History & Heritage

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise's Irish Ancestry Unearthed - Hollywood star’s roots see two ancient families united

Hollywood star, Tom Cruise, flew into Ireland this week to discover his family history with the help of records found on leading Irish family history website, findmypast.ie.

The star, whose real name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, was invited by Tourism Ireland to re-connect with his Irish ancestry during his promotional tour of his latest film, Oblivion. He was presented with a family tree, dating back six generations to 1825.

The research into Cruise’s family was completed by Fiona Fitzsimons and Helen Moss of award-winning history and heritage company, Eneclann, partner company of findmypast.ie. The genealogists used several sources to compile the research including US census, Irish famine immigrant and civil registration records found on findmypast.ie.

The marriage of Patrick Russell Cruise and Teresa Johnson in Warrenstown House, Co. Meath in 1825 saw the unification of two ancient families, with origins in competing cultural and political traditions. These are Tom Cruise’s great-great-great grandparents.

Fiona Fitzsimons, lead researcher on Cruise’s family tree said: “The key to successfully tracing Tom's family history was to find the person who provided the link between Ireland and America. The records on findmypast were the perfect research tool. We used the U.S. Census records to trace his immigrant ancestors and the U.S. records for births, marriages and deaths to build a family profile over two generations. Armed with this information, we searched the Irish records to join the dots and trace the family before they left Ireland.”

The married couple emigrated to New Jersey in 1825 where the star’s great-great grandmother, Mary Paulina Russell Cruise was born in 1832. She went on to marry Dillon Henry Mapother of Louisville, Kentucky in 1858. Mapother had links to Co. Roscommon and this is the origin of Cruise’s little-known, double-barreled surname today.

Niall Cullen, from findmypast.ie said: “We are very excited that the Irish roots of such a famous person were found with the help of records on our website. Some of the research even links Tom’s ancestors to lands in Hollywood, North Dublin! It seems that even the world’s biggest celebrities are interested in finding out about their Irish family history”.

The records used during the research are available on all of findmypast’s international sites as part of a World Subscription.

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