Tracing one’s paternal lineage provides insight into a person’s genetic and cultural heritage passed down through the male line. For professional football tight end Travis Kelce, exploring his father’s side of the family tree reveals a German ancestry with roots stretching back over a century in America.
Kelce’s father is Ed Kelce, who currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Ed’s father was also named Ed Kelce, going by Ed Kelce Sr. to distinguish him from his son. Ed Kelce Sr.’s father was Ed Kelce II, continuing the tradition of passing down the first name “Ed” from father to son.
Going back another generation brings us to Ed Kelce III, Travis Kelce’s great-great-grandfather. Ed Kelce III was born in 1875 in a small town outside of Frankfurt, Germany. In 1889, at the age of 14, Ed immigrated to the United States through New York City in search of new opportunities across the ocean. He settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where there was a growing German immigrant population establishing communities and businesses.
In Cleveland, Ed Kelce III initially worked various manual labor jobs, taking whatever work was available to a foreign-born teenage boy with no money or connections. Through perseverance and a strong work ethic, he was able to save up enough funds to open his own shop repairing shoes in the early 1890s. His shoe repair business proved quite successful, satisfying a demand from the many hard-working industrial laborers in Cleveland who needed affordable shoe maintenance.
By the early 1900s, Ed Kelce III had expanded his operations and opened three shoe repair stores throughout the city. His business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit served him well as he became a respected member of Cleveland’s German business community. In 1910, he married Anna Schmidt, the German-born daughter of a local brewery owner. They had three children – two sons and a daughter. Ed Kelce III ensured his children received a good education so they could choose their own career paths and better their station in life from what he had known growing up in Germany.
One of Ed Kelce III’s sons who worked in the family shoe repair business was Ed Kelce IV, Travis Kelce’s great-grandfather. Ed Kelce IV took over operations of the most profitable store in downtown Cleveland after his father’s retirement. By this time in the 1920s, the shoe repair business was quite lucrative. Ed Kelce IV lived a comfortable middle-class life and was able to provide for his growing family.
In 1928, Ed Kelce IV married Catherine Mueller, whose parents were also German immigrants. They had three children – two daughters and one son, Ed Kelce V, who would grow up to be Travis Kelce’s grandfather. Ed Kelce V worked in the shoe repair business alongside his father until World War II, when he joined the military effort. After the war concluded, he met his future wife Donna and started his own family, having two sons – Ed Kelce VI, or Travis Kelce’s father, and his uncle Fred Kelce.
By the time of Ed Kelce VI’s childhood in the 1950s and 60s, the Kelce family business had expanded into other areas beyond shoe repair. Ed Kelce V opened a chain of leather goods stores under the “Kelce Leather” brand name. The stores sold belts, wallets, purses, and other accessories. This proved a wise diversification as shoe repair became less lucrative with the rise of mass-produced footwear. Under Ed Kelce V’s leadership, Kelce Leather grew to have five locations in northeast Ohio.
Ed Kelce VI worked in the family business throughout high school and college before deciding to strike out on his own. In the 1970s, he started an auto repair shop that continues operating today in Cleveland. He married Donna, whose lineage traced back to Irish immigrants, and they had two sons – Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce, who also became a professional football player.
Today, Travis Kelce proudly carries on the Kelce name inherited from his paternal line stretching back over a century. While the original shoe repair trade is long gone, the entrepreneurial spirit of his ancestors lives on through the family businesses that have supported generations of Kelces. His German heritage is a connection to the old country that helped shape his family’s journey and success in America.
Maternal Ancestry
While Travis Kelce’s father’s side provided the German ancestry in his bloodline, his mother Donna traces back her lineage to Irish immigrants who came to America in the mid-19th century. Exploring his maternal roots sheds light on Kelce’s Irish cultural heritage passed down through the female side of his family.
Donna Kelce’s mother was named Donna Kelce Sr., continuing the tradition of the first name being given to the firstborn daughter. Donna Sr.’s mother was Donna Kelce II, and her mother before that was Donna Kelce III. This lineage is tied directly to Travis Kelce’s great-great-grandmother, Donna Kelce IV.
Donna Kelce IV was born in Ireland in 1845, during the mass famine and economic depression that drove so many to leave for North America. In 1856 at the age of 11, she immigrated with her family to Boston, Massachusetts, the port of entry for countless Irish fleeing the hard times at home. They settled in a dense Irish neighborhood in the city.
Growing up during the American Civil War era, Donna Kelce IV witnessed immense social changes taking place. She became active in the women’s suffrage movement of the late 19th century, advocating for women’s right to vote. A devout Catholic, she was also involved with the church’s charitable works assisting impoverished Irish families in Boston. Her strong convictions and leadership abilities led her to become a prominent figure among the city’s Irish-American community.
In 1865 at age 20, Donna Kelce IV married fellow Irish immigrant Patrick O’Connor. They had eight children together, the eldest being a daughter named Donna Kelce III. Tragedy struck in 1890 when Patrick passed away from an illness. This left Donna Kelce IV as a single mother needing to provide for her large brood. Undeterred, she took in sewing work to make ends meet and instilled a strong sense of faith and perseverance in her children.
Donna Kelce III grew up helping her mother support the family. In 1900, she married a dockworker named Liam Ryan and started her own family in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood. They had five children, one being a daughter named Donna Kelce II. Like the women before her, Donna II married young in 1920, had children, and aided in caring for her mother and siblings.
The next generation brought Donna Kelce I, mother of Travis Kelce’s mother Donna. Born in 1950, Donna I grew up in a large extended Irish-American family with deep roots in working-class Boston. She married an electrician and had two daughters, Donna Kelce and her sister Maureen. Both girls embraced their Irish heritage through involvement in local Catholic parishes and traditions passed down from their immigrant forebears.
Donna Kelce married Ed Kelce and started a family in Cleveland, Ohio, where she raised Travis and Jason Kelce. To this day, the Kelce brothers remain proud of their Irish ancestry on their mother’s side. Their great-great-great-grandmother Donna Kelce IV’s legacy of strong faith, community leadership, and persevering against hardship through the women of the family line is part of what shaped them into the men they are today.
Family Businesses and Football Careers
Travis Kelce comes from a long line of entrepreneurs and hard workers on both sides of his family tree. From his German ancestors establishing successful small businesses in Cleveland to his Irish foremothers providing for their families through difficult times, self-sufficiency and grit were ingrained in Kelce from an early age.
This upbringing no doubt contributed to his own drive and work ethic achieving stardom in the NFL. But he was not the only one in his immediate family to pursue football at a high level. His brother Jason Kelce also played center in the NFL for over a decade, winning a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018.
Their father Ed Kelce continued operating the auto repair shop started in the 1970s, carrying on the tradition of family enterprises. On their mother Donna’s side, values of faith, community, and strong women were instilled in both Kelce brothers from their Irish Catholic maternal line.
Whether it was the entrepreneurial spirit of his German ancestors or perseverance of his Irish foremothers, Travis Kelce seems to have been destined to leave his own mark. Now in his prime as one of the NFL’s top tight ends for the Kansas City Chiefs, he is ensuring his surname remains synonymous with success and carries on the proud legacy of all those who came before. With a Super Bowl title of his own in 2020 and more accolades likely still to come in his career, Travis Kelce is most definitely living up to the impressive standards set by over a century of his pioneering relatives.
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Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Getty Images)