The guiding hand of mother genealogy

Coolnabacky1873

For most of us the search can be a hard slog, searching record set after record set with no appearance for out ancestors, or a possible match with no extra conforming information.

But have you had any experiences where it all just fit together beautifully and your ancestors appeared in a rare record set, or you got a shed load of info to break through some brick walls?

So I know of one man who had a double stroke of fortune in terms of the record set his ancestors were in and where they were ultimately from in Ireland.

Firstly, they showed up in a record set here in NYC called the Emigrant Savings Bank. About 60,000 of their accounts have test books where all sorts of family information was recorded to test a person looking to withdraw money from their account: name, address, occupation, year of birth, where from in Ireland, ship came over on, when they came over, names of parents, brothers, sisters, spouses, children etc.. and all from the 1850-1868 time period, a difficult time period in which to get this info. The veritable mother load for a US researcher!

And then what was the place of origin in the Bank records?...Killeshandra, Co. Cavan! One of the very few places that saw its 1821-1841 Irish census fragments survive!

pinkypinky

2 separate brilliant strokes of luck.

A chance comment of my grandmother's that her father in law had attended a particular school led me to call and ask if they had records. They did and they dated from March 1901 - long before the census was online, which meant I could find them and opened up a whole new line of research for me.

Accessing the British army records of another great-grandfather and his father led to to finding further origins in Waterford and 100 more years of my Welsh line because it listed the date and place of his wedding to his Welsh wife, who had a reasonably common name and had proven illusive.

Wyldwood

Yes I've had a number of happy coincidences that opened up new lines of inquiry.

I had no clue as to where my paternal grandparents came from but knew that my grandfather's father was a station master & had moved around quite a bit. I discovered he was in a particular station in East Cork in 1901 so went to search the census (long before it came online). As I was browsing the microfilm I noticed a family with my grandmother's surname next on the list... lo & behold here's my grandmother, as a 14 year old, living on an adjacent property to the stationmaster's house. I had no idea they had lived in that area.

On another occasion I visited a church to view some records for my father's uncles & aunts. My father had only 1 sibling who never married, so I had no cousins on that side. During the course of the viewing, the sacristan mentioned that he knew a family with that particular surname. It turned out to be my grandfather's brother's family & as a result I was put in touch with a 2nd cousin who had gone to Australia.

RGM

Incredible story, Coolnabacky.

I don't have anything spectacular to report though I was somewhat fortunate in locating the grave of one great-great-grandfather. Long story short, no civil record of his death exists, church records for the area are poor, burial records for his cemetery are scant, and the cemetery isn't in good shape with many broken/tumbled stones, etc. not to mention the ones now illegible and the many graves unmarked. Yet there his stone proudly stands, perfectly legible, and his date of death too which I didn't have until I went for a visit (though I've since located his will and probate papers).

I'm still hoping for a breakthrough with any of my 26 known Irish lines to get me into the 1700s. Oh, and a winning lottery ticket would be nice!

pedroeibar1

I have shared the lucky experience several times – the most interesting came from two emails out of the blue in the early 1990s – infancy of www – from distant relatives (same surname connection) in different parts of the USA. Although none of us had known of the existence of the others, all of us had the same stories about the first members of the family in Ireland. The combination of their research with mine joined many dots for them including access to a ‘gateway ancestor’, but sadly provided little for me.

Many years ago my father gave me a copybook in which his father had written (1930’s) a good deal about the family, lots of names, BMD dates and family lore. Most of the info was fantastic but I ran into several brick walls, which I now know to have been caused by deliberate misleading to hide an illegitimate birth and a pregnant bride. That line is my current project.

A few years ago a comment on a geno BB caught my eye – it subsequently transpired the poster was married to a distant relative and from her I discovered that I was looking in the wrong locations for a paternal grandmother’s line. A name, date and place from her and a few ££s and many hours well spent on Scotlandspeople allowed me to enlarge that side considerably. A suitcase of papers given to my father on the death of my grandfather and stored in the attic was ‘discovered’ by me years later. In it was a thick photo album, with names, dates, etc under each photo, putting faces on the line I had found. Here’s one of them, my grandmother as a child (1890’s) with her parents.

annandalice

Traced my 4xtimes grandfather to 1770 and found that he was convert to Catholic religion. This was recorded in R.C. records N.L.I. It is thought he married Anne Kearney. I have found their family and records to present day. But I cannot find my 4xtimes grandfather,s parents. Because he became a Catholic (probably when he married) that makes it more difficult. He was William Webb, Killeen,Co. Meath. I would just love to solve the puzzle but would anybody know how to do this.Mad about family history!.

Dinny Byrne has Angina

Thank God for the Church of Ireland.

The documentation is excellent. When I first began to research my CoI family tree, I was back as far as 1784 by lunchtime. A trip to the Church of Ireland Library in Churchtown took me back to the 1600's in even less time. The amount of information on male, female and marital relatives was, and still is, overwhelming in volume.

Meanwhile, I'm also researching RC ancestors, and in some cases, I cannot even get any information except the 1901/1911 Census. Other times, I might spend 3 hours just tracing back one ancestor one generation. And even then, only when using FMP.

In fact, I cannot understand why the Irish Genealogy website digitised so many searchable CoI church records, instead of focussing on searchable RC Church-record digitization. Not only does the bulk of research involve RC families, RC data is also the most hard to uncover, which is why so many people have to rely on 'lucky strikes', such as that raised in this thread.

KildareFan

Meanwhile, I'm also researching RC ancestors, and in some cases, I cannot even get any information except the 1901/1911 Census. Other times, I might spend 3 hours just tracing back one ancestor one generation. And even then, only when using FMP.

Lots of RC records are available some going back to the early 1700s - on microfilm in the NLI & via RootsIreland, Familysearch.org etc

I had a subscription to RootsIreland and downloaded 100s of transcriptions from RC registers. Since the NLI released the digitised registers online I've spent many happy hours checking the actual records, correcting the mistranscriptions, and found ancestors going back to the late 1770s.

tabbey

KildareFan wrote: »

Meanwhile, I'm also researching RC ancestors, and in some cases, I cannot even get any information except the 1901/1911 Census. Other times, I might spend 3 hours just tracing back one ancestor one generation. And even then, only when using FMP.

Lots of RC records are available some going back to the early 1700s - on microfilm in the NLI & via RootsIreland, Familysearch.org etc

I had a subscription to RootsIreland and downloaded 100s of transcriptions from RC registers. Since the NLI released the digitised registers online I've spent many happy hours checking the actual records, correcting the mistranscriptions, and found ancestors going back to the late 1770s.

Unfortunately the great majority of RC records do not go back that far, Kildare & Rathangan start 1817. My Louth ancestors were in Ardee, which start in 1760s, but have a long gap 1810 - 1821. My Tipp ancestral parish runs from 1793 but has a long gap, and some small gaps.
Those who think this is the norm, should spare a thought for Connaught, Tulsk starts 1865, a year after civil registration. My ancestor from there has not been found in adjacent parishes either.

Even where it appears to be constant, a parish register can have frequent small gaps, and also periods when baptisms seem thinly spread, unaccounted for by population. That is, many were not entered on the register, for any number of reasons.

In spite of this, we have to make do with what we have, and search / browse around the black holes.
It is challenging, it is addictive, it is what we do.

Dinny Byrne has Angina

KildareFan wrote: »

Lots of RC records are available some going back to the early 1700s - on microfilm in the NLI & via RootsIreland, Familysearch.org etc

'Lots' of RC records going back to the early 1700s' would be inaccurate; such an occurrence would be very rare ... it would very much be exceptional.

I am currently researching a fairly-well-known Irish family with a very close fraternal relationship with an ancient Chieftan family, and yet am struggling to breach the 19th-18thth century via church records. This is despite an exhaustive list of resources including minor, regional newspapers, national newspapers, church records, Ancestry.com, and the innumerable obscure resources on Find My Past.

That's how difficult it is, even researching a well-known Catholic family.

That's why 'lucky strikes', the subject of this thread, are so greatly relied-upon.