The Kennedy family tree on this site is counted from Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. They are the first generation; their nine children are the second; the grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren follow, for 5 generations and 142 people in all. Rose’s own family, the Fitzgeralds of Boston, is kept as a separate branch at the end rather than folded into that count.
This page is the plain index of everyone, generation by generation. Every name below links to a full profile with dates, family connections and a biography where one has been written, and the parents of larger families carry a link to their children listed in birth order. The interactive chart on the homepage shows exactly the same people as a branching tree and a radial diagram, if you would rather see the shape of the family than read the list.
Two generations without pages
The tree begins with Joe Sr., but the family did not. His grandfather Patrick Kennedy (1823–1858) left Dunganstown, County Wexford, for Boston in 1849, married Bridget Murphy that same year and died of cholera at 35, the father of five children, four of whom survived him; Bridget built a grocery and notions business in East Boston to raise them. The youngest, Patrick Joseph “P.J.” Kennedy (1858–1929), rose from saloon owner to bank stockholder and Democratic ward boss, and with Mary Augusta Hickey had four children: Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (1888–1969), Francis Benedict, who died in infancy, Mary Loretta (1892–1972) and Margaret Louise (1898–1974). Only Joe Sr. has a profile here; the documented tree starts with him.
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.1 member
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (1888–1969), the Boston-born financier, film producer and U.S. ambassador to Britain whose fortune and ambition built the dynasty. He and Rose Fitzgerald married in 1914 and raised nine children.
The Second Generation9 members
The nine children of Joe and Rose Kennedy, born between 1915 and 1932: a president, two senators, an ambassador and the founder of the Special Olympics. Four of the nine died before the age of fifty.
The Third Generation31 members
The 31 grandchildren of Joe and Rose (two of whom died in infancy), including the 11 children of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, John and Jacqueline's four, and the Shriver, Lawford and Smith cousins. 24 are living today.
The Fourth Generation75 members
The largest Kennedy generation: 75 great-grandchildren, including Caroline Kennedy's three children and the grandchildren of Robert and Ethel Kennedy's eleven.
The Fifth Generation19 members
The youngest Kennedys: 19 great-great-grandchildren of Joe and Rose, the fifth generation counting from the patriarch, whose story is still being written.
Rose Kennedy's Family7 members
Rose Kennedy's own family: her father John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the two-time mayor of Boston, and the five siblings she grew up with.
Married into the family10 profiles
The husbands and wives whose names are searched almost as often as the Kennedys they married. They have profile pages but no place in the 142-member count above, since the tree follows descent from Joe and Rose alone.