William Holland, a genealogical researcher from Atlanta, dances to the left of Fon Angwafo III, the king of the Mankon tribal group in Cameroon, during a ceremony

When William Holland traveled from Atlanta to Cameroon to dig into his family roots, the quest succeeded beyond his wildest dreams: A blend of genetic testing and genealogical
sleuthing connected him with one of the West African nation’s royal families. The king of Mankon, a region in Cameroon, embraced Holland so completely that the American was ceremonially given the name of the king’s father.

read more:http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/01/5916155-family-roots-get-tangled-up-in-africa/a>

For the family lines you have DNA results for, a DNA search might be the simplest way to shed light on the genetic trail. If you have a strong match with a person with a different name, that name is probably worth investigating. If you want to use DNA but don’t have the right person to test, talk to our consultants about how you might use the genealogies in our database to help you with DNA results for any of your family lines.

You can also search our database even if you don’t know the DNA results. Use the surname search feature to look for any of the surnames on your family tree.  Selecting approximate matching instead of exact matching takes different spellings into consideration, and you can try different variations yourself as well.

While you’re in Ireland, you should take some time to visit the places your ancestors lived. You can walk the same path they would have taken to school, visit the church they were married in, and if you’re lucky, you can see the home they lived in. I had the opportunity to visit Ireland a few years ago to see where my great great grandmother came from. She was born in Edenvale in County Antrim. My sister, mother, grandmother and I spent 3 days driving around the area. We were able to do things like walk around the local cemeteries and visit the pastor’s home to search the record books for our ancestors. We were even able to find the house that may have been our ancestral home (unfortunately, we have not been able to prove or disprove the family story).

"Ancestral home" in the 1950s

"Ancestral home" in 2001

While in Antrim, we were also able to visit the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, which is located in Cultra, Northern Ireland. Historical buildings from around Ireland have been relocated there and you can see demonstrations of activities your ancestors may have participated in, like printing and making crafts. Even if your ancestors didn’t come from the area, you can still get a feel of the way your ancestors would have lived. There are also smaller museums in other counties, along with historical monuments and buildings that have been preserved, that you can visit to learn more about your ancestor’s life.

May the luck of the Irish be with you!

If you can’t find your ancestor online or just want an excuse to take a vacation, a genealogy trip to Ireland can be worthwhile. Before booking your ticket, you need to know at least the county your ancestor was from, an approximate date of birth, and a name. Additional information that can be helpful is the name of your ancestor’s parents and spouse and their religion. Some examples of where to find their place of origin can be found in our previous posting.

If you haven’t found that information yet, another option would be to look at records for their friends or people that lived near them in the U.S. Immigrants commonly travelled with or settled near people they knew in their homeland. One of these friends might have left their posterity more information about their origin than your ancestors did. If you discover the origin of your ancestors’ friend you might just discover your ancestor lived next door to them in Ireland.

There are two main sources for records in Ireland: public record offices and libraries. Some of these locations are listed in our previous posting and additional locations can be found in the brochure at http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/trip/index.html. This brochure also contains books on genealogical research in Ireland and other sources that may be useful in your research. Each office or library has different hours, procedures, and records so you’ll want to research them before your trip.

If you know which church your ancestor attended, you can contact the current pastor or minister and see if they have access to any of their parish records. When I was in Ireland a few years ago, the pastor was storing the record books at his home and he let us view them there. We did not find any of our direct ancestors in those books but we did find many of our other relatives.

Doing research is not the only reason you should travel to Ireland. Being able to visit the places your ancestors lived can be a wonderful experience and can help you have a better insight into their life. To read more about this, make sure to read our next posting…

For Irish-American heritage month (March) and St. Patrick’s Day, the U.S. Census Bureau released some facts about Irish-American heritage. In 2008, 36.3 million U.S. residents reported having Irish ancestry. That works out to be around 12% of the total population. For those who are included in that 12%, doing research in Ireland can be difficult. In 1922, the Public Records Office in Dublin burned, wiping out the records held there. Luckily, not all records were housed there so some have survived. How do you go about getting a hold of these records? 

If you aren’t able to travel to Ireland to do research, there are a number of resources you can use at home. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah has microfilmed many records and a listing of their holdings can be found here. You can also visit a Family History Center where they can assist you or order microfilms for you.

If you can’t make it to one of these places, there are many websites (some fee-based) you can use from home either for doing research or for education. Some of them are:

FamilySearch online classes   ▪   https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Ireland ▪   www.irishgenealogical.org/default.asp   ▪   www.groni.gov.uk   ▪   www.proni.gov.uk   ▪  www.irishgenealogy.ie   ▪   www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy/centres.html   ▪   www.groireland.ie   ▪   www.cyndislist.com/ireland.htm   ▪    www.ellisisland.org   ▪    www.eneclann.ie   ▪   http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor   ▪   www.irishorigins.com  ▪     http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/irl/#Archives  ▪   http://www.brsgenealogy.com/  ▪  www.irishroots.com

A quick google search can also help you find various records scattered around the internet. You can also look at records created in the U.S. – naturalization records, passenger lists, court records, passport applications, census records, biographies, newspapers, land records, vital records, etc. to check for information about the origin of your ancestor.

A widely overlooked tool for tracking your ancestors is your DNA. Search within your immediate and extended family for a relative who inherited your Irish ancestry directly on their paternal or maternal line and get them tested. Search for matches on GeneTree or other databases. If you find an exact match on that direct Irish line, look to see if they have that line traced back farther than you do. You can also compare your DNA results to the results of others who share your Irish surname or search the internet for a surname study.

To learn about doing research in Ireland, stay tuned for our next posting…