My maiden name is Colleen Mary Francis McDonnell, which certainly corresponds with my red hair, freckles and blue eyes.
A 90-year-old Irish nun re-named me in the hospital to “Colleen,” which means Irish girl, and “Mary” after the Blessed Virgin. “Francis” was my father’s confirmation choice and the McDonnell name hails from county Sligo on the west coast of Ireland.
I know a decent amount of family history; my grandfather, Michael, was born in 1904, immigrated to the U.S. in 1927, and left three brothers and a sister back on the family farm in Tubbercurry.
We are still in touch with our Irish cousins and see them whenever we visit the Emerald Isle, but I’ve always wondered how far back I could trace the family tree.
Fortunately, there’s never been a better time to search your family ancestry, especially if you’re Irish. More than 2.5 million images of old documents from the General Register Office are now available for free online.
Most people of Irish origin can trace their families back to the early 1800s easily, and the Irish government is encouraging people to explore their roots and visit their homeland.
A good place to start, www.census.nationalarchives.ie is the National Archives of Ireland census website. You can find images of the earliest censuses, 1901 and 1911, complete with signatures, family members and occupations. There are interesting questions too, like the 1930 census that asked if your family owned a radio.
The next step is to search civil records of births, marriages and deaths on www.familysearch.org or www.irishgenealogy.ie You can see full images of the original registers of births 1864-1916, marriages 1870-1941 and deaths 1878-1966.
For more assistance, consider consulting with professionals who have been scouring records for years and know the optimum angles and shortcuts.
Help is available every year at the Dublin Irish Festival under the Ancestry and Genealogy Tent. The same qualified experts have been invited for the last 20 years to help guide visitors through their ancestry searches.
Jayne Davis is a volunteer and past president of the Franklin County Genealogical and Historical Society. She and her husband, Dennis, use festival laptops to show you how to research your family and see what resources are available to you locally. You don’t need to be Irish to seek help as all nationalities are welcome.
“It’s fun when people come back the following year to share their success stories,” says Jayne.
One year, with www.findagrave.com Jayne helped a man trace his family back five generations in 10 minutes, though that is very unusual.
“My advice is to be patient and don’t rush it,” says Jayne. “It usually takes months to gather all of the pertinent information.”
Dwight Radford is a professional genealogist from Salt Lake City, specializing in Irish ancestry. He can talk you through databases and find answers to valuable questions about when your relatives might have immigrated and from which port. What took them from Ireland and under what conditions? Were they willing immigrants or indentured servants?
History is key in uncovering information and knowing facts about your religion, surname or location in Ireland will help. For example, in the late 17th century, some Irish Catholics went voluntarily to settle in the West Indies, but more were transported there as slaves.
In 1720, New England was a more popular destination. From 1771-1773, over 100 ships left Northern Ireland ports, carrying 32,000 immigrants to America. From 1801-1921, 8 million emigrants left Ireland due to overseas demand for labor and a lack of employment and prospects in their home country.
Many people are familiar with the Great Hunger, the famine of the late 1840’s, because emigration became massive after that. By 1890, 40 percent of Irish born people were living abroad. “You can never predict what you will find or how long it will take,” says Dwight.
Michael O’Laughlin is the world’s most published author in the field of Irish genealogy with over 60 books, 250 podcasts, 11 CDs/DVDs and 361 videos on YouTube. Topics include the Irish language, Irish in America, the old song style called Sean-nós and Irish family names.
Mike can answer your questions about the origin of the Irish flag and the shamrock, but don’t ask him about your Irish family tartan, as tartans are strictly a Scottish tradition. He has written books on all 34 counties in Ireland and The Irish Book of Arms, which displays 1,000 arms that Mike personally researched and confirmed.
Many visitors to the Dublin Irish Festival want to know about their surname: what it means and where it originated. Mike warns people not to get too concerned about the spelling of a last name.
“An ancestor’s name could have been altered many times over the years as it was written or read wrong.”
For starters, “Mc” and “Mac” both mean the son of, while ‘O’ means the grandson of. So O’Laughlin would be the grandson of Lochlann. Kilpatrick would be a follower of Patrick and Thompson would be the son of Tom. My last name of McDonnell means son of Donald, but it’s also the anglicized form of MacDhomhnuill which is composed of the ancient Celtic elements “domno,” meaning world, and “val,” meaning rule.
If you are enjoying the research so far, Mike can help you with a DNA test via a saliva swab, which can provide important information toward your family roots as well as your genetic makeup.
DNA tests are becoming increasingly popular through sites like www.ancestry.com, which compares your DNA with the 6 million people in their database. If you are interested in learning more, there is a DNA interest group that meets monthly at the main branch of our Columbus Metropolitan Library.
So, do your preliminary research now, make a list of questions, and seek out help from the friendly faces at the Ancestry and Genealogy Tent Aug. 3-5 at the Dublin Irish Festival.
Other helpful websites:
- www.journeyhomegenealogy.com
- www.findmypast.com
- www.nli.ie (National Library of Ireland)
Colleen D’Angelo is a freelance writer who lives in Dublin with her husband, three children and several small animals. She enjoys playing tennis, walking the Dublin bike paths and traveling.
