Getty Image / Justin Edmonds
The show has been on TV for nine years but I only just got around to watching my first episode of Finding Your Roots on PBS where the host does a deep dive into the ancestry of famous people and then presents them with his wild findings. If Colorado Rockies pitcher Tyler Kinley was a guest on that show then his generational story about being related to President William McKinley would’ve been blown up on TV. Alas, it took some digging from reporter Suzie Hunter aka Nacho Scout to expose the truth.
What I love the most about this story is I have one of these in my family as well. It’s not a US President, but on my mom’s side of the family people have been saying we have descended from Scottish hero Rob Roy MacGregor my entire life but I’ve still yet to see a shred of evidence. And on the contrary, I was on his Wiki page earlier and actually recognized a family name except it wasn’t a relative of Rob Roy’s, it was the guy who threw him in jail at one point.
My ancestry DNA results are HEAVILY Scottish so it’s possible there’s a relation but it has also become one of those stories that relatives say because someone else said it and nobody’s ever bothered to fact check it. And that’s precisely what I love about this Twitter thread. All she had to do was do a little proper J School digging and boom, the story unraveled.
I don't know how to tell this to Rockies reliever Tyler Kinley, but he is not related to President William McKinley (a thread)
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
Kinley told them he's related to President McKinley but members of the family dropped the "Mc" as a safety measure after his assassination in 1901. Unfortunately there is no evidence of this.
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
And keep in mind, this is a thing people TALK ABOUT. Dustin Morse of the Twins tweeted it out back in 2018… https://t.co/ndvlgOVfWQ
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
AP has mentioned it… it: https://t.co/VTNuVabk2v pic.twitter.com/KXavQ597mv
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
USA Today has mentioned it… https://t.co/NJ7d8bCSxP pic.twitter.com/EvcZqC848P
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
If he is the great-great-great nephew of former President William McKinley like he claims, let's look at McKinley's brothers who would have carried on the family name (or a version of it).
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
His brothers David and Abner only had daughters – no opportunity there to pass on any version of the last name.
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
Let's fast-forward to last year– RoxPile interviewed Kinley about his oval office connection where he suggested there was some kind of secret son (that's the most concerning here, why is no one is fact-checking this)https://t.co/xNHbk5LVyT pic.twitter.com/joTo3IC1NX
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
But let's fact-check this mystery son claim. The president and his wife Ida Saxton McKinley had two daughters who died very young. The First Lady did not handle it well. She fell apart, mentally and physically after losing her children.
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
On the flip side, through public records it's not difficult to trace back Tyler's Kinley lineage to humble farmers in North Carolina, whose presence there long predates McKinley's assassination.
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
My take on this: it sounds like someone in the Kinley family told Tyler a tall tale that's gone unchecked for too long.
— Suzie Hunter ⚾️ (@TheSuzieHunter) April 4, 2021
Tyler doesn’t appear to be the most active Twitter user in the game. He’s verified but he only has about a thousand followers and it seems like he only ever drops by to retweet things. I don’t want to be the guy that delivers him this news but if someone out there is a friend/colleague of his and wants to shoot him this article, you can be my guest.