[Celtic Princess]

Hello all!
I grew up knowing from my granny that we were a VERY Irish family. My great gran, grand da and granny all died in my early teens so I did not have the presence of mind to ask about my heritage, if I had family in Ireland (which I presume so- somewhere there is a long lost cousin or aunt uncle someone out there). My father grew up in a time that one did not ask what was not being freely shared by adults and did not ask as his grandparents were already gone prior to his birth.
My grandmother made it well known that she is a "Fitzgerald" and from a very "good" and well known family. I assume this is a common name... so other than that- I have no other real information- other than my grand da last name and his mother married name is Aura. We were told that my great gran Aura came from Ireland at a young age to the USA. No records as to from what part, or way to verify. I have looked on ancestry.com and I have asked the death index to verify- but since at her death no one was around that remembered anything (she lived to 100) there was limited information. Especially since there was no birth index to go from for information here in the US.
I dont know if anyone has family who speaks of an Agnes who married someone with the last name Aura (Her mother's maiden name was Nolan) she was born in 1893.
My gran da David C Aura is her son who married June Fitzgerald (mother's maiden name was Shute-although that is an olde english name from devonshire she insisted her mother was born in Ireland).
I grew up deeply in love with Ireland, and was told stories of the magic that exists there- now I wonder if I have family I can connect with, learn about, and who may know more about the family.
Thank you and take care- and I apologize for my rambling on...
Also, hope I am not offensive, my gran used to call me her Celtic Princess until she passed on- so this is where my nick-name comes from.

[Silverfish]

You could try searching the Census here for any names you may know from the 1901/1911 time?

EDIT: If Agnes Nolan was born in 1893, she would have been 18 or thereabouts at the time of the census, so for example, here are all the Agnes Nolans in or around that age in 1911

[jonniebgood1]

Thread moved to Genealogy where it will be more likely to get assistance.

Moderator

[Coolnabacky1873]

Originally Posted by Celtic Princess

Hello all!
I grew up knowing from my granny that we were a VERY Irish family. My great gran, grand da and granny all died in my early teens so I did not have the presence of mind to ask about my heritage, if I had family in Ireland (which I presume so- somewhere there is a long lost cousin or aunt uncle someone out there). My father grew up in a time that one did not ask what was not being freely shared by adults and did not ask as his grandparents were already gone prior to his birth.
My grandmother made it well known that she is a "Fitzgerald" and from a very "good" and well known family. I assume this is a common name... so other than that- I have no other real information- other than my grand da last name and his mother married name is Aura. We were told that my great gran Aura came from Ireland at a young age to the USA. No records as to from what part, or way to verify. I have looked on ancestry.com and I have asked the death index to verify- but since at her death no one was around that remembered anything (she lived to 100) there was limited information. Especially since there was no birth index to go from for information here in the US.
I dont know if anyone has family who speaks of an Agnes who married someone with the last name Aura (Her mother's maiden name was Nolan) she was born in 1893.
My gran da David C Aura is her son who married June Fitzgerald (mother's maiden name was Shute-although that is an olde english name from devonshire she insisted her mother was born in Ireland).
I grew up deeply in love with Ireland, and was told stories of the magic that exists there- now I wonder if I have family I can connect with, learn about, and who may know more about the family.
Thank you and take care- and I apologize for my rambling on...
Also, hope I am not offensive, my gran used to call me her Celtic Princess until she passed on- so this is where my nick-name comes from.

It's a common mistake but you have to start you search in US records before searching in Ireland.

Get every federal census, state census, birth,marriage, death, Church, will, headstone etc.. record that you can. Also, there is so much out there that is not on Ancestry.

Many people think they know the history of their family but the records can often be revealing.

You need to work back to the original immigrant(s) and fully document their lives.

This will then give you a good approx era to search in Ireland and therefore types of records.

Best of luck with the search.

[pinkypinky]

Coolnabacky is your only man on the US front. Start with your own Dad's birth cert to get your grandparents official names, and then find their marriage cert, which should give you their parents names.

Don't worry about English surnames, there has always been plenty of English people in Ireland. Fitzgerald is indeed a common name and there would be plenty of different families with that name. Aura, on the other hand, is not a surname I've ever heard, so you may find that it was changed at some stage to make it easier to pronounce - this is very common with US immigrants. For example, there are no families with that spelling on 1901 or 1911 census. It doesn't appear in MacLysaght's Surnames of Ireland either, which is the standard work on surnames here. Don't worry too much about this though, as I said, it'll be some other spelling.

Best of luck.

[Celtic Princess]

She was Agnes __________. Her mother's name was Nolan, dont know her mother's first name. Dont know her fathers name at all. DO know she married someone with the last name Aura and had my grand da- David C Aura.

[Celtic Princess]

Thank you loads though for the census information, that is fantastic!

[Celtic Princess]

Coolnabacky1873 and Pinky Pinky,
Thank you very much! I really really appreciate the help. We do know for certain my grandparents birth names David Charles Aura (he was born here so it shows no other spelling on his), and June Elizabeth Fitzgerald. Great gran Agnes we do not know her father's name at this time- but I will definately look at the grandparents marriage certificate- I NEVER thought of that before! I have checked birth, death, census records that I could find.
My granny romanticised Ireland so much for me, told me stories of how beautiful Ireland was when she went with grand da and when she visited as a child. Sometimes, when I drive in the rural area I live in, I see the rolling deep green hills, the brooke, light fog from the water, and I think of the stories granny told me.
I dont know if it is weird or not, but I long for a human connection to Ireland, I was 7 1/2 months pregnant when my mom took my sisters to Dublin to see Ireland, so I could not go along- but its like an ache I have to go to Ireland someday and it would be even better if I could find family. Maybe I feel it a part of me because of my grandparents and how they felt about it and how much they loved Ireland.
I must sound crazy. i will take the advice and search the places suggested though

[mod9maple]

Originally Posted by Celtic Princess

My granny romanticised Ireland so much for me, told me stories of how beautiful Ireland was when she went with grand da and when she visited as a child. Sometimes, when I drive in the rural area I live in, I see the rolling deep green hills, the brooke, light fog from the water, and I think of the stories granny told me.
I dont know if it is weird or not, but I long for a human connection to Ireland, I was 7 1/2 months pregnant when my mom took my sisters to Dublin to see Ireland, so I could not go along- but its like an ache I have to go to Ireland someday and it would be even better if I could find family. Maybe I feel it a part of me because of my grandparents and how they felt about it and how much they loved Ireland. I must sound crazy.

You don't sound it, because you're not.

It's quite a common urge/need among the descendants of emigrants all over the world, not just the Irish. I grew up in Canada with stories of my ancestors (Dad's family) leaving Ireland on a coffin ship during the Great Hunger (1853 in fact, as I later discovered) and I was always fascinated with Mum's stories (she was born and reared here). Returning, as I did at aged 10, was quite the culture shock but I hope you make it back some day, and will better appreciate it as an adult.

[Celtic Princess]

Hello everyone and thanks for the affirmation mod9maple!
I found Agnes surname and it is Alguier. There were two people on a ship (could not get information yet on ship-awiting payday to pay for info) Marius and Mary Alguier and says they came from Ireland, and left from Liverpool or something England to the US via NY.
My great gran Agnes is NOT in the MN birth index system but she is in the death Index for MN. I also found out that she was married to someone with the last name Aura (still working on paying for that information as well) and divorced him in MN.
My gran from the Fitzgerald side, cool fact I discovered- I carry her middle name! Elizabeth. She was June Elizabeth Fitzgerald. born in 1920 so I can look for her mum being born circa 1900 ish... estimating she would be about 20 at least when gran was born.
Anyone know of any free sites?
I have tried to trace Alguier origin but every place I try to look does not have much info on this- is this another changed name possibly like Aura possibly was?
Thanks again everyone- this is a daunting task- but I have such an urge to know.

[Coolnabacky1873]

MN, I'm guessing that's Minnesota and not Monaghan lolz.

You're stretching the limits of my knowledge there.
Try the following:
Regan, Ann 2002 Irish in Minnesota
Shannon, James 1976 Catholic colonization on the western frontier
Connelly, Bridget 2003 Forgetting Ireland

There are a load of Minnesota records on familysearch.org too.

With all the vowels the name could well be a corruption of somethig else. The closest I found in MacLysaght's was Algeo, found in Leitrim and NE Ulster.

Or maybe there were Huguenot Irish?

[pinkypinky]

There were Huguenot Irish.

Celtic Princess - what religion is/was your family? Huguenots were Protestants but some did end up ironically converting to RC over a few generations.

[pedroeibar1]

I used to live in France and never came across the surname Alguier. Today’s online France Telecom directories (white & yellow pages) do not show any entries for the Alguier name. I’ve encountered the surnames Augier and Auger and there is an infrequent (60 entries) surname Falguier, which is mainly in two regions, Paris and the Midi-Pyrenees. The latter region was not a Huguenot stronghold, AFAIK.
I wonder was the entry a mistranscription?

[Coolnabacky1873]

Originally Posted by pinkypinky

There were Huguenot Irish.

Celtic Princess - what religion is/was your family? Huguenots were Protestants but some did end up ironically converting to RC over a few generations.

Sorry for the confusion pinky, I meant to type 'or maybe THEY were Huguenot Irish.

A stretch, but who is aungier st in Dublin named after?

[dido2]

Celtic Princess

If you put the names with dates, birth, marriage, death, emmigration I can check ancestry for you, I'm getting confused as to who's who and when they might have travelled!!!