There were many adventures until John Portmann got hold of his Irish passport
When John Portmann, professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, was born, he was called Thomas James Delehanty – a fact that he himself was unaware of until a few years ago.
The man also did not know that his mother’s name was Therese and that his father’s name was Thomas. I wasn’t even aware that they were both Irish.
Portmann was born in Arizona in 1963. “My mother’s pregnancy was problematic,” he says, explaining what he was able to find out.
Therese “somehow got from Minneapolis to Phoenix,” where she met the Sisters of Mercy nuns, a religious order with a long tradition of assisting unmarried pregnant women, who found her a room at the home of a Catholic doctor. [SistersofMercynooriginalumaordemreligiosacomumalongatradiçãodeassistênciaagrávidassolteirasquelhearranjaramumquartonacasadeummédicocatólico
“It seems she was happy and well looked after”, describes Portmann. However, three days after giving birth – following the rules of the Sisters of Mercy – she abandoned the baby. About a month later, he reportedly traveled back to Minneapolis, where he continued the life he had before.
Therese’s baby was raised by the nuns for five or six weeks before being adopted. The baby named Thomas James Delehanty was given a new name, John Edward Portmann, by his adoptive parents, who were unable to have biological children of their own.
Portmann learned quite early on that he had been adopted. However, it was only when he received the results of a DNA test in August 2019 that he discovered more details about his predecessors.
“When I received the result, I had no idea what it meant,” admits Portmann. “They just give us a bunch of numbers and we almost need a course to interpret them.”
“The only line I understood, which was right at the beginning of the letter, was that it was 100% Irish. I had no idea it could even be 1%.”
DNA Detective
Left photo: Therese (second from the left in the front row) with her family in Minneapolis in the 1950s. Right photo: Therese (second from the right) with her family in Minneapolis. (Courtesy: John Portmann)
A friend told Portmann he should contact a “DNA detective” – a private detective who helps clients identify fathers and mothers they don’t know.
Jennifer Harris, an English professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada who is also a DNA detective in her spare time, offered to help after seeing a post from Portmann asking for help in the “DNA Detectives” Facebook group.
“It took him a long time. She spent about eight or nine days working hard, until she found my mother and father”, remembers Portmann.
Harris has helped hundreds of people understand who their biological parents were, comparing the process to academic research.
“I’m a literature teacher, used to delving into archives, bringing to light historical facts that seemed lost,” she says. “My academic research mixes with DNA detective work while I’m at the archives.”
At first, Harris turned to DNA databases on platforms like Ancestry or 23andMe, to try to find people with genetic matches to Portmann, dividing them into maternal and paternal sides. Harris then dug into the archives – using obituaries, census records and old newspapers – to find out when someone on one side of the family met someone on the other side of the family long enough for a child to be born.
According to Harris, it was “fairly easy” to ascertain John Portmann’s ancestors on his mother’s side, as there was a strong connection with a Minneapolis family. He gradually eliminated the other brothers, until he reached Therese.
However, the researcher was only able to identify a DNA match on John Portmann’s paternal side in the United States. “I found a way to build a family tree using his name; It was a matter of investigating everything I could about that family’s history,” he says.
Harris examined the immigration records of this relative’s ancestors to see if anyone had traveled from Ireland to the United States of America. He found a document identifying the cargo, passengers and crew of a ship that traveled to America. According to what was written, on board was Thomas FitzGerald.
The DNA detective later discovered that Thomas FitzGerald went to Minneapolis, which was “not a common destination for Irish immigrants”.
“It was then that I came across a newspaper article that placed him back in Minneapolis around the same time John was conceived,” explains Harris, adding that it was “pretty clear that John’s father was Thomas FitzGerald.”
Thomas FitzGerald left Dublin to make his fortune in the United States, says Portmann. “He worked in a luxury hotel in Dublin and emigrated to the United States at 25. He ended up working at a luxury hotel in Minneapolis, the Radisson. That’s when he met my mother, in the hotel bar.”
The quest for citizenship
Therese, John Portmann’s elderly mother (Courtesy: John Portmann)
Portmann contacted the Irish embassy in Washington DC to see if she could obtain Irish citizenship, as both of her biological parents were from that country. According to him, an employee told him that “there was no way to move forward” with the process, as the evidence was considered insufficient. Portmann describes this news as “devastating.”
John Portmann spoke to a lawyer, who told him that there was indeed a way to move forward. However, this would involve going to court for a “declaration of paternity” that would legally recognize who his biological parents were.
“The judge had to decide whether or not to grant the ‘declaration of paternity’ and he relied completely on Jennifer Harris’ testimony. It was something remarkable”, describes Portmann.
The judge was convinced and ruled in favor of the man. “I had a document that had the force of law in Arizona, but Ireland had no obligation to consider it,” he says.
John Portmann sent the “declaration of paternity” to the Irish embassy, which explained that the process would have to go to the Irish government for evaluation. “So I sent everything to Dublin and had to wait a year.”
When he received news from the Irish government again, Portmann was asked to take a new DNA test, carried out at an Irish consulate or embassy, and in the presence of a relative on his father’s side.
“I had difficulty getting help from one of my biological half-sisters”, confesses Portmann, adding that it was on hold for a long time, without a decision.
However, one day in August 2022, he received news from an official at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs that his application had been accepted. “It was a really happy day”, he remembers.
The passport was sent to the Irish embassy in Washington D.C. According to Portmann, two embassy employees, with whom he became friends during the process, sent him a photograph of themselves smiling while holding the document, confirming that he had reached his desired goal. .
A few days later, the passport arrived in the mailbox. “I want to thank the Irish government. I’m very, very grateful to Ireland.”
John Portmann has already met his mother’s side of his biological family. Therese, who died in 2019, the same year her son took a DNA test, married a widower and had five daughters, who are alive. The husband’s children all adored their stepmother, according to Portmann.
Portmann says the mother’s husband knew his wife had a child in Arizona. And she revealed to her that Therese carried a photo of her baby with her her entire life.
Portmann also discovered that three of Therese’s five brothers were college professors. They were “quite surprised” to realize that he was also a teacher, he says.
Establish a precedent
John Portmann with his partner, Dan, in front of Belvedere College, a Catholic school in Dublin, where biological grandfather James taught Latin and Greek. (Courtesy: John Portmann)
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs explained that, although they do not comment on particular cases, there are other people “submitting DNA evidence in their passport applications”.
“Additional documentary evidence is required before a decision is made on issuing a passport,” says the Department of Foreign Affairs. “Such requests require considerable engagement with the applicant to ensure that the Passport Service is fully satisfied with the applicant’s commitment to Irish citizenship.”
Portmann hopes her story shows other people who have been adopted that there is a path to legal recognition of their past. “I want to inspire other people who have been adopted regarding their constitutional right to citizenship.”
The man adds that “the saddest thing is the fact that people with few resources cannot afford a lawyer to fight for them”, thus making their access to citizenship difficult.
“I think John’s case is really important because it sets a precedent for people who have been adopted,” says Jennifer Harris. “I look at it this way: John is claiming rights that are often denied to people who have been adopted.”
“Adoption does not break emotional ties or issues of belonging. Adoption does not tear identity. It’s complicated, in many ways.”
“The rights of adopted people are very important. And, historically, we have pretended that these rights do not exist”, adds Harris. To conclude: “I think they have to complain; It is part of our human desire to know who we are and what our origins are.”
