Stephen Colbert has turned his brow-arched eye to the north lately, picking on Canada in the run-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics. He’s accused Canadians of cheating at the Winter Games, which haven’t even yet begun, he’s called them “syrup suckers” and has advocated for an American-based Ontario Hockey League team.
(Check out the video below to see Colbert launch a letter-writing campaign against Canada)
As it turns out, though, Colbert might as well have a maple leaf tattooed on his syrup sucker.
That’s what Ancestry.ca would have you believe, anyway. The family lineage Web site looked into Colbert’s background and found that he has two (sort of) Canadians in his background.
James Quinn, Stephen’s great-great-grandfather, was born in Ireland in 1830 but eventually set sail for a better life in Canada.
According to his 1851 Census record, James Quinn lived and worked as a labourer in Frontenac County near Kingston, Ontario. James’ daughter Angeline Quinn married George William Colbert, Stephen’s great-grandfather.
Mary Skelton (nee Mary Ann Gurry) is another paternal ancestor of Stephen’s. Also born in Ireland, she was Stephen’s great-great-grandmother. She immigrated to the United States where she would meet her future husband Creighton Skelton.
What happened next is unclear, but at some point Mary ended up moving north of the border, where she would live out her last days. According to her Ontario death certificate, Mary Skelton passed away on June 29, 1880 in Haldimand County, near the shores of Lake Erie.
Mary and Creighton’s daughter Elizabeth Skelton married Hugh Tormey. Their daughter Mary Tormey married James W. Colbert Sr. — Stephen’s grandfather.
“As Stephen himself admits, he has little time for facts, logic or information… he prefers to feel the truth rather than look it up in historical records,” said Karen Peterson, marketing director for Ancestry.ca. “However, we are confident that if he searches his soul deep down the truthiness of his Canadian heritage will be too powerful to deny.”
I want to see his birth certificate. I believe he was born in Canada.
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