Beware Of Blarney In Your Irish Genealogy

The further back in your family genealogy tree you go, the murkier the picture gets. This is especially true for an American genealogist tracing his or her Irish genealogy. As late as World War II, there was really no reason to stick with the identity you were born with if you were born in Ireland. Unless you were from a rich or powerful family or clan, you discovered fast that your name was not worth a whole lot. And you discovered that one of the best ways to cover up a none-too-shiny past was to change your name where ever you went.

Mass Immigration

Ireland, until recently, has always been a poor nation. When most of Ireland converted to Catholicism, they also eschewed birth control (which was available in herbs that brought on menstruation well before the pill). But Ireland never had enough food to feed all of her millions. When the Great Potato Famine hit in 1845, it was the last straw for most Irish families. There was no work, no food, and no safe place to live. 2.2 million Irish died of starvation alone in five years. Those who lived had no choice but to immigrate.

In one sense, this makes Irish geneology tree easier in that there are still records of many of the boat registers and records of places like Ellis Island in New York, where the boats landed. Many Irish, however, in order to become more “American” or to escape a blackened past, changed their names on the boat. No proof of ID was needed then – all you had to prove who you were was what came out of your mouth.

Records Meeting

Many studying their Irish genealogies find all information about their ancestors may come to an abrupt halt once the boat left Ireland. When researching in Ireland, they have a hard to nearly impossible time finding any kind of record that their immigrated ancestors were ever born, let alone lived in Ireland.

Then, you need to get creative with your Irish genealogy tree. The immigrants tended to have lively stories of their home towns. Check the towns and then check first names (and often the middle baptized) to find the ancestors’ previous generations. Many name alterations were also very small, even to just spelling Sean in Ireland to Shawn in America.

There are many free Irish genealogy websites you can use for research, which includes lists of cemetery headstones, birth records, execution records and even orphan record listings.