Genealogy Chat

Julie. Once you visit Ireland and read books on Irish history you will realise that all the mapping of names for the various areas has already been done. I have to say that this is of some sort of help, but you must remember that Ireland in the 1840's had a disastrous famine which decimated the country of its population by almost half by 1911. Many died and many were made homeless and people moved to Britain/America, Australia, NZ etc. and also moved from the country districts to the main cities, so the mapping gets a bit watered down. Yes they did move to places and bring their friends/relatives with them. Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Kilburn and the East End of London, to name just a few of the more popular areas in this country. There were many reasons for population move at this particular time which is why I urge people to read about the history of Ireland before embarking on the research, and this is one of the reasons why you will find so much info in their newspapers. If you have folk from Cork the Cork website includes so much history. Janet

Thought struck me yesterday to look at the LDS and putting surname in for Ireland and seeing where people of that name came from in 1840's. Unfortunately one surname went into hundreds and I haven't yet sorted out the areas but Antrim seems common for quite a few but how big an area that is I don't know. Someone said that invariably the irish didn't move alone and that another member(s) of the family moved to same area too. As I found gg mothers name on sons birth certificate (unfortunately they weren't married here) I looked on the census for anyone with that name. Found two lodgers at a house in same town (only entry) saying they were from Leitrim and they could well be her brothers/cousins. Thanks for the info so far from everyone - keep adding!!! you never know what piece of info might just break a brick wall!!!

Theresa. I had not realised about the "local connection". I stumbled on this unknowingly but another tip then. Choose B&B's that claim help with genealogy. I did this 4 years ago and spoil sport I am keeping this B&B to myself! They were wonderful easing me into meeting the local priests, having rung them all up about our interest in the area and the names we were researching and that has paid off, because we go back there every year and have no problems. You get to talk to the locals who tell you about a possible ancestor of so many years ago! Irish wit and talk is world wide and well known and we are now welcomed as though we are locals! I just wish they would write their history down! It looks as though I will have to "press" my Cork City cousins into helping me as they are locals! Irish history is hard work but it is fascinating when you find out so many details about your family. Do not let a bit of history put you off. Good luck everybody. Thanks Theresa.

Try this site it gives loads of sites http://irish-insight(.)com/a2z-genealogy/

I really think that you must split Irish research into at least 2 camps if not four. Those that are researching post 1864 Those that are researching pre 1864 Then you must split up those researching in Northern Ireland and those researching in the Rebublic or Southern Ireland. Everybody must be explicit as to which they are researching. This will mean some work on "your" part first, to find out just where you are coming from in "Ireland" and Ireland is just NOT good enough. If you only have Ireland then you MUST research to get your folk into a county because otherwise no one can help you. Theresa has done alot of work for the post 1864 and as far as sites are concerned, some of this will lap over. You must all understand that Irish family research is very different to British research. I can only speak for The Republic or Southern Ireland but although I live in London I have done a lot of research for my ancestors in Ireland. To research post 1864 your best site is: Joyce House Register Office in Dublin and this is on Theresa's thread. You can access on line and order up your own "certs" as you would over here. You can also access 1901 and 1911 census but they are not "National" ie you cannot access a name and up it pops like the 1881 and 1901. You will only be able to access county by county so you either have a long search or you need to know the county you want and even then you may have to know which town and even address. Some Irish on line sites have done some indexing but this is patchy. It is pre 1864 that you will have trouble in locating. 1. You will need to know Barony, Townland and Parish before you can even think about accessing records. You will also need to know whether you are wanting Catholic or Protestant records 2 Most records in the South do not start before 1755 and that is the earliest. Many do not start until around 1825ish so it is all a bit hit and miss. However many Protestant records go back to the 1600's. 3. You can search these records in Dublin at the National Library. Website: http://www.nli.ie/new_what_res.htm 4 Some records are "closed" to public access which means the bishop of that area will not allow permission to access the records for any reason so you have to pay. The diocese of Emly and Cashel is the main problem here and this means that Tipperary and parts of Limerick are affected. There may be others that I do not know about. For Kerry, you will have to write to bishop for permission to see the records. No problems here and once you have your letter you can present it to the NL in Dublin. 5. You can pull in Irish Records through the LDS Centres at a reasonable price but you will need to be able to give a parish of interest. They will charge so much per parish fiche. 6. National Archives of Ireland also in Dublin are very useful http://www.nationalarchives.ie 7 IGI may be useful but remember not everyone is on the IGI and you need to check out info as it is not always correct. If you do not go through Dublin then the other way is to know EXACTLY where your folk are from and use the nearest library. They always have records and will help you. I use both Dublin and the libraries. Newspapers are one of the best ways of finding more as they often give lists of names of people in an area for various reasons. Remember all IRISH newspapers are in Colindale Newspaper Library. The modern cemeteries are very good for info but their old cemeteries are very hit and miss. Another two good records to use as census substitutes are: Griffiths around 1847/64and Tithe Applotments around 1840 ish. The Gritffiths Index is available online but is only the INDEX and not as helpful as the FULL Griffiths which is in Dublin National Library. Again these are county by county and so you need to know your county of interest. A good idea is to to immerse yourself in Irish history BEFORE you even think about research. You can obtain any website you want by Google or BBC search engine keying in your place of interest and+genealogy or+history will bring up anything you want on the web so I sometimes think that great long lists of websites, pages and pages long is not the best way to do this. Some of the counties have excellent coverage. I have found good sites for Cork and Tipperary(My own interests) by using the Google/BBC Search method. This is just a start and I am ONLY speaking for SOUTHERN IRELAND. There are loads of other things to do which I am sure others may come up with. Janet

hi julie, i started by putting messages on as many boards as i could find with little info i had , lucky for me ive had a few replies and lots of suggestions , caora.net. i started with this one . good luck i know how hard irish research can be , cheers jackie.

I'm getting absolutely nowhere trying to find 3 g grandfathers born in Ireland around 1840's (according to 1881 census with no area given). I know there are lovely people out there able to do searches but without dates and locations aren't able to help me. So thought I'd start a thread asking for suggestions from the experienced on here about searching for Irish roots which could be useful for others researching.