The Lost Grandsons of John Henry Kirby

As in all of our unique exihibts and events which introduce new or unusual pieces of history, the motivation for this event was by the investigation of a story from someone in our Social Media audience. I was contacted by a patron with the surname "Kirby" who had done DNA evaluation and had found living cousins who were supposedly grandsons of John Henry Kirby.  History records that Kirby only had one biological daughter, and later adopted her son (his grandson) as his son and heir and changed his name to John Henry Kirby II.  

I was given the contact information of these two "biological grandsons" and reached out to them, one in Orlando and one in Atlanta. Brothers Paul Kirby Remsen and Peter Kirby Remsen were both in their 80's and told me of a story their father had told them that he was the result of an affair in Houston, which resulted in the divorce of his mother and her remarriage to the father he had always known. John Henry Kirby was born in 1867, and his son James Kirby Remsen was born in August of 1901. Kirby's son was hidden to history for the Kirby family until now. The son married and had his sons in his 40's, making the math possible for someone one generation removed from John Henry Kirby to still be living.

Our first task was to confirm the DNA, which we did.  These two older gentlemen were definitely the biological grandsons of John Henry Kirby, born of his only biological son!  After we confirmed the DNA, we began to investigate the over 1000 pages of original documents in our archives in search of clues.  We found the biological son was advised and taken under the wing of John Henry Kirby for his entire life, through correspondence that read without the knowledge of his biological connection would be have been devoid of meaning. When Kirby's adopted son (his biological grandson) John Henry Kirby II left home to go out in the world, Kirby actually sent him to his biological son for advice and assistence.  We found letters from Kirby and from his son that confirmed their relationship.  Ironically, his biological son was enormously successful in his own right, and his grandson was not. The personal letters of John Henry Kirby admonished him and encouraged him to stop being reckless with money and to improve his behavior.  It is intrigueing to imagine the frustration of John Henry Kirby in this very secret matter.

The Kirby grandsons came to the Ice House Museum and spoke on their unique situation, of learning from their father that Kirby was rumoured to be thier grandfather, and what it was like to discover that the family he descended from was, in fact, not related to him.  In meeting the grandsons, I almost feel we got to see a glimpse of John Henry Kirby!  They resembled him, they were charming and successful in their own right!  After this event, they left us with this fascinating new piece of history, a look into the personality of John Henry Kirby and a generous donation to the museum!