Furthest You've Traced Your Family History

Jonathan1990

This is how far mine has.

My Mum's Side: She joined a website and found information that my great, great, great, great granddad under her name was a sailor on the River Themes in London.

My Own Side: Nothing going back to the 4 greats generation is known. The internet says my name originates from West Yorkshire, England which is where all under my name were from including my great, great granddad as far back that I know of. However in the great, great, great generation I heard a rumour that they were Irish gypsies but not found anything about that or anybody under my name moving out in Victorian times. Keep wanting to trace my side and I'm interested to know if I had any ancestors living in Ireland.

what generation have you've traced your family history to?

ILoveYourVibes

Great grandparents on both sides.

threetrees

All mine and my husband's great great grandparents, mid 1800s. I have most of the names of the generation before that but not all.

It's interesting and very addictive.

ILoveYourVibes

threetrees wrote: »

It's interesting and very addictive.

Too addictive.

Aglomerado

Back to late 1700s on my mother's side.

On my father's side back to before Cromwell (spit!) ...some English ancestors from Devon were in his army and granted land in Cork by him.

ILoveYourVibes

My maternal grandmother was from New York. We have all this paperwork. Deeds to property in NY etc. My mom went there to find out more it was very difficult. Surprisingly difficult.

Her parents were not originally from the US though. They were from Europe.

Maternal grandfather was from Ukraine. We have very little from his background in terms of paperwork. Just old books etc.

We were really frustrated at not finding out about the NY side after traveling there. I mean we have her birth cert and parents names deeds to property etc. They said a lot of records got lost or damaged. They just showed us the area she lived in on a map.

Plus on the backs of photos someone wrote address lets say for the name of the photographer etc. So we tried to look them up.

fixXxer

What ways do people go about tracing back family history? Interested in it but never had the time to look in to it fully.

ILoveYourVibes

fixxxer wrote: »

What ways do people go about tracing back family history? Interested in it but never had the time to look in to it fully.

I am not a pro.

But any papers you have birth certs marriage certs etc.

If all your family were born in Ireland its easier.

If you have family abroad then its way harder.

If you maybe know where they got married etc

Obv you prob won't have any of that stuff beyond grandparents.

You can hire people.

But they often won't look into places beyond Ireland. And if the place your family was from went through a lot of changes of govt etc you can forget it.

Bicyclette

fixxxer wrote: »

What ways do people go about tracing back family history? Interested in it but never had the time to look in to it fully.

Start off with the 1901 and 1911 Census Data. Then go to www.irishgenealogy.ie and flesh people out. Start building a documented tree on Wikitree (its free and I like it a lot)

Then do DNA Testing (Hubby and I have tested with both MyHeritage and Ancestry - there are always sales on during the Black Friday period). Build your trees on those sites too. But use them as your work in progress ones because of all the hints you will get.

Then sign up to GEDMatch - which is a clearing house for DNA tests. Bit like a food hall. You match with people who bought from other testers.

Then join the Irish DNA Registry Facebook Page, the Irish Surname Registry and the relevant County Facebook pages. The first two and many of the latter have Matching Tools.

By that point you are most likely stalking people on Facebook . I recently saw someone on Facebook looking for a lost dog. I had to step away from the computer because I was about to message the person to sympathise about their dog but ask them about their surname, because it is one of the brickwalls in my husband's tree.

ILoveYourVibes

Well if you are Jewish this might help!

https://www.irishjewishroots.com/

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/archives-of-53-000-jews-who-lived-in-ireland-made-available-to-the-public-1.2328592


Its a list of all 53,000 jews who have lived in Ireland. Its fantastic. Unfortunately it only covers Ireland though for most.

If they have a diff country of Origin they might have details for some.

Aglomerado

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

I am not a pro.

But any papers you have birth certs marriage certs etc.

If all your family were born in Ireland its easier.

If you have family abroad then its way harder.

If you maybe know where they got married etc

Obv you prob won't have any of that stuff beyond grandparents.

You can hire people.

But they often won't look into places beyond Ireland. And if the place your family was from went through a lot of changes of govt etc you can forget it.

The destruction of the pre-1901 Census records in the fire at the public records office in 1922 was a terrible loss to researchers.

Feisar

Dunno if it has been mentioned but thanks to De Valera we lost untold amounts of records. Due to this most people can't go back that far.

Dad is mad into this stuff. He can go fairly fat back and trawled through parish records for snippets here and there to add to the puzzle.

corner of hells

Roughly the 1300s on my Dads side.
Another good source of information is the CWGC commission if you had a relative who served in the British Army.

An amateur historian gave me a little help verifying some information and making a few suggestions.

Its addictive and can keep you occupied for years.

corner of hells

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Well if you are Jewish this might help!

https://www.irishjewishroots.com/

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/archives-of-53-000-jews-who-lived-in-ireland-made-available-to-the-public-1.2328592


Its a list of all 53,000 jews who have lived in Ireland. Its fantastic. Unfortunately it only covers Ireland though for most.

If they have a diff country of Origin they might have details for some.

My OH's is of Jewish ancestry , there's a version of her name on those sites.

Aglomerado

corner of hells wrote: »

Roughly the 1300s on my Dads side.
Another good source of information is the CWGC commission if you had a relative who served in the British Army.

An amateur historian gave me a little help verifying some information and making a few suggestions.

Its addictive and can keep you occupied for years.

I've boxes of papers for years and keep adding to them now and again.


DNA has added a whole new dimension to things, allowing me to confirm a few suspicions I had.
Not sure about the ethnicity estimates though...apparently about 15% of my DNA is Ukrainian/ Hungarian....

ILoveYourVibes

corner of hells wrote: »

My OH's is of Jewish ancestry , there's a version of her name on those sites.

Yeah Jewish people are constantly changing their names or anglicizing them etc.


There are people with the name O'Sullivan, O'Shea, O'Reilly , O'Connor, O'Carroll,O'Mahony,Callaghan, O'Neill, O'Brien O'Doherty O'Donovan O'Driscall etc on there. ALL Jews.

fixXxer

Thanks all, very helpful.

Graces7

working on mine; UK that is but two separate Irish strands. Fazed by finding a cemetery page where almost all were my dead uncles and aunts who died very young of TB; never met them. Coal mining family. Heartbreaking to see also the rate of infant mortality in the early 1900s

we are so blessed

partyguinness

Well, my mother's farm where she grew up has been in the family since at least the late 18th/early 19th century.

We can trace back quite easily to the mid-1840's all my paternal grandparents ownership of the farm and there is an old story of victim of the famine victim dropping dead at the bottom of the haggart having walked from a neighbouring townland which my great grand mother told my mother. She died in 1983 aged 97 and I remember her.

There is a famine grave about 3 miles away.

The house (since sold) is a good 200 years old with walls the best part of 3/4 foot thick.

It's a shame so many records were destroyed in the Civil War when the Four Courts was bombed.

partyguinness

Aglomerado wrote: »

Back to late 1700s on my mother's side.

On my father's side back to before Cromwell (spit!) ...some English ancestors from Devon were in his army and granted land in Cork by him.

Haha love the euphemism 'granted'. In other words stolen from the natives.

I hope sir, you are proud. Any chance you will hand it back to its rightful owners?;)

The furthest back we go is to Raymond Le Gros Fitzgerald, a Norman commander in the invasion of Ireland. He is the father of all the Grubbs, among others, he has thousands of descendants. We just happen to know by sheer fluke.

It's on my Mums side and - don't judge me, because I do - I feel like the maternal lines tend to be less interesting? Probably because people tend not to feel a personal connection to the name.

Interesting stuff, family history. The skeletons can be fascinating.

Aglomerado

partyguinness wrote: »

Haha love the euphemism 'granted'. In other words stolen from the natives.

I hope sir, you are proud. Any chance you will hand it back to its rightful owners?;)

I think a lot of it was divvied up by the Land Commission post-Treaty!

Either way, the estate was "encumbered" and sold due to debt in the 1850s.

My gg-grandfather despite his ancestors' wealth was a blacksmith in Clare and was oft-cited in the local petty sessions for letting his pig roam on the road!

0lddog

@Tyrant Do you know if you had a relative ( probably maiden great / great great aunt ) who worked for some years in a boarding school in Co. Dublin ?

0lddog

0lddog wrote: »

@Tyrant Do you know if you had a relative ( probably maiden great / great great aunt ) who worked for some years in a boarding school in Co. Dublin ?

Not a direct relative. There are a few different branches of Grubbs, all are related but I've never heard of her.

0lddog

Aglomerado wrote: »

The destruction of the pre-1901 Census records in the fire at the public records office in 1922 was a terrible loss to researchers.

Have to point out that the 1841 records for the parish of Killeshandra exist in full to this day

Feisar

partyguinness wrote: »

Haha love the euphemism 'granted'. In other words stolen from the natives.

I hope sir, you are proud. Any chance you will hand it back to its rightful owners?;)

And I'm sure their ancestors took it from someone at the end of a sword.

ToddyDoody

I can never get further beyond Nazi Germany

0lddog

ToddyDoody wrote: »

I can never get further beyond Nazi Germany

Beyond there is Poland


You might not like it there - it gets very cold in winter

suicide_circus

:rolleyes:

ToddyDoody wrote: »

I can never get fuhrer beyond Nazi Germany

ToddyDoody

0lddog wrote: »

Beyond there is Poland


You might not like it there - it gets very cold in winter

Didn't stop the Nazis

Aglomerado

suicide_circus wrote: »

:rolleyes:

I did Nazi that coming.

suicide_circus

my lineage is somewhat murky due to various episodes of bastardy

Canis Lupus

Basically, just get that family tree picture, the thing with all the lines and put Paddy and Mary Murphy in every section with farmer and house wife as occupation as far back as you like.

There you go, Irish family tree and no need to pay a subscription to any site etc.

Bobblehats

Parents were far enough back enough for me.. Too mortified to delve any further am sure my great granda was really great though.

branie2

The 18th century on my father's side of the family

rainbow kirby

Early 19th century, distant relative on my mother's side moved from Edinburgh to Dublin and set up an engineering shop in Bridgefoot Street.

Salthillprom

1600s on both sides.
I studied genealogy and have a degree in History so maybe an unfair advantage.

Rubberlegs

A cousin traced my mother's side back to the 1770's. Though she is English, it wound up in Derry in the 1700s. My father's side just as far back as great great grandparents, mostly from word of mouth and an ancestry website.

Neyite

I can't take the credit as I didn't do it but I think my surname can be traced back to the high kings of Ireland.

Always knew I was royalty.

Ragnar Lothbrok

My parents spent almost 30 years researching my dad's family history. It's easier to do this in England than it is in Ireland as many parish churches and county council offices have paperwork going back centuries. It's still long, hard work to put everything together and join up all the dots.

Believe it or not, they managed to get back to the early 1500s - and we are just a normal working class family, not some sort of aristocrats. In almost 500 years, the family moved from Ashbourne in Derbyshire to Swanwick in Derbyshire, via Heage in Derbyshire - a distance of a mere 18 miles! I came to live in Cork in 1990 and have stayed here ever since (why would anyone want to leave the best city in the world? ) so have completely bucked that trend.

My direct ancestors were farm labourers originally, and then around the early 1700s became coal miners. Coal mining was the major source of employment in much of Derbyshire for centuries until Thatcher ruined that. My dad spent several years "down t'pit" until he became a steel foundry worker. Fortunately for me, I didn't ever work in such dirty and dangerous jobs!

A few years ago I put all their information onto large pieces of card (I have a passion for calligraphy) and had it laminated. It covers one and a half walls in their second bedroom, and is already out of date due to new children being born.

mistersifter

I have a second cousin who is into tracing ancestors and found out I'm related to Captain Morgan (turns out he isnt just a fictional character invented by the Rum crowd) and J.P Morgan.

Now that's the piss-head bit explained, but why am I not rich?

branie2

My mother's family date back to the time of Brian Boru, as they were the King's bards.

Ipso

Unfortunately I found out I have some distant (can't be distant enough) Scottish ancestry, came to Ireland around the plantation. Not sure if was during and they went native or right before, either way it seems to be from the same region of Scotland.

Church on Tuesday

To just past the Famine.

Family have been living on the same plot of land since 1850.

josip

An ancestor of mine arrived by boat in Dublin in 1649

I read somehwere, possibly on boards, that The McGillicuddy of the Reeks and his family can trace their roots back to before the time of Christ. Isn't that mental?

Ipso

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I read somehwere, possibly on boards, that The McGillicuddy of the Reeks and his family can trace their roots back to before the time of Christ. Isn't that mental?

How so?

ToddyDoody

Ipso wrote: »

How so?

By not requiring evidence.

Ipso

Ipso wrote: »

How so?

Well it's just cool to know what your family were doing long before the Common Era, no?

I think that's pretty cool anyway.

Ipso

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Well it's just cool to know what your family were doing long before the Common Era, no?

I think that's pretty cool anyway.

The thing is when people start creating stories about themselves they always tend to link themselves to big events and never play down.
Anyway lets just say the McGillycuddys were there around 2,000 years ago (they weren't alone), Mr Mcg has a daughter, she is no longer a Mcg but maybe a Mch and any subsequent daughters of the Mcg's stop carrying the name so everyone in the area is descendant from the people at the time.

JupiterKid

I did a family tree project in 2nd year in secondary school.

From talking to my grandparents and other relatives and looking at a few records, I was able to trace my father's side of my ancestry back to my great great grandparents, so to the mid 19th century. One of my great great grandfathers was a blacksmith in County Derry, where my grandad came from. My great grandfather was a steam locomotive driver.

On my mother's side, back to the late 18th century. They were farmers and millers in Tyrone. My great great grandfather owned a water mill and his mill was transported to the Ulster Folk Museum in Cultra, outside Belfast, where is was rebuilt. Proud of that!

Sadly I was only able to obtain a couple of old black abd white photos from the late 19th/very early 20th century of my mother's ancestors as back in the 1960s my crazy aunt (her sister) apparently took most of them into the back garden of the then family home in Belfast and burned the lot!

I would like to do a more thorough family tree project soon and with the internet available now as a tool I might be able to go further back and piece together a fuller picture.