Good Genealogy Websites for the Irish?

[CBHagman]

Okay, I've been to the Library of Congress and the National Archives. I've corresponded with genealogical societies and vital records offices. I've looked at the FamilySearch.org website (Thank you, LDS volunteers). I've run the family names through the genealogical search at www.ireland.com.

I know we've got Irish members on our family tree, but the records stateside are a bit limited. What to do?

What websites work especially well for those researching their Irish roots? Got any opinions, good or bad experiences, miracles? Do tell!

[DemBones DemBones]

1. Have you looked through all the U.S. censuses? Military records?

Tried online genealogy forums? I found three (3) distant cousins online, two of them definitely cousins, the other very likely.

In a paid membership site (ancestry.com), I've searched all the censuses and turned up a lot of facts and some clues, too.

There are also sites that have records from Ireland but I haven't used those yet. I need to order my great-grandmother Annie's death certificate in hopes of verifying her parents' names before I can really do much more.

Oh, how about the Ellis Island site? If any of your family came through there, that's a real possibility. You can buy prints of the manifests and photos of the ships they came over on, but the data is free for the searching.

[CBHagman]

2. I've used all of those.

Plus the Census (up through 1930, anyway) is at the National Archives.

Frankly, I find the forums at Genforum and the like more useful than Ancestry.com in general, which I use at the library (free subscription). Genforum has turned up actual relatives who help flesh out the family history.

In addition, I've used county and GenWeb and RootsWeb sites for general research.

Ellis Island only applies to the other half of my family (non-Irish), who arrived after it opened. The Irish ancestors probably landed at Castle Garden in NYC.

I've run into people who think genealogy is all done online at this point. It's not quite that way, at least for now. You still have to look at the microfilm and correspond with the staff at libraries, churches and courthouses. And there's a trip to a graveyard in your future if you are any kind of a genealogist!

Here are some sites I've used, with varying degrees of success:

www.ireland.com/ancestor/

genforum.genealogy.com/

www.rootsweb.com/

www.usgenweb.org/

www.ellisisland.org

www.familysearch.org

www.interment.net/

[DemBones DemBones]

3. I agree that you can get a lot from the free sites -- that's how I located

my cousins, through GenWeb and RootsWeb. I finally spent the money to belong to Ancestry because it's quite a hardship for me -- hell, it's a near impossibility -- to go to the Archives in Atlanta due to my disability. Our local library has some census rolls on microfilm (which is another advantage of Ancestry: no dealing with microfilm) but not enough for complete research.

Ellis Island may be no use on my Irish line, either, if they arrived as early in the 1800s as I suspect but I've been able to find my great-grandfather and three great-uncles on various ships out of Liverpool and Southhampton in the early 1900s.

Tell me about Castle Garden in NYC, please. And thanks for posting the ireland.com url, I'll look there and see if I get any tips that will help my search.

[CBHagman]

4. Here's a link.

www.genealogytoday.com/columns/ruby/011117.html

Basically, Castle Garden pre-dated Ellis Island, and it's possible some of our ancestors were processed there. Naturally, there were other ways of getting into the U.S., so it never hurts to verify which port the relatives turned up at.

For example, my great-great-grandfather's naturalization papers say that he arrived in New York in January 1864. I looked at some microfilm of New York port arrivals for the right time period, but the copies were so hard to read that I came away with no certain proof he was there. I've dug around on Google using the phrase "free searchable database," but no conclusive answers have been reached. Ditto for Ancestry.com, which of course will also do a Soundex search.

The Ireland.com ancestors link is useful because it gives the background of surnames, alternate spellings, and the like. But I'm always looking for more free sites to work with.

I'm sorry you are unable to travel to Atlanta. By the way, is there a local Family History Center that's accessible? The FamilySearch website lists them all, but I find they're not always easy to reach.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. Not sure about local FHC -- there is a Mormon church here but

it was built after my last burst of genealogical research ended ten years ago so I have never contacted them. They are accessible to me, about eight miles away, in a neighborhood where several of my friends live. Living in the boondocks as I do, I thought their putting a church on my route to the grocery store was quite considerate.

Since then, I've been told you have to really beware of their info, though, since they do not verify info that they're given, and we all know that some people doing research don't understand that documentation is necessary to confirm your findings. What's been your experience with FHC? And were they not supposedly putting all their holdings online?

[CBHagman]

8. LDS and FHC

"Living in the boondocks as I do, I thought their putting a church on my route to the grocery store was quite considerate."

LOL!

I haven't yet been to the local Family History Center, though I understand they contain many useful research materials and will get others for you via Interlibrary Loan. So it's a valuable place for researchers. The FHCs are staffed by volunteers, as far as I know, so I take it they're amateur researchers.

As for the material on, say, the FamilySearch.org website, yes, it is important to verify it, though that doesn't mean it isn't valuable. I found major leads and information on that particular site.

However, like any other genealogy resource, there's the danger of transcription errors and questionable records. For example, Works Progress Administration people made errors in doing the Soundex index to the Census. Hence my great uncle is listed with the wrong middle initial. LDS volunteers made transcription errors as well.

But everyone makes errors like that, even the good people at Ellis Island.org. You just have to keep looking and questioning. I can't tell you the number of times I've gotten an actual document, such as a birth certificate or a death certificate, that had me banging my head against the wall due to apparent errors or inaccuracies.

[DemBones DemBones]

9. Well, you know the LDS wouldn't have done it

for the convenience of a Catholic like me, had they but known! :evilgrin:

It's certainly true that official documents can contain errors. According to the 1930 census, my mother, then 12, was married to her own father! Not only that, but she and her mother, also listed as "Wife" both lived with him. :eyes:

I'm still not sure whether to believe her aunt was born in Canada -- usually that's the sort of information people talk about, a family member born in another country -- and I knew this aunt as she lived with my grandparents for many years. But several censuses show her birthplace as Canada and that has got me thinking about whether one or more of my great-great-grandparents in the Canfield line came from Ireland to Canada and then to NY, and later returned to Canada, where daughter Annie (my g-grandmother) visited them to give birth to her first child. Or were there other family members who located in Canada? Another scenario I've imagined is that this child was born out of wedlock and that has something to do with Canada being the birthplace. It's a lot of fun to try to unravel puzzling questions like that.

Another of the things that makes genealogy fun is going to the places your ancestors lived, as you described in the Catholic Group going to your g-grandmother Bridget Agnes's old parish and seeing the stained glass windows of Sts. Bridget and Agnes next to each other. I've been able to do that in Devon, England, seeing family graves and homes and churches that date back at least to 1500, but that's entirely my dad's
family and now I'm working on my mom's family and want to visit their places, too -- if I ever find them!!!

[CBHagman]

10. You raise an interesting question.

I am more or less addicted to Family Tree magazine and was fascinated by an article in the December 2002, "Super Secrets of Successful Genealogists." Don't be put off by the title; it was about breaking through brick walls in research. One of the pieces of advice was to follow every clue and lead. It's possible that your family's journey leads through Canada.

One of my great-great-grandmothers is variously listed as having been born in Ireland, England and...New Jersey. I noticed, however, that the later the source, the more likely to list the New Jersey birthplace. So I'm inclined to think my youngest great aunt simply gave the wrong data to the Census taker and Vital Records.

And the discovery of family secrets is another real possibility. Think of all the things families have swept under the rug, such as suicides and out-of-wedlock births, or even bigamy.

[DaveinMD]

5. this is a great website for history

it also has links to geneology

http://larkspirit.com/history/

[CBHagman]

6. Thank you kindly.