It's a long way from here to there

jos28

Just thinking about how many connections I've made since I started researching. I've found cousins in far flung parts of the world and it got me thinking. My tree may have spread far and wide but I'm really not that geographically far from the furthest back person in my tree. I'm in Dublin and the furthest person back is my GGG Grandfather who I tracked to Castletownbere in early 1800s.

Just a bit of fun - how far are you now living from where you found your oldest ancestor living ?

Garlinge

I live in Dublin and oldest forebear on my mother's Irish lines are Hazelhatch 1760, Lusk 1761. These both ended up in England 1842 and 1825 but my English father came here for work 1947 and so I am back here.

Markcheese

Garlinge wrote: »

I live in Dublin and oldest forebear on my mother's Irish lines are Hazelhatch 1760, Lusk 1761. These both ended up in England 1842 and 1825 but my English father came here for work 1947 and so I am back here.

A bit similar, my dad's paternal family lived (live) in rural Limerick, his great great granddad was living in liscannor in the 1890s or so before that,
My dad grew up in England and came to Cork in the late 60s, and then we recently discovered his great great grandfather's family farmed about 6 miles from where my mam and dad now live.....

pinkypinky

330km from the place my 5x great-grandparents married - I'm in north county Dublin and they married in Narbeth, Pembrokeshire in Wales. Their great-granddaughter married an Irish soldier who was ultimately stationed in Limerick and her granddaughter moved to Dublin because of her father's job.

srmf5

Nothing too exciting on my part. The furthest I've gone back is 4x great grandparents on some lines. I'm currently living in Co. Roscommon. The furthest away an ancestor lived was a 3x great grandmother who was supposed to have lived about 30 km away in Boyle but I don't have any records for her existence except a gravestone and family notes.

Waitsian

jos28 wrote: »

Just a bit of fun - how far are you now living from where you found your oldest ancestor living ?

About 5 miles, Bessbrook to Belleeks village - an ancestor recorded in a 1766 parish census. That's from my Irish Catholic lineages.

On my English Protestant lines? How far is the Yorkshire coast from South Armagh? 16th Century.

jos28

Great responses so far, it's really interesting to see how far/near our ancestors were.

spurious

From most of them, not so far, Southwest Laois/Dungannon area/East Clare to Dublin.

Peculiarly enough though, one of my brothers emigrated to NYC in the early 90s, eventually settling in NY state and I found out that our great great grandmother went to the US in 1906 with her youngest daughter following the death of her husband, lived the last years of her life there and died in the same town as my brother lives in. She is buried about 2 miles from his house.

srmf5

spurious wrote: »

From most of them, not so far, Southwest Laois/Dungannon area/East Clare to Dublin.

Peculiarly enough though, one of my brothers emigrated to NYC in the early 90s, eventually settling in NY state and I found out that our great great grandmother went to the US in 1906 with her youngest daughter following the death of her husband, lived the last years of her life there and died in the same town as my brother lives in. She is buried about 2 miles from his house.

I have something similar in my family but the ancestors who went to the US both returned to Ireland. A great grandmother on my mum's side and a great grandfather on my dad's side both went to America.

Pretty much all of my great grandfather's siblings seem to have gone to America except for a sister. My great grandfather was the youngest and returned to Ireland as his father's health started to decline to help look after the farm. He actually met his future wife's sister in America and gave him a pair of red shoes to bring to Ireland to give to her sister and that was supposed to be how they met.

A lot of my great grandmother's siblings went to America as well. I think that she just wanted to return home. She had emigrated in 1908 and had returned to Ireland by 1911. Her father died in 1909 so that may have been what made her want to return to Ireland. I think she lost contact with her siblings in America after that. I think they weren't happy that she returned home.

tac foley

mod9maple wrote: »

On my English Protestant lines? How far is the Yorkshire coast from South Armagh? 16th Century.

There is no West Yorkshire coast - all the Yorkshire coast is on the East of England.


So where did your Yorkshire ancestors originate?

srmf5

Just noticed you were looking for oldest ancestor. Through paper research, my 3x great grandfather born in 1788 lived about 10 km from where I'm living. I can't be certain of where he was actually born or if his parents were from the same townland. Through Y-DNA, about 40 km away.

srmf5

mod9maple wrote: »

On my English Protestant lines? How far is the Yorkshire coast from South Armagh? 16th Century.

Looking at Google maps, it's about 400 km. I just picked a random point around south Armagh and a point at the coast of Yorkshire.

limericklad87

My fourth g grandfather lived worked only 7km from where I live now

dom101

I'm living 3 miles from where my 4 x great grandparents lived in Paul St Cork. I was very luck to find a marriage record for them from 1815. Most of my Dad's side were all from within a 2 mile radius for over 200 years. Mad stuff.

kanadams123

Im living in the house where my 3rd great grandfather lived, only 15 mins from all other great great great grandparents who were all around the same town 😄

Waitsian

tac foley wrote: »

mod9maple wrote: »

On my English Protestant lines? How far is the Yorkshire coast from South Armagh? 16th Century.

So where did your Yorkshire ancestors originate?

Near Whitby.

Waitsian

kanadams123 wrote: »

Im living in the house where my 3rd great grandfather lived, only 15 mins from all other great great great grandparents who were all around the same town 😄

Wow, that's impressive! Especially the old house. Unfortunately very few of my ancestral homes still stand.

kanadams123

mod9maple wrote: »

Wow, that's impressive! Especially the old house. Unfortunately very few of my ancestral homes still stand.

Well perhaps i should add the House has gone through a number of renovations and extensions throughout the years!!!!

paddysdream

Not very well traveled here !!

Living in the same house my great great grandfather (1801-1873) died in.
My grandfather is buried in our local cemetery,about 1km from my house,and all four of his grandparents are buried in the same graveyard.Thats on my fathers side whilst on my mothers side she was born c.50km from here and both her parents,4 grandparents and 8 great grandparents are all buried in the local cemetery about 3 km from where she was born.

In other words a typical rural Irish farming background of being born,living and dying within your"own"Parish and in many cases the same townland.

To get back to c.1800 or so which is about the extent of what's available I have had to look at just 4 different Parish Registers (2 adjoining Parish's in 2 different but adjoining counties )to cover all baptism's and marriages in my immediate family.

trixi001

All of my direct ancestors were born closer than 10miles from where I live now - and I been able to identify all 16 of my gg grandparents and 25/32 of my ggg grandparents (earliest born in 1777)

Lirange

My grandmother lived for a few years in Hong Kong as a child. That's as exotic as my tree gets based on what we know. Only one unconfirmed possible non Irish ancestor identified so far is French (from Brittany) in the early 19th Century. Aside from that it's mainly Kildare and Meath with a bit of Donegal and Roscommon.

tabbey

mod9maple wrote: »

Near Whitby.

Alfred Wainwright pioneered the Coast to Coast Walk, between Robin Hood Bay near Whitby, and St Bees in Cumbria. This is near Whitehaven, a seaport which saw many Irish migrants in the 19th century.

So a more direct route than one would think.