Irish Roots! Looking for my virtual shovel.....

....to start tracing them down that is. Would like to do this via internet if possible but, not absolutely required. I'd like to do this without paying a fee tho' fer sho'.

A long time ago my brother traced our lineage back to Ireland. He managed to shake the leaves off of our family tree enough to find out our clan name, crest, and colors. Well, he is gone now and that information has gone with him.

Oddly enough, without intent, I have managed to give both my boys Gealic names and have thought it might be cool to trace our roots thus giving the names even more solidarity, per se. Also, I am playing with a new name for my brewery (as you can see in my sig, translation corrections welcome) A few Googles pooped up links of places that will gladly take my cash to "generate" a lineage for me. I don't trust this.

So, where do I start? I don't have a clue where to begin but, I am confident there is someone here that has done this and has some tips and possibly some warnings. I am eager to read them.

What part of Ireland is your family from?

How far back can you get now?

You could try genealogy.com a cousin of mine traced our roots back to 1500 in England and I believe that he used that site. If nothing else there could be someone else out there from you family that has traced your history and would be willing to share.

SD

Loweface said:

What part of Ireland is your family from?

How far back can you get now?

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I honestly don't know. Prior to my brothers findings, I didn't even know we had any roots in Ireland. Any and all info he found was taken with him. This was a long time ago that he traced it, well before I cared anything about our lineage. I remember seeing the kilts he made and the crest he kept in an album but it was so long a go the details are gone. Best I can remember now is that the kilt was plaid. Duh!

As for how far back I have gotten, I haven't. Don;t know where to start except a google. I will try the geneaology.com thing and see where that leads me.

Also try finding your oldest living relative and ask! You be amazed at how simple that can be yet it can release an amount of information without going through agencies...

Plan your next vacation to Washington DC, and go through the National Archives. That's where my aunt put my family's lineage together.

Ive spent the last year to year and a half tracing my family and as far as free sites go this one has helped the most
FamilySearch.org - Search

Talked to Gramma on Mum's side. Turns out I have a cousin I have never met that has been doing the same for about 3 years now. Supposedly has a Redwood (meaning huge) of a Family tree put together. Gramma is gonna have her send me the stuff.

Maybe that will get me somehwere. Maybe it'll show me more than I want to know.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Talked to Gramma on Mum's side. Turns out I have a cousin I have never met that has been doing the same for about 3 years now. Supposedly has a Redwood (meaning huge) of a Family tree put together. Gramma is gonna have her send me the stuff.

Maybe that will get me somehwere. Maybe it'll show me more than I want to know.

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I did find a skeleton in our closet But I also found out that the Grandfather my Mom had been told growing up was dead, really wasn't. At least not when they said he was. Turned out he took off just after the birth of my Mom's dad and lived a fairly long life.

HBHoss said:

I did find a skeleton in our closet But I also found out that the Grandfather my Mom had been told growing up was dead, really wasn't. At least not when they said he was. Turned out he took off just after the birth of my Mom's dad and lived a fairly long life.

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Yeah. I already know out of the gate that it will get "interesting" regarding my mothers side. With any luck the cousin's data will get me through a lot of the confusion.

As I was growing my grandparent always told stories about name changes because some early ancestors were horse theives. There have also been a lot of stories regarding "slave relations" in barns. So, I fully expect to see a lot of twists and turns in this tree.

It can be addicting (kinda like home brewing) but after finding out the information I did, it's worth it. I was also able to order my Grandfather's WWI service record including information about when and where he was wounded. My Dad told me that his father didn't talk about the war much so this was great reading for my Dad. It seems like you have a branch going then it dead ends and you have to look for another branch or try to put it together using different information. I've enjoyed it a lot though.

I have made it back to my GGG-grandfather for free. Now comes the money part and time of checking everything. Amazing how many records there are even when you can't find exactly what you are looking for. I am wanting to get into the Lowry DNA project to see how far back and where my blood and last name truly come from. DNA is the only absolute way since people tend to not tell the truth about certain family skeletons and secrets. I can't wait to find out though and someone in my family did a lot of research it just was skewed for their side of the family.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Yeah. I already know out of the gate that it will get "interesting" regarding my mothers side. With any luck the cousin's data will get me through a lot of the confusion.

As I was growing my grandparent always told stories about name changes because some early ancestors were horse theives. There have also been a lot of stories regarding "slave relations" in barns. So, I fully expect to see a lot of twists and turns in this tree.

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Sounds like a fun tree to climb What I started doing was having Google Earth open while searching family history and I've learned a lot about the country side my ancestors grew up in (Scotland and Britain). It also helps because 100 years ago, and beyond, people didn't travel very far so it's good to know the area.

both my parents are second generation in the states, and know when and where we came from. now the old sod history is lost, but the ancestors sorta left there for a reason.

WortMonger said:

I have made it back to my GGG-grandfather for free. Now comes the money part and time of checking everything. Amazing how many records there are even when you can't find exactly what you are looking for. I am wanting to get into the Lowry DNA project to see how far back and where my blood and last name truly come from. DNA is the only absolute way since people tend to not tell the truth about certain family skeletons and secrets. I can't wait to find out though and someone in my family did a lot of research it just was skewed for their side of the family.

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It can get expensive once you start looking at actual documents to confirm information, but for me it was a lot cheaper than going to the towns Hall of Records.

uglygoat said:

both my parents are second generation in the states, and know when and where we came from. now the old sod history is lost, but the ancestors sorta left there for a reason.

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3 of my Grandparents were born and raised in Scotland and one was born and raised in England. It's too bad I wasn't interested in family history while they were alive. One Grandfather died a month before I was born but the other 3 lived long lives. It's been, shall I say, a "bonding" time for me and my parents. Learned a lot about their childhood that I never knew.

The best resource for family history on this entire earth are the Mormon family history centers. They are free, no fees for anything.

Mormons are heavily vested in family history and the lineage of the entire earth. They believe it is their duty to perform a baptism for every dead person who did not have a chance to be baptized while on earth. This belief has created the largest genological society and database in existence.
This is what my father has used to track down his lineage. It's pretty amazing actually, everything from ship logs, marriage records, Ellis Island documents and all.

Once you find the where abouts of your family roots I would reccomend looking at their local churches. My dad visited a catholic church in Ireland and was able to view records from the 1600's showing marriages and baptisms of his family.

Brandon O said:

The best resource for family history on this entire earth are the Mormon family history centers. They are free, no fees for anything.

Mormons are heavily vested in family history and the lineage of the entire earth. They believe it is their duty to perform a baptism for every dead person who did not have a chance to be baptized while on earth. This belief has created the largest genological society and database in existence.
This is what my father has used to track down his lineage. It's pretty amazing actually, everything from ship logs, marriage records, Ellis Island documents and all.

Once you find the where abouts of your family roots I would reccomend looking at their local churches. My dad visited a catholic church in Ireland and was able to view records from the 1600's showing marriages and baptisms of his family.

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Check post #7.

GilaMinumBeer said:

As I was growing my grandparent always told stories about name changes because some early ancestors were horse theives.

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My family too! My aunt found out that some of my family got shipped off to Australia for horse-thieving.

LOL, Australia. Guess the English didn't see that one coming, lol. Lets move all the criminals there... wait now lets move there. LOL

I love the Mormon site, got most of my info there.

WortMonger said:

LOL, Australia. Guess the English didn't see that one coming, lol. Lets move all the criminals there... wait now lets move there. LOL

I love the Mormon site, got most of my info there.

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+1 to that. Lets send our worst to this remote place and then lets all move there too.

I came here looking for Irish robots. Stoopid illiteracy!

LOL, now that is some funny stuff right there.

Brandon O said:

Mormon stuff

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I just wanted to add that Salt Lake City has the largest geneology library in the world.

EvilTOJ said:

I just wanted to add that Salt Lake City has the largest geneology library in the world.

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It's twue, it's twue, it's twue. You can check your local LDS place and see if they know or have a satellite library also. A member of the LDS had traced one of my family names back to 350 B.C.