Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Irish Genealogy In North America - 2014 In Review

2014 saw many interesting developments for Irish genealogy enthusiasts in the U.S. The biggest record release was undoubtedly that of the Irish Immigrant Girls Organization in New York City. In total, 35,000 free records in digitized ledgers from the years 1897 to 1940 came online. What makes this records set even more valuable is that they are records for female Irish immigrants and the Irish county of origin is listed. 

The members of the Troy Irish Genealogy Society, near Albany, NY were very busy with two record releases of their own in January and November. Both of these databases contain transcribed records from cemeteries and funeral homes. Again, the all important Irish county of origin is provided, where known.

One of the commercial genealogy websites also got in on the act with the release of two new databases. Irish Death Notices in American Newspapers and Irish Marriage Notices in American Newspapers debuted on FindMyPast. Here's hoping the big three (Ancestry, Familysearch, and FindMyPast) will have more records that focus on Irish immigrants in the U.S. and Canada in 2015.

In August, the Celtic Connections conference was held near Boston. Some of the most well known speakers and professionals in the Irish genealogy world were in attendance for the two-day event. The word is that the organizers hope to plan a similar conference in Minneapolis, MN in 2016.

The Wexford Savannah Axis was launched in March and holds the promise of being useful for those with links to the southeast of Ireland and the state of Georgia. Collaborations between historical societies and institutes of higher education in both places will examine the migration of people from that part of Ireland to the Peach State.

To the best of my knowledge, I am not aware of any new records from Canada that were discovered or came online in 2014 and are specifically to do with Irish genealogy. There are, however, many such useful resources already online. Click here to read more than forty posts I wrote this year that highlight some of the best.

There is a fantastic Irish genealogy society scene all over the U.S. and Canada. From Florida to Ottawa, west to Seattle and south to San Diego, various clubs and societies met every month during 2014. At these meetings, thousands of people learned more about their Irish ancestors. There were some excellent talks and lectures arranged by these organizations, with many more to come in 2015.

All in all, 2014 was a pretty good year for Irish genealogy in North America.








Monday, December 22, 2014

Irish Newfoundland Connection

The southeast of Ireland has very strong historical links with Newfoundland in Canada. Indeed, many people with ancestors in this part of Canada can trace their Irish origins back to the counties of Waterford, Wexford, Tipperary, and Kilkenny.

A 2000 documentary about these historic links is available to view on YouTube. An Bóithrín Glas: Talamh an Éisc (Green Lane/Small Green Road: Newfoundland) was produced by the Irish language network TG4.

Note: this is an Irish language documentary but has English subtitles.





Thursday, December 18, 2014

South Bend, Indiana

South Bend, Indiana is the small town that is renowned for being the home of the famous Notre Dame University. The university was founded by a French Catholic priest in 1842 and is intimately associated with Catholic Irish higher education.[1] Countless numbers of Americans of Irish heritage have studied there. The town itself attracted a small but significant number of Irish immigrants in the post-Famine years. By 1860, there was about 400 Irish born residents.[2]


If you know or think that some of your Irish ancestors may have lived in South Bend, then Jill Dale's Rootsweb site is an important port of call for your research. Among her research focusing on county Mayo, and Irish immigration in Britain, she has documented her extensive research about Irish immigrant families in the city. Her own Brennan family research is the focus, but she has gone far beyond this to include information about Irish immigrants coming to the city, a history of the main Catholic parish, St. Joseph's, and transcriptions from many 19th century sources such as censuses, parish registers, and city directories. The transcribed information is helpfully divided by family name.

Access the website by clicking here.


[1]University of Notre Dame. History of the University: A Place Born of Imagination and Will  2014. http://www.nd.edu/about/history : accessed 7 December 2014

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Irish Episode For WDYTYA 2015

The New York Post newspaper ran a story yesterday outlining the 2015 lineup of celebrities that will appear on season six of U.S. Who Do You Think You Are? The one that will be of interest to Irish genealogists will be the episode featuring sitcom actor Sean Hayes.

Hayes recently tweeted about his trip to Ireland where he did family history research.

The Hayes name is mostly associated with the counties of Munster*, but he could be searching for information about other paternal lines, or his maternal line. His Wikipedia entry says that he was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a suburb to the west of Chicago, so that could be a likely starting point.

Season six of WDYTYA? will begin on February 24th. So far, I have not found a listing of when the other episodes will air, but it would not surprise me if Hayes' episode comes to our screens around St. Patrick's Day.

Do you need help with Irish genealogy research in Chicago or Illinois?  Click here to read other articles about these places.

Click here to watch Irish genealogy shows and presentations, including more Irish Who Do You Think You Are? episodes.

*The province of Munster contains the counties of Cork, Clare, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford.

UPDATE, 18 Dec: Dick Eastman's blog has a piece on the new season and confirms that the episode will focus on Hayes' paternal ancestry

UPDATE 2, 19 Dec: The Irish Independent newspaper has all the details about where in Kerry his ancestors were from.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Saint John Almshouse Records

I have featured a number of databases on this blog from the New Brunswick Irish Portal over the last number of months (see the end of this post for a full list of links to previous articles). Another one worth highlighting is the Saint John Almshouse Records, primarily for the Irish place of origin information in these records.

This database covers the years 1843 to 1897 and is made up of two different sets of registers - St. John [sic] City Almshouse Admission Registers, 1843-1897 and Saint John Almshouse Admission Registers, 1843-1884. A number of city institutions are covered in these registers, namely the Alms and Work House, the Emigrant Infirmary, and the St. John Emigrant Orphan Asylum. These institutions were created due to the arrival of large numbers of poor emigrants from Europe, in particular Ireland.


The structure of the search facility is slightly different when compared to the websites of the commercial and non-profit behemoths. Firstly, you can pre-select the amount of information that is returned from searches. Some of the information, such as collection, page, given names, and surname is automatically returned, but there is a sizeable list which is optional. This include: admitted by, age in years, age in months, age in days, condition, nativity, date landed, died/discharged, date of death/discharge, place of origin, parish of residence, time in house, time in province, vessel, vessel type, vessel master, religion, departure, landed, and remarks. However, information was not necessarily collection for each heading.

Secondly, the collections can be filtered and they are categorized by archival number. St. John [sic] City Almshouse Admission Registers, 1843-1897 make up the MC249 collections and Saint John Almshouse Admission Registers, 1843-1884 make up the MC700 collections. It is recommended to read the introduction and 'About the Records' to fully understand this record set and database.

Many of the records for those born in Ireland return a county of origin, making this a particularly useful database to consult.

Access the database by clicking here.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Journey Home Genealogy Blog

The amount of quality blogs that focus on Irish genealogy has steadily increased over the last five years. The two that stand out from the crowd are Claire Santry's Irish Genealogy News and John Grenham's Irish Roots. Blogs in that crowd include Margaret Jordan's Cork Genealogist, Kay Caball's My Kerry Ancestors, Donna Moughty's Irish Genealogy Resources, and without jumping on the self-praise bandwagon, hopefully Townland of Origin.*

There is one blog, though, that teaches me something new with almost every single post: Journey Home Genealogy. It is written by Dwight Radford, who is one of the foremost experts in the US when it comes to Irish genealogy. Blogposts frequently focus on methodologies, sources, and experiences researching in Ireland, and among Irish immigrants in the U.S. and Canada.

If you don't know your Tithe Applotment Books from your Griffith's Valuation, or are still looking on Familysearch for that 1861 Irish census database, then you might want to come back to it in the future. Basically, by that I mean that this blog is aimed at intermediate and advanced Irish genealogy researchers. Irish records in Spanish archives? Check. Correlating city directories with censuses in Ireland? There is some of that too. Irish Immigrants in a multi-ethnic parish? That's covered.

The blog is usually updates 2-3 times a month and you can sign up via email to follow it. It's definitely one to check out.

* I have not considered blogs from commercial companies that have a large number of Irish genealogy records and databases.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery, Baltimore, MD

St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland is located on Moreland Ave., to the north-west of the downtown area. It opened in 1851 and was associated with St. Peter the Apostle parish which was founded on the corners of Hollins and North Poppleton Sts. in 1842. This parish, known as the "mother Church of west Baltimore", was built to provide a place of worship for the growing Irish population who moved to the west side of the city to work on the B&O Railroad.[1]

Three different online indexes of burials for the cemetery, in .pdf file format, are available to view for the years 1851 to about 1970. Each of these indexing efforts come from different sources and cover a majority of, though not all, entries. It is recommended to read the 'Preface' for each set of files to understand from what source they were transcribed and what years they cover. You can access all three sets by clicking here and a cemetery map by clicking here.

Note: St. Peter the Apostle parish is now closed. In 2004 it merged with St. Jerome and St. Martin to form Transfiguration Catholic Community. Phone: 410-685-5044 or visit the parish website for more information, such as the location of parish registers.



[1] Spalding, Thomas W. The Premier See: A History of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, 1789-1989. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1989.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

From Donegal To Philadelphia

The always excellent Irish in the American Civil War website recently had an in-depth article about Irish chain migration to the U.S. Focusing on the life of Private Charles O'Donnell, the blog curator, Damian Shiels, tells the story of how many people from the civil parish of Donaghmore, Co. Donegal emigrated to Philadelphia, PA, beginning in the early 19th century.

Friday, November 28, 2014

New Troy Irish Genealogy Society Database II

Last week, Irish Genealogy News reported that the Troy Irish Genealogy Society (TIGS) released another fantastic database of records. St. John’s Cemetery, Albany, NY Interment Records, 1841- 1887 contains over 12,700 transcriptions, of which almost 4,000 of these are for people from Ireland. What makes this record set even better is that the county of origin is provided for almost 3,400 of those Irish-born people.


The importance of having local knowledge and of preservation efforts are both seen in the description of how these records came to light. The TIGS website outlines that the interment book was in the possession of a former employee of another Catholic cemetery in the area and was in a gradual state of  decay. Who know what would have happened to these records if they had not been discovered by those who knew the genealogical importance of the information contained in that book.

You can read all about the records and access the database in the TIGS website by clicking here.

Troy Irish Genealogy Society is listed in the GSI database on this website. Click here to read a Townland of Origin article from January 2014 about other databases that the group launched on their website.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Thanksgiving Radio Show Interview

**UPDATE Wed, Nov 26th: Tomorrow's episode of the Genealogy Radio Show has been postponed. I will post the date/time of the rescheduled broadcast when it is announced.**

On Thursday, I will be interviewed by Irish genealogist Lorna Maloney on The Genealogy Radio Show. The show is broadcast live and my interview will take place at 4pm Irish time/11am Eastern.

The show has only been broadcast for a few months and has already had a stellar line-up of Irish genealogy experts, such as Brian Donovan, Fiona Fitzsimons, and Dr. Paul MacCotter.

Thursday, of course, is Thanksgiving in the United States, So if you are looking for an excuse to get out of the kitchen for half an hour, why not tune in! You can listen, via the "Listen Live" button, on the right hand side of station's webpage.

The Genealogy Radio Show is broadcast every Thursday on the county Clare based community radio station, Radió Corca Baiscinn. Podcasts of previous episodes are available to listen to.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Biographical History Of The American Irish In Chicago

Biographical History of the American Irish in Chicago[1] is an 1897 publication that falls into the category of books that highlight the origins, life, and achievements of notable Irish-born immigrants and first generation Irish Americans in the United States. In total, the book contains information for about 300 such people who lived in the Chicago area in the 19th century.

For almost every entry, the place of origin in Ireland is given for those who were immigrants. The place of origin of their parents is noted for many of those who were first generation Irish American. Other useful genealogical information is included for many entries such as year of immigration, early movements in the US for immigrants, employment history, who they married, how many children they had, and date and place of death and burial. Pictures and signatures are also included for some of those written about.

This example gives a flavor of what is contained in the publication:[2]



As with almost all of these 19th century biographical publications, there are no citations from primary sources. Use the information as a guide in your research and, as much as is possible, verify any information with primary documents.

You can read the book in full on the always excellent Hathi Trust website.



[1] Ffrench, Charles. Biographical History of the American Irish in Chicago. Chicago, IL: American Biographical Publishing Co. 1897.
[2] Ibid. pp. 10-11.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

National Genealogical Society Conference 2015

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) 2015 conference will be held in St. Louis, Missouri on 13-16 May. NGS was founded in 1903 and aims to serve and grow the genealogical community by providing education and training, fostering increased quality and standards, and promoting access to and preservation of genealogical records.[1] The yearly NGS conference is probably the one to attend for industry professionals and keen genealogy enthusiasts.


Among many other events and exhibitions, the conference features a large number of lecture 'tracks', with each track having talks that focus on different aspects of the same thematic area. Last week, NGS released the topics and speakers for 2015. There will be five lectures/workshops specifically related to Irish genealogy:

Immigration, Thursday, 4pm
A Methodology for Irish Emigration to North America, David Rencher, AG, CG, FIGRS, FUGA. Lacking a location in Ireland to begin research may necessitate learning to use the sources and methodologies for solving the problem with Irish resources. **Live streaming, see link at the end of article for more details**

Immigration & Migration, Friday, 8am
Navigating the Best Online Sources for Irish Research, Donna Moughty. Think you can’t do Irish research because all of the records burned? Although the 1922 fire was devastating, many surviving records are now available online.

Immigration & Migration, Friday, 9:30am
Unpuzzling Ireland’s Church Records, Donna Moughty. No records or burned records? Navigate through the various religious sources to guide you to the origins of your Irish ancestor.

Immigration & Migration, Friday, 11am
Scots-Irish Research, Robert McLaren. Learn who the Scots-Irish are and are not, how to get started, and good sources for research, both online and elsewhere.

Workshop, Saturday, 8-11am
Workshop on Irish Law Libraries, David Rencher, AG, CG, FIGRS, FUGA S409. This workshop will outline the records available in a law library for conducting Irish research; cover the proper source citation methodologies for citing Irish legal records; outline the available web resources and discuss the major libraries in the US and Ireland, including the Smurfit Collection at St. Louis University Library in St. Louis. Two-hour workshop with additional fee of $25.00.

Some of the lectures will be live streamed, see the conference websites for more details. For a full list of lectures, click here to read the conference brochure.





[1] National Genealogical Society. About NGS. Year Unknown.
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/about_ngs: accessed 13 November 2014.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Moughty's Research Trips To Ireland

Florida based genealogist Donna Moughty has organized research trips to Ireland for the last number of years. On the trips, she leads and mentors groups of people who want to do research in the main repositories on the island. These trips usually occur in October and she provides an excellent blog commentary about her research exploits. Her posts showcase the fast paced nature of these trips, mixed with the will it takes to fit in as much research as possible in two weeks; one week is in Belfast and the other in Dublin.

The 2014 trip visited all the major repositories: Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Registry of Deeds, National Library of Ireland, National Archives of Ireland, Valuation Office, Registry of Deeds, and the Back To Our Past genealogy conference. She has just recently returned and you can read all the posts, starting here.

You can also read about the 2013 and 2012 trips. Are you thinking of taking a research trip to Ireland? You could do worse than inquire about here 2015 trip!

Monday, November 10, 2014

Library Of Congress - Virtual Primer

The Library of Congress (LoC) in Washington, D.C. is the de facto national library of the United States and, depending on the metric used, vies with the British Library for the title of the largest library in the world. As a result, you can find a pretty decent Irish genealogy book collection.


The LoC website has a useful introduction to this collection of books. By their own admission, it is not comprehensive and it does seem to be a little dated (Grenham's 1st edition of Tracing Your Irish Ancestors is listed) and general (books from the 1930s-1960s about broad migration patterns are also included). However, if you live in the DC metro area, it is probably a good place to visit if you are looking to do broad research on the topic of Irish genealogy and local history.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Archdiocese of New York Parish Mergers

Over the last number of months the Archdiocese of New York[1] has deliberated about which of its parishes will be closed or merged. Their decisions were made public on 2 November. Two different lists were published. One list shows parishes that will merge, with one parish church being the designate. Masses and sacraments will still be celebrated in the second church.[2] The second list also shows parishes that will merge, but where one parish will be the designate and the church in the other parish will only be used for some special occasions. Masses and sacraments will no longer be celebrated in the second parish.[3]






So what does all this mean for genealogists who want to apply for copies of the information that was recorded in the registers when the sacraments were performed (e.g. baptisms and marriages)? From what I can gather, there has been no guidelines put forward for this set of mergers but we do have precedent to work with.

The Archdiocese previously carried out a round of parish mergers and closures in 2007. In most cases, the registers from parishes that were merged and no longer used were given to the neighboring parish that they merged with.

You can access a useful graphic showing the Archdiocese and the affected parishes in this New York Times article.

You can read the full official press release, by clicking here.

To learn more about every Catholic parish that has ever existed in all five boroughs of New York City, you can consult Chapters 7 & 8 in my book, Finding Your Irish Ancestors in New York City.




[1] Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island are in the Archdiocese of New York. Queens and Brooklyn are in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
[2] Archdiocese of New York. Parish List 1 - Masses and Sacraments celebrated at both churches. 2014. http://archny.org/documents/2014/11/Parish_list_1_final_-_both_churches_103114_2.pdf: accessed 4 November 2014.
[3] Archdiocese of New York. Parish List 2 - Masses and Sacraments to be celebrated at the designated parish church; the other church may be used on special occasions http://archny.org/documents/2014/11/Parish_list_2_final_-_one_church_103114_2.pdf: accessed 4 November 2014.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Guest Post: From Roscommon to Canada II

In June, I highlighted the research being carried out in the archives of the Mahon Strokestown Park estate, Co. Roscommon by historians at NUI (National University of Ireland) Maynooth. Lead by Dr. Ciarán Reilly, they aim to learn more about the lives of the estates' tenants during the Famine and the passage to Canada of many of them, both assisted and unassisted.

Dr. Reilly has kindly provided an article to Townland of Origin to highlight this work. He would like to hear from descendants who have knowledge of these Famine-era emigrants. You can contact him on Twitter at @ciaranjreilly, or via the Centre for the Study of Historic Houses and Estates.

Dr. Reilly's new book 'Strokestown and the Great Irish Famine' will be published this month by Four Courts Press in Ireland. He also runs the Great Irish Famine blog.




The unveiling of a memorial wall by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD[1] at the Irish National Famine Museum at Strokestown in May 2014, to mark the National Famine Commemoration, highlighted the ongoing efforts to locate Irish Famine emigrants from county Roscommon.  The research is led by Dr Ciarán Reilly of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses & Estates, NUI Maynooth. Much of the information on emigrants is gleaned from the voluminous Strokestown archive, a collection of more than 50,000 documents, the vast majority of which pertain to the Great Irish Famine. In total, Dr Reilly estimates that almost 5,000 people emigrated from around the Mahon estate at Strokestown during the Famine, with 1,490 part of an ill-fated assisted emigration scheme in 1847.

Upon the death of Rev. Maurice Mahon, third baron Hartland, in November 1845, Major Denis Mahon inherited the 11,000 acre Strokestown estate in county Roscommon. Years of neglect and mismanagement meant that the estate was now almost £30,000 in debt. In an effort to radically overhaul the problems of gross overcrowding, subdivision of the land and mounting arrears, John Ross Mahon, the land agent, devised a scheme of assisted emigration. For the estate administration this made economic sense; to keep the people in Roscommon workhouse would cost over £11,000 annually whereas a once off emigration scheme would cost £5,800. In May 1847 1,490 tenants left from the Strokestown estate for Quebec in British North America (Canada). They were accompanied on their walk to Dublin, via the Royal Canal footway, by the bailiff, John Robinson who was instructed to stay with them all the way to Liverpool and ensure that they boarded the ships.

Leaving Liverpool on four ships the Virginius, Naomi, John Munn and the Erin’s Queen, the Mahon tenants were amongst the first to be characterised as sailing on coffin ships during the Famine. With Cholera and typhus rampant the emigrants were exposed to the ravages of  disease. The Toronto Globe newspaper was amongst the first to highlight the problems encountered by the passengers on board the Virginius and thus reported its arrival at Grosse Île:
            
The Virginius from Liverpool, with 496 passengers, had lost 158 by death, nearly one third of the whole, and she had 180 sick; above one half the whole will never see their home in the new world.

Those who managed to emerge from the ship were described as ‘ghastly, yellow-looking spectres, unshaven and hollow cheeked.’ Dr. George Douglas who treated and spoke with the Mahon tenants at Grosse Île noted that some had even died at the River Mersey in Liverpool.  It was also claimed that on arrival at Grosse Île, the ship’s master had to bribe his crew at the rate of a sovereign per corpse, to remove the dead from the hold. On the ship Erin's Queen, the situation was no better, 78 passengers had died and a further 104 were sick. Again, according to the Globe ‘the filth and dirt in these vessels hold creates such an effluvium as to make it difficult to breathe.’ While in harbour the ship was abandoned by the crew and captain who feared for their lives. On the ship John Munn more than 100 were sick and 59 were dead, while on the Naomi 78 were dead.

Some of the names featured on the memorial wall at Strokestown also feature in an exhibition Emigrant Faces from county Roscommon which Dr Reilly designed for the National Famine Commemoration Week. They include the Tighes and the Quinns, orphaned by the voyage. A number of other emigrants also feature including Michael Dufficy, Edwin O'Beirne, Elijah Impey, Pat Hanly and Pat Kelly. Most of the 1,490 cohort who arrived in Quebec in 1847 made their way over the ensuing months and years into American cities and towns. Relatively, few actually stayed in Canada. The search for the 1,490 assisted emigrants and other Strokestown natives who emigrated during the Famine continues.  Thankfully, it is proving fruitful and the destination and subsequent details of as many as 300 of these has been ascertained. These details will soon been collated by Dr Reilly and made available in a number of formats. Visitors to the Irish National Famine Museum at Strokestown can now see the list of 275 families who were part of the scheme, their townland of origin and the number of family members who travelled.

The following snippets might be of interest:

* In 1876 Mary Tarpey had the unique distinction of being the oldest person in Long Island, New York. Having left Strokestown in 1853, incredibly when she was then 84 years old, Tarpey attributed her longevity to a daily glass of whiskey!

* A number of women and children who remained on the Strokestown estate in the aftermath of the Famine had been abandoned. They included Catherine Connor whose mother left for England; Maria Hanly abandoned by her father Peter who went to England and Margaret Kearns whose father went to Scotland.

* Michael Hayden (1842-1917) of Strokestown emigrated to America in the wake of the Famine, settling in Washington D.C. in 1854. During the American Civil War he was a member of the home guard for the defence of Washington D.C. Later he worked in Gauster's French Restaurant in the city where he claims John Wilkes Booth and his companions hatched their plan to murder President Abraham Lincoln.

* Daniel Tighe, one of the 1847 emigrants to Canada, appears on various Canadian census returns as  Tay, Tyre, Thy and Tye. It is little wonder then that the search for Irish Famine emigrants often proves difficult.




[1] Teachta Dála, much the same as member of Congress, but specifically referring to the lower house of the Irish Parliament, the Dáil.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Florida Snowbirds

This is the time of year when many elderly people from all across the United States and Canada begin to  head to the southern parts of the U.S. to escape the harsh mid-western, northern and Canadian winter. One disadvantage, for those who are genealogy enthusiasts, is that they cannot attend talks, lectures, and workshops that are held by genealogy groups and societies in their home state/country. Florida is probably the most popular place to winter for these "snowbirds." So, what opportunities are available in Florida to attend Irish specific genealogy group and society meetings over the winter months?

The Groups/Societies/Institutions (GSI) database on this website lists all of these types of organizations in the U.S. and Canada that I am currently aware of.* This includes two genealogical societies in Florida. Firstly, there is the Lee County Genealogical Society - Irish Special Interest Group. They meet in Fort Myers, which is on the Gulf Coast side of the state, about a 50 minute drive north of Naples, FL. Secondly, there is The Villages Genealogical Society, which also has an Irish genealogy special interest group. This group is located in north central Florida, about a one hour drive north-west of Orlando.

Therefore, if you are a Florida snowbird, there are opportunities to meet with other Irish genealogy enthusiasts and learn something new.

*If your GSI is not listed, please comment at the end of this post, or on the GSI database webpage, and I will add your organization to the list. 

Monday, October 27, 2014

The Irish Catholic Genesis Of Lowell

The Irish Catholic Genesis of Lowell[1] is the title of a short publication that provides some very interesting genealogical information about Irish immigrants and their descendants in this Massachusetts city. Published in 1920, it focuses on the 1820-1850 time period and there are short articles and lists concerning the following topics:

The arrival of the first wave of Catholic Irish in the 1820s and 1830s, including a mention of how many of them were from counties Cork and Dublin
The establishment of the first Catholic Church
A list of important dates and events for the Lowell Irish community
A profile of Hugh Cummiskey, one of the early leaders of the Irish community and stated as being from Tyrone
The first Irish school
Irishmen who paid a poll tax in the city between 1826 and 1830
Entries for those who were believed to be Irish from the Lowell city directory of 1835


All in all, this is a very useful publication for anyone with pre-Famine ancestors in Lowell, MA. A word of caution though, as with all of these types of early biographic/city history publications, there are no citations from primary sources. Use the information as a guide in your research and, as much as is possible, verify any information with primary documents.


I have also previously written about St. Patrick's Cemetery in Lowell, click here to read.



[1] O'Dwyer, George Francis. The Irish Catholic Genesis of Lowell. Lowell, MA: Sullivan Bros. 1920.

Friday, October 24, 2014

National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair

Next week sees the 2014 edition of the National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair take place over three days - Tuesday (28th), Wednesday (29th), and Thursday (30th). All the talks will be available to view for free on YouTube, beginning at 10am eastern (3pm GMT). All levels of expertise are catered for, with the first talk being Introduction to Genealogy and other talks focusing on such topics as federal land records and FBI case files.


One talk caught my eye: Great Granny Eunice came from Ireland, Grandpa Fred was in the War, Can Access Archival Databases (AAD) Help Me? This is on at 10am on Wednesday, October 29th. 


The AAD contains a number of different databases, of which the stand out for those with Irish ancestry is Records for Passengers Who Arrived at the Port of New York During the Irish Famine, created, 1977 - 1989, documenting the period 1/12/1846 - 12/31/1851. It will be interesting to see if this is what the Irish aspect is or if there is more to be obtained from the AAD if you have Irish ancestors.






Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Guest Post: Using A Proof Argument To Break Through Brick Walls II

Townland of Origin is delighted to welcome back professional genealogist Lisa Walsh Dougherty. Her previous posts, How a Professional Genealogist Found Her Townland Of Origin (Part 1 & Part 2), were widely read, with the part one post having the highest number of views since the blog was launched.

Lisa has been an avid family history researcher for nearly 20 years.  Since 2009, she has shared her knowledge and experience with many through her volunteer hours, workshop trainings, and commissioned research.  A member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and a graduate of the ProGen Study Group, she specializes in helping people with Irish roots discover their “Townland of Origin”.  Lisa is based in Upstate New York near Albany, and provides a free consultation toward assisting you in finding your own unique family story! You can find out more about Lisa's work on her website, Upstate NY Genealogy and her Association of Professional Genealogists profile.

This is the second post about using a Proof Argument in your genealogical research (scroll down if on the homepage or click here to read Lisa's first post). The commonality of names, lack of documentation stating the place of origin in Ireland, and socio-economic status of Irish immigrants are all common problems that those doing Irish genealogical research in the U.S. and Canada face. Using a Proof Argument in your research can help you develop a body of acceptable evidence that helps you break through these brick walls.

In her paper, linked to below, Lisa examined the evidence she collected about her great-great-grandfather, Patrick Penders, in an attempt to determine if he was a native of County Clare. She outlines how she approached this specific genealogical problem, presenting evidence, findings and sources to support her theory.

A copy of this research was donated to the excellent Clare County Library Genealogy and Family History Division. You can read it on their website, click here.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Guest Post: Using A Proof Argument To Break Through Brick Walls I

Townland of Origin is delighted to welcome back professional genealogist Lisa Walsh Dougherty. Her previous posts, How a Professional Genealogist Found Her Townland Of Origin (Part 1 & Part 2), were widely read, with the part one post having the highest number of views since the blog was launched. In this post, Lisa writes about using a Proof Argument in your research. On Tuesday (21st), you will have a chance to read an example where she used a Proof Argument in her family history research.


Lisa has been an avid family history researcher for nearly 20 years.  Since 2009, she has shared her knowledge and experience with many through her volunteer hours, workshop trainings, and commissioned research.  A member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and a graduate of the ProGen Study Group, she specializes in helping people with Irish roots discover their “Townland of Origin”.  Lisa is based in Upstate New York near Albany, and provides a free consultation toward assisting you in finding your own unique family story! You can find out more about Lisa's work on her website, Upstate NY Genealogy and her Association of Professional Genealogists profile.

To say the road our ancestors took to get from Ireland to the United States (or the UK, or Australia, etc) was a long and winding one would be an understatement.  They endured many hardships and obstacles along the way, but still they persevered.  The road back from the 21st century to the Ireland our ancestors knew can be just as long and in many ways, more complicated.  The return journey is not for the faint of heart, only the most persistent and determined will reach their ultimate goal of a townland of origin.

Sometimes the luck of the Irish will be on our side, and we will find that long-anticipated place name in the first document we examine.  Others may unearth record after record over many years before even the smallest clue is yielded.  Either way the Irish family historian is all too often left with questions about the place they have found.  What does it all mean?  Is it a townland or parish?  County or Poor Law Union?

The real work in Irish genealogy begins once that mysterious location is found.  Then the researcher must make the effort to find out what they can about that place.  What type of place is it?  Does it still exist?  Where can it found on a map?  What kinds of records exist for that place?  What is the corresponding parish for that place and when do those records begin?

There is rarely a single document that gives all the answers about an ancestor.  Most often there is a combination of documents and sources, a variety of items that together form the circumstantial evidence those of us researching our Irish origins get used to seeing.  Melding these divergent pieces into a comprehensive whole that tells the story of our Irish ancestors takes real skill.  In genealogy, this gathering, analysis and summarizing is called a proof argument. 

The Board for Certification of Genealogists defines a proof argument as "a detailed, written explanation of the evidence and reasoning used to reach a genealogical conclusion."[1] If ever there was a genre of genealogy made for the proof argument, it would be Irish genealogy.  The majority of the records pertaining to our ancestor in their adopted country usually say nothing more specific than “Ireland”, records kept in Ireland itself vary greatly in quality and scope, and the names of our ancestors are so common it can be nearly impossible to tell one “John Ryan” from another.  Assembling and analyzing large amounts of data is an essential procedure toward discovering our ancestor’s home, and to skip these vital steps would do our research a great disservice. 

In the computer, tablet and smart phone era that we live in, we get used to instant gratification.  The proof argument simply is not something that can be achieved by plugging a surname into Google.  Its origins involve gathering, sorting, categorizing, contemplating, analyzing, savoring, and finally, recording information that sometimes takes years to accumulate.  While sources for Irish genealogy and other ethnicities are exploding online and are far more readily available than they were even a few years ago, an effective proof argument, and therefore an accurate family story, can only be achieved with patience and diligence.  Our ancestors would have been familiar with these qualities; they mastered them and started a new life that we are all benefitting from. 



[1] Laura A. DeGrazia, CG. Skillbuilding: Proof Arguments. Onboard. No. 15. January 2009. pp. 1-3. Available online at http://www.bcgcertification.org/skillbuilders/skbld091.html: accessed 17 September 2014.
Onboard is the newsletter of the Board for Certification of Genealogists

Monday, October 13, 2014

Speaking At The Genealogy Event, Saturday

This coming Saturday, October 18th, I'll be speaking about finding your Irish ancestors in New York City at the Genealogy Event . This is on at the National Archives and Records Administration, Bowling Green, Manhattan. It's a three day event, beginning on Friday. My talk is one of the advanced sessions and is on in Meeting Room 1, from 11:00am to 12:30pm



Finding Your Irish Ancestors in New York City

The millions of Irish who came to New York in the 19th century did not make it easy for their descendants to find where they came from in Ireland. If you have already combed through federal and state census records, searched the birth, marriage and death certificates, written away for Church records, and scrutinized the city directories, then this talk is for you.  The talk will firstly cover a number of strategies for tracing Irish ancestors in and around the city. The importance of having a knowledge of social and economic conditions in Ireland before an emigrant left will be discussed. Underutilized record sets that could yield a relevant name, location in Ireland, or pertinent genealogical information will also be outlined. The last section of the talk will be given over to something crucial to all those with Irish ancestors: the numerous record sets and publications that definitively give an Irish place of origin. 


Saturday, 18 OctoberFinding Your Irish Ancestors in New York City. The Genealogy Event. Venue: NARA, Alexander Hamilton US Custom House, 1 Bowling Green, New York, NY 10004, USA. Meeting Room 1, 11:00am - 12:30pm. Ticket Purchase required.