AQO 2406/22-27

Mr Danny Donnelly
Alliance Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 11/09/2025
Answered On Date: 23/09/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities to outline the steps his Department took to verify the accuracy of genealogical and DNA claims before commissioning and producing the dossier entitled, The Family Footsteps of JD Vance.

Answer:

I asked my officials as part of the wider America250 commemorations to undertake research to explore genealogical links between Vice President JD Vance and his Ulster-Scots ancestry. In his book, Hillbilly Elegy, the Vice President references his Scots Irish heritage.

The Public Record Office commissioned an experienced independent researcher in the United States to work back through primary sources in the USA.