Palin may be able to trace her ancestors to Co Roscommon

WHO DOES Sarah Palin think she is? Well, she may not know it, but the Republican vice-presidential hopeful could be able to trace her roots back to pre-Famine era Co Roscommon.

The Alaskan governor's ancestors ploughed fields near Strokestown, in "a townland across a narrow road from Ballykilcline in Kilglass parish", according to Maine-based genealogist Mary Lee Dunn.

The historian believes Ms Palin's great-great-great-grandfather, who she identifies as a Michael Sheiran, crossed the Atlantic in 1844.

In his race to the New World, Mr Sheiran not only escaped the Famine but also stole a five-year lead on the family of Senator Joe Biden, Ms Palin's Democratic opponent, Ms Dunn remarks.

Generally regarded as the "most Irish" of the candidates, Mr Biden's family is believed to have left Ireland for the US in around 1849.

Ms Palin's mother's maiden name is Sheeran and genealogists had already traced her ancestry back to her great-great-grandfather, a Michael James Sheeran, who was born in Vermont in 1852.

Ms Dunn says she found Mr Sheeran's death record, which delivered another detail: he was born on August 10th, 1852, in West Rutland. Searches of Rutland's 1850s and 1860s censuses did not turn up any Sheerans. But Ms Dunn had compiled her own database of "Rutland Roscommoners", which she developed as part of her research for her book Ballykilcline Rising: From Famine Ireland to Immigrant America.

In this database lurked an Irishman who filed for US citizenship on September 12th, 1855. His name was Michael Sheiran and Ms Dunn believes he was Michael James Sheeran's father. "Spelling was capricious then," Ms Dunn explains.

Mr Sheiran was born in 1823 in "Nokall" (Knockhall). Ms Dunn also found a James Sheeran in West Rutland's 1857 parish census records, whom she suspects was Michael Sheiran's brother.

Speaking ahead of the Palin-Biden television debate, Ms Dunn said she believed the former's ancestors in Kilglass may have been thrown off their land. They wouldn't have had it easy in the New World either, she adds.

"The Sheerans and other Irish newcomers confronted an economy that sought to keep immigrants in their place as low-wage railroad and quarry workers in perpetual service to profits and managerial control."