In 1849, a young Irishman, Patrick Kennedy, left Ireland and traveled to the US by ship. At that time, there were terrible problems in Ireland. The most important food for poor people was potatoes. But in the late 1840s, the potatoes went bad, and many people had nothing to eat. About a million Irish people died, and another million left Ireland. Many of these went to the US, hoping for a better life.
Patrick Kennedy found work in Boston, Massachusetts, in the east of the US. He married and had five children. His children married, and they had children too. The Kennedys were very hard-working, and over the years, they made a lot of money in business. They also became an important political family.
One of Patrick Kennedy’s grandsons was called Joseph, or Joe. In October 1914, Joe married Rose Fitzgerald. The Fitzgeralds, like the Kennedys, were one of Boston’s most important political families. Joe and Rose had nine children – four boys and five girls. Their first son, Joe, was born on 25 July 1915, and their second son on 29 May 1917. His full name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy, but sometimes his friends and family called him Jack.
The Kennedys were rich, so their life was comfortable. For most of the year, they lived in a big house in Boston. They had another family home in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod, where they went every summer. The children spent happy times swimming, sailing, and playing sports.
The young Kennedys (JFK second from right)
Joe Kennedy Senior had big plans for his large family. He wanted his children to win at everything, and he pushed them to do their best. He had great hopes for them all, but his greatest hopes were for his oldest son.
‘One day my son Joe is going to be president,’ he said.
Joe was a very important person in Jack’s life too. He admired his older brother very much. When Jack was thirteen, he entered the Choate School in Connecticut, a very good school for boys. Joe was already at the school, and everybody liked him. He was intelligent, good-looking and a football star. People liked Jack too, but he was not always a good student. He was intelligent, and he loved sports, but he did not always work hard. Sometimes he and his friends got into trouble. Jack was often ill too. He hurt his back playing football, and he had problems because of other illnesses. Sometimes he could not go to school for weeks.
After leaving Choate, Jack followed Joe to Harvard University. Then something very exciting happened for the Kennedy family. The US president at that time, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, sent Joe Kennedy Senior to the UK as ambassador for the US. So in 1938, the Kennedys moved to London. Joe and Jack were still students at Harvard, but they came to stay with their family in the summer holidays.
JFK, Joe Kennedy Senior, and Joe Kennedy
The US ambassador had a very important job. In the late 1930s, many things were changing in Europe. Adolf Hitler was leader of Germany, and he was friendly with Benito Mussolini, leader of Italy. Hitler and Mussolini had dangerous ideas. They planned to control other countries in Europe, and many people were worried that there would be war. As US ambassador to London, Joe Kennedy Senior had to find out what was happening in the UK and Europe, and tell the US government. He had meetings with important people, and his sons met these people too. Jack became very interested in different countries and their governments.
American official Sumner Welles, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Joe Kennedy Senior