From Serious to Jokester in 3 Generations: Jim Gaffigan's Supreme Court Justice Grandfather

Comedian Jim Gaffigan's Grandfather, Richard Mitchell, Iowa Supreme Court Justice during the 1930s

Very few people in the world make me laugh harder than Jim Gaffigan.

I wondered, “What kind of ancestry does somebody like Jim Gaffigan come from?” I didn’t have to go very far back to hit something surprising. Jim Gaffigan’s maternal grandfather, Richard F. Mitchell, held one of the most serious jobs you could in the United States during the 1930s and into the 1940s: Supreme Court Justice, for the State of Iowa.

Jim Gaffigan’s grandfather in the 1940 census. Jim’s mother, Marcia, was 2 years old.

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I jumped into Jim Gaffigan’s genealogy, but definitely not a Supreme Court Justice. For somebody who regularly pokes fun at politics, it’s funny that Jim Gaffigan’s grandfather was so deeply imbedded in them.

If you want to laugh and check out some of Jim Gaffigan’s material, try out this apparenece on Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend. Jim and Conan go back and forth with comedy bits the entire time. I’ve listened to this podcast episode thousands of times. In reality dozens.

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Jack Palmer is a History and Psychology double-major at Duke University. I’ve done genealogy research since I was 10 and love writing about it for family, friends, and anybody else who might enjoy a blast from the past.