Genealogy Chat

[BrianD3]

A programme on RTE on Monday about Tony Connelly's family history, might be interesting.

https://www.rte.ie/history/the-civil-wa ... andfather/

This inspired me to do some more digging about my relatives as I had been told that my grandfather was in the IRA during the War of Independence and in the Civic Guards afterwards. I searched for his service pension file and found it using the below search link. Loads of scanned documentation in the file including where he served and lived as a Garda. Combine that with google maps and historical mapping on geohive.ie and I now know what houses my mother and her siblings were born in.

http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/s ... e=advanced

I think the older you get and the more of your relatives pass away, the more interested you become in family history but a lot of it dies with your relatives if you don't "interrogate" them about it beforehand. If I had developed this interest 15 years ago I'd know far more and could well have my grandfather's (active) service medal which was probably lost in a house clearance after my bachelor uncle died. Medal probably dumped in a landfill with the rest of my uncle's stuff.

[Setanta]

https://www.duchas.ie/en

Some great stuff recorded of oral history in the 1930s

https://www.nationalarchives.ie/article ... age-death/

If you know roughly name/date you can find a good bit there,we needed few years ago,with a right of way issue,to get enough info together for a court case (which was called off last min)

Some great stuff on the old ordence survey maps aswell,showing all old field boundaries/farm outlines etc,most of which around me haven't changed in near 200 years

[quodec]

My maternal grandmother (1895 to 1987) was an amazing woman and had wonderful ability to recall family history well into her 80s. As a young lad she often regaled me with various stories about her siblings, uncles, aunts and others, going to America etc. But I was too young at the time to be all that interested. However, her daughter - my aunt - retained much of the information and accumulated boxes full of old letters, photos and potted histories of all the various family branches of my grandmother's side AND her husband's family. So, for the last two dozen years, before her passing last year, my aunt and I sorted out what was there and I eventually finalised a large word document with all the family strands recorded and linked, with anecdotes attached + names put on photos etc.
My own offspring are aware of the folders and hopefully someday, some of them will express and interest in wading through their family history. It was a real labour of love, but so rewarding to do. So, the advice is, gather/record the info before those with the knowledge pass away and the stories with them.

[marhay70]

My maternal grandmother (1895 to 1987) was an amazing woman and had wonderful ability to recall family history well into her 80s. As a young lad she often regaled me with various stories about her siblings, uncles, aunts and others, going to America etc. But I was too young at the time to be all that interested. However, her daughter - my aunt - retained much of the information and accumulated boxes full of old letters, photos and potted histories of all the various family branches of my grandmother's side AND her husband's family. So, for the last two dozen years, before her passing last year, my aunt and I sorted out what was there and I eventually finalised a large word document with all the family strands recorded and linked, with anecdotes attached + names put on photos etc.
My own offspring are aware of the folders and hopefully someday, some of them will express and interest in wading through their family history. It was a real labour of love, but so rewarding to do. So, the advice is, gather/record the info before those with the knowledge pass away and the stories with them.

Sound advice. I did a family tree some years ago and bitterly regretted not talking to my parents and uncles and aunts about their youth. I didnt know any of my grandparents and only met one of their generation, so that avenue wasn't open to me. It's always easy to be wise after the event but I reckon I could have saved myself months of research and hundreds of miles of travel, just by talking to my family.

[DeletedUser]

I’ve researched my grandfathers and gone back a few generations (fascinating!!!) and yet know next to nothing about my grandmothers - it’s on my to do list.

I’d be tempted to do one of those DNA kits - my paternal grandfather was in the US at the turn of the century working for 20 years, I’d say I’ve a right load of relatives out there!!!?

[marhay70]

Some of those genealogy sites can be way off the mark too. Just the other day I got a smart match from another family tree site of some distant cousin, detailing the life of my first cousin It gave her burial site as being in Scotland and her husband as being a Scot. Given that I attended her funeral and I knew her husband well, I know this was not the case, but anybody doing research into my extended family who consults that family tree will be steered on the wrong course and could spend many months chasing false leads.

[BrianD3]

The 1901 and 1911 censuses were my starting point for my interest, a great resource. I easily found my great grandparents households. Also, a couple of my great great grandparents lived with them. This led me to find more in the irish newspaper archive and I also found a photo online of my maternal great grandparents' grave.

However I can't tell if any of my great grandparents had any siblings. No other households of the same surname in the same townlands. Common surnames too so no point searching all townlands. Has anyone got any tips?

[BrianD3]

Did anyone catch the Tony Connelly programme? I learned some things about the RIC etc. that I wasn't aware of previously, also the genealogical aspect in relation to Connelly's family was good. His father is age 95 and very sharp. The sort of programming that RTE should do more of.

[Cobham]

Just reading back over old posts and I see:
"However I can't tell if any of my great grandparents had any siblings. No other households of the same surname in the same townlands. Common surnames too so no point searching all townlands. Has anyone got any tips?"

Have you looked at the birth records from 1864 that are freely available on
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/
Search under Civil Records. You should find siblings with parents with same names espec as mother's maiden name is recorded.