How the blog evolved over 17 years and three platforms ..read more

   As Irish researchers we spend a lot of time focused on names…surnames, given names or localities.  Acknowledging that many of our ancestors were illiterate, names were written down as they were heard by the priest, minister or clerk. It can sometimes also be frustrating trying to separate those people living in the same place with the same name.  But what about given names?  We all have plenty of Marys, Patricks, Bridgets and Michaels in our families and in my husband’s line there are multiple Bernards and Brians in every generation.  A Cornelius might indic ..read more

The blog post today comes from Anne Meehan Merritt who joined me in October of 2023 on the Ireland Research Trip. She wrote me recently to let me know she had made a huge breakthrough in her Irish Research and accepted my invitation to do a Guest Blog Post. *************** I have spent the better part of the last twenty years trying to find my Meehan ancestors in Ireland. I ignored all the warnings about how hard it is to “cross the pond” and how “all” the records had been destroyed, and naively began my search. Armed with a notated picture of my great grandfather Bernard Meehan, his wife a ..read more

   If you follow me on Facebook, (DonnaMoughtyGenealogy) this past week I linked to additions for both Monaghan (scroll to bottom of the page) and Tipperary School Records. In 2018 during the Ireland Research Trip, Fintan Mullen at the Ulster Historical Society did a presentation for the group on School Records. It wasn’t anything I had used in the past, but he made the point that these records in Northern Ireland were considered state records and had to be saved.  The majority of the surviving records for Northern Ireland are held at PRON (approximately 1600 schooIs fro ..read more

My husband’s grandfather, Michael Daly emigrated from Ireland departing from Queenstown on the 28 March 1909 on the Lucania and arriving in New York on 3 April 1909.  According to the manifest, his closest relative in Ireland was his mother, Mary Daly of Crumlin and he was going to his sister, Kate Kearns in Albany, New York.  I have not  been able to identify Michael in the 1910 census but by 1912, Michael was in Stamford, Connecticut where he married Ann Jane (Jennie) Martin, from County Monaghan.   Michael’s daughter, Catherine (my mother-in-law) did not know much, ot ..read more

Another thing that has been on my to do list for a while, is updating the Quick Reference Guides I created in 2018. I did update them in 2019, but they needed another update. The information contained in the new Guides has not dramatically changed, but many of the links were broken and some of the dates for records have changed to be in line with the Irish Data Protection Guidelines. I decided not to print the Guides (which will make them easier to update), but will provide them as PDFs. When you order them from my Store, I will email you the files. The downside of this, is once I email the ..read more

   February was a busy month.  Rather than focus on a family, I spent the month getting my taxes ready for the accountant, and also got a chance to spent a great week with my daughter, visiting from Boston.  Genealogy was not completely missing, as I answered questions from DNA matches and cousins along the way.    But now it is March and my focus turns to the Daly family of Kilvine in County Mayo.  This is my husband’s maternal line…his mother was Catherine Helen Daly.  It is one of the early lines I researched and much of what I have dates back to the ..read more

   I have arrived at the end of January, so it’s time to check in and see how things are going. Getting organized is never as easy as it sounds.  I have cleared up some of my piles, but there are more to go through.  I’ve gotten better at clearing my desktop, at least every other day, of accumulated files.  Did not do as well with clearing my emails every day, but did clear a couple of hundred emails from my inbox.  I still chased a few of those BSO’s.  I also got a few of the items that had been hanging out on my personal to do list completed.  The big ..read more

   2024 is really a New Year for me.  In 2023 I hosted my final group research trip to Ireland with 30 people!  I also reduced my lecture schedule and did my final major presentation at the Celtic Connections Conference in August.  As I turn the page on my professional career, I’m now prepared to focus on my personal research.  Like the shoemaker’s child, my own research has taken a back seat to my professional work and I have some major clean up to do!. I had planned to jump right into my new role when I returned from Ireland, but as usual, life got in the way ..read more

Thank you to all who have followed me this year. Best Wishes for a joyful Holiday Season and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you and your loved ones ..read more