were not Irish? – you’re assuming they were “Scots-Irish”, a name made up in America.
        The Irish left from Ulster (no Northern Ireland then) as well – they would have to fall in with the religion of the then American colonies.
        It is all assumption. Think about it.

        • Singh117 says:

          Scots-Irish is made in America but do you know the Scots have nothing Irish about it except for the fact they were lowland Scots and Northern English who settled Ulster to make the region Protestant, and were sent by the British Crown. They are the same people who are unionists and are called the term “Ulster Scots” in the U.K. For evidence look at Appalachia the bastion of Ulster Scots culture, they are Protestants who have similar music, culture, and food to the Scots and Northern English, that settled Northern Ireland who would colloquially become known as the Ulster Scots, or Scots-Irish. Jim Webb may have had some Irish but his Scots-Irish was not Irish it was Ulster-Scots.

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