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Genealogy is the study and tracing of family pedigrees. This involves collecting the names of relatives, both living and deceased, and establishing the relationships between them based on primary, secondary and/or circumstantial evidence or documentation, thus building up a cohesive family tree.
Genealogy is sometimes also referred to as family history, although sometimes these terms are used distinctly: the former being the basic study of who is related to whom; the latter involving more "fleshing out" of the life and family histories of the individuals involved.
Overview
Genealogists search written records, collect oral histories and preserve family stories to discover ancestors and living relatives. Genealogists also attempt to understand not just where and when people lived but also their lifestyle, biography, and motivations. This often requires—or leads to—knowledge of antique law, old political boundaries, immigration trends, and historical social conditions.
Genealogists and family historians often join a Family History Society where novices can learn from more experienced researchers, and everyone benefits from shared knowledge.
Even an unsuccessful search for ancestors leads to a better understanding of history. The search for living relatives often leads to family reunions, both of distant cousins and of disrupted families. Genealogists sometimes help reunite families separated by immigration, foster homes and adoption. The genealogist can help keep family traditions alive or reveal family secrets.
In its original form, genealogy was mainly concerned with the ancestry of rulers and nobles, often arguing or demonstrating the legitimacy of claims to wealth and power. The term often overlapped with heraldry, in which the ancestry of royalty was reflected in the quarterings of their coat of arms. Many of the claimed ancestries are considered by modern scholars to be fabrications, especially the claims of kings and emperors who trace their ancestry to gods or the founders of their civilization. For example, the Anglo-Saxon chroniclers traced the ancestry of several English kings back to the god Woden (the English version of the Norse god Odin).[1] If these descents were true, Queen Elizabeth II would be a descendant of Woden, via the kings of Wessex.
In fiction, it is common to give a character a complicated fictional genealogy to make his or her background more interesting. A picturesque one is the genealogy for Godwulf of Asgard.
Modern research
Genealogy has been claimed by some to be one of the most popular hobbies in America, second only to stamp or coin collecting. The hobby received a big boost in popularity in the late 1970s with the premiere of the television adaptation of Alex Haley's fictionalized account of his family line, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The internet has vastly increased the number of resources available to genealogists.
In addition to particular historical events and places, research efforts can focus on other types of relationships between people such as kinship to a particular group of people, such as a Scottish clan; to a particular surname such as in a one-name study, see Guild of One-Name Studies; or to a particular person such as Jesse James.
Getting Started with Irish Research
Researching Irish ancestors can be an exciting adventure into the history of your family, the history of states and countries to which the Irish immigrated, and the history of the Irish people. Your research may well be challenging, and it is likely to be very rewarding in what you will learn and the connections you will make.
Many researchers who begin Irish genealogical research have the goal in mind of finding out from where in Ireland the immigrant ancestor came. You will need to tailor your research to the information that you know about your ancestor and what you already know about the Irish origins.
Initial Questions
Ask yourself these questions, so the answers can guide your research:
1. Who was the immigrant ancestor (which generation of your family immigrated)?
2. Did he or she come alone or with others (family or friends)?
3. When did he or she immigrate?
4. What was the family's religion?
5. What was their relative social status?
6. Where did they live in the United States?
7. Do you know anything about where they came from in Ireland? (a region, county, parish, town, or townland, for example?)
Expectations and Limitations
Tracing the impoverished ancestor, or the ancestor who immigrated in the 1600s or 1700s, may be very difficult, but it is not impossible. Using diligent research and effective strategies, the origin of an ancestor in Ireland can often be determined using North American records, opening up the Irish records of that place of origin to be explored to further document the immigrant family. One of the most difficult parts of Irish research is determining exactly where an ancestor lived in Ireland (county, parish, townland). Generally you should concentrate on US or Canadian research and records until you know at least a county of origin in Ireland for your ancestors.
Whether you are conducting research yourself or hiring a professional to do it, you should be aware that there are limitations to just how far an Irish family usually can be traced back in time. It depends on time time period, the area of research (such as the county they lived in) and the availability of records. Success in Irish research has to be judged by different standards than, for example, Scandinavian, English or French research.
Most Irish Catholic and Presbyterian church records simply do not begin until, on average, the 1820s. Consequently, the average Catholic or Presbyterian lineage can only be traced back to about the year 1800. The Church of Ireland (also known as the Anglican or Episcopal church in other countries) was the Established Church of Ireland. Although the Church of Ireland registers often commenced earlier than 1800, over half of these registers were destroyed during the 1922 Civil War when the Public Record Office of Ireland at the Four Courts destroyed in fire.
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Passenger lists for emigrants leaving Ireland are practically non-existent. In addition, the arrival lists in North America often simply state "Ireland" or "Great Britain" as the place of birth or last place of residence. Another factor that complicates research is that Irish names can be so common that it's very hard to tell which Mary Kelly or Patrick Murphy is the ancestor.
Depending on where an Irish immigrant settled, there may be records in the new country to fill the void left in Irish records. Often, records created when the immigrant died (such as tombstones) in the US or Canada will tell where an immigrant was born in Ireland or his parents' names. The list of records which may provide origins is long, including cemeteries, church records, local histories, military records, naturalization records, society records, vital records, wills and administrations.
Not all Irish lineages will come to a halt in the early 1800s. In the case of gentry or the upper class, there may be extensive Irish pedigrees (such as those held by the Genealogical Office) which can trace a family back hundreds of years. Although very few such pedigrees exist for peasant families, don't assume your ancestors were peasants simply because they left Ireland. In general, a family had to have at least some money to pay for passage out of Ireland. Certain sources hold out the possibility for breaking past the wall around 1800 into the eighteenth century for less well-to-do families. The estate papers of the Irish landlords are one of the prime sources for such research. Other 18th century records include Anglican vestry minutes, the Registry of Deeds, freeholders and freemen lists, newspapers, and religious censuses.
Successful Irish research requires that you become well educated about what sources are available and how they can be used most effectively. You often need to research the lives of all the brothers, sisters, other relatives, and descendants of your immigrant ancestor(s) in the hopes that a document about their lives will divulge the Irish home origin. Hard work in Irish research usually pays off in the long run. Even though you may not be able to trace your ancestors back to the 1500s like in some countries, there are other exciting possibilities in Irish research. You may be able to document and visit the exact home site where your ancestors originated and even the home itself in Ireland. You can actually walk through the same doorway that your ancestors did before leaving Ireland, walk the same fields and roads that they did 150 years ago.
Record Destruction
Some significant Irish record collections have been destroyed, but this is by no means a reason to avoid researching your Irish ancestors. During the 1922 Irish Civil War, the Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI) at Four Courts in Dublin was destroyed by fire, and seven hundred years of Irish records were lost. The PROI housed a number of key genealogical records, including pre-1858 wills, pre-1901 census records, over half of the Church of Ireland parish registers, most freeholders registers, and Catholic convert and qualification rolls, all casualties in 1922.
The destruction of the Public Record Office forever impacted research for the Irish genealogist. However, it was only one national repository. Still remaining are all of the records contained in the other national repositories such as the Registry of Deeds, General Register Office, National Library of Ireland, Genealogical Office, Valuation Office, and the Public Record Office in London. In addition to records at the national level, there are numerous records of local governments, church records, occupational records, and records in private keeping such as estate, school, hospital, prison and society records. Irish research is complicated by the loss of key records in 1922, but by no means made impossible.
Starting Points for Research
What to Do if Only a Country of Origin is Known
If an ancestor's specific place of origin in Ireland is unknown, in most cases efforts need to concentrate on sources in Canada or the United States. Many different sources in the adoptive country can hold the key to, or at least provide clues to, help identify a county or a more specific place of origin.
Strategies
Pursue sources in Canada or the US: It is impossible to know in advance what source will reveal the place of origin. Many sources will be useful in the research process of tracing an immigrant back in time regardless of whether they specifically state the birth place. However, some sources are more likely to provide the key birth place information than others. Some of the most useful primary (original) sources include obituaries, death certificates, tombstones, censuses, church records, and local histories. Pay attention to family traditions. However, family legends are many times half-truths. Statements that an Irish family came from Dublin, Cork, Londonderry (Derry) or Belfast may actually be referring to the port from which they left rather than the place of origin. One of the basic elements in establishing a firm foundation for Irish research is to determine what may have already been compiled about the family in question. This is not to state that anything already written is correct, but sometimes compiled genealogies can be useful.
Observe migration patterns: Migration patterns among immigrants are important clues to tracing any family's origins. Both group migration (in which relatives or friends immigrate as a group at one time) and chain migration (in which later immigrants follow relatives or friends who immigrated earlier) were prominent features of the exodus to North America. For example, some communities were settled largely by Irish immigrants from a particular place in Ireland. In urban areas, Irish from a particular county often concentrated in a particular section of a city over the years as friends and relatives from Ireland joined earlier immigrants.
Document the immigrant's life as a whole: Trace the immigrant ancestor step by step back in time, compiling documents from arrival in the adoptive country until the immigrant's death and burial. The details discovered in records in this manner will be helpful to documenting and reconstructing the family in Ireland. Other facts in addition to birthplace can be important clues in tracing foreign origins, such as birth date and parents' names, especially mother's maiden name. Research the extended family: It is important to consider not only records about the immigrant ancestor but also about any other relatives who may have come from abroad, such as brothers and sisters. Trace the lives of these relatives and examine records created about them for preservation of the place of origin. Consider the relatives who went to the United States, Australia, and South Africa. The records in countries like Australia and New Zealand are often better than North American ones for information about the famliy back in Ireland.
Trace associations with friends and neighbors: Give attention to neighbors who may have been from the same place in Ireland. Immigrants from the same community abroad often emigrated together and settled together abroad. For this reason, if an ancestor's origins cannot be found, research may be more successful by focusing on the origins of neighbors. Neighborhoods can often be reconstructed through the use of censuses, land, tax and church records. A group of members from a particular congregation or surrounding geographical area in Ireland sometimes emigrated together.
Trace the immigrant ancestor's descendants: Documenting an immigrant's children and extended descendants is also useful, since records created of or by them may identify the immigrant's origins. A child's birth or death certificate may give the parents' origins in Ireland, especially in the twentieth century. Emigrants who left in the eighteenth century may have many thousands of descendants today, one of whom may have published a book or article preserving the family's origin. Family records or legends may have been passed down in another branch of the family.
Identify intermediate countries of migration: After leaving Ireland, many Irish families went to an intermediate country prior to settling permanently in a second locality. In particular, many immigrants spent some years in England, Scotland, or Wales prior to immigrating to the United States or Canada. There was a large amount of migration in both directions between the United States and Canada. It was common for branches of a family to be in both countries. The search for immigrant origins may require searching records of a middle country, and the home origins may actually be found in the records of an intermediate country. Thus, all the facts about a family's migration patterns are important to discover.
Sources
Some Record Sources for Documenting Immigrants in North America:
Cemetery Records
Census Records
Church Records
Directories
Emigration Records (US/Canada Border Crossings)
Family Histories
Funeral Home Records
Institutional Records
Internet Sources
Land Records
Local & County Histories
Military Records
Naturalization Papers
Newspapers
Occupational Records
Passenger Lists
Society Records
Tax Records
Vital Records
Wills and Probates
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