The Kennedys are the closest thing America has to a royal dynasty — and the closest thing to a Greek tragedy. This family tree begins with Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (1888–1969), the patriarch who built the family's fortune as a bootlegger, Hollywood investor, and diplomat, and who engineered his sons' political ascent with relentless will. With Rose Kennedy (1890–1995) — devout, formidable, and destined to outlive four of her children — he raised nine children into a machine built for the presidency.
The dynasty's weight passed down the male line by catastrophe. Joe Jr., the original chosen son, was killed on a classified bombing mission in 1944, transferring the family's ambition onto John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), who became the 35th President before his assassination in Dallas. Less than five years later, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles mid-campaign. Ted Kennedy — the “Lion of the Senate” — was the only son to die of natural causes, though Chappaquiddick and long struggles with alcohol shadowed him. The pattern reached a third generation when John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a 1999 plane crash.
For anyone drawing a genogram, the Kennedys are a case study in family systems: a controlling patriarch, a devout grieving mother, the hidden tragedy of Rosemary Kennedy — lobotomized in 1941 at her father's sole initiative and institutionalized for 64 years, a textbook example of stigma-driven family secrecy — and a repeating intergenerational script of ambition, achievement, and violent early death.
Open & edit this family tree →