I was always intrigued by the family tales of my Irish father emigrating to the USA alone when he was just a 13 year-old boy. My deceased sister used to be the family historian so we knew a certain amount about our Irish roots, but we had few documents to verify the family folklore. When I was put in contact with Gerard, it soon became obvious that his expertise would be invaluable in proving the accuracy or otherwise of family history tales passed from one generation to the next.
Gerard encouraged me to summarize all the information and memories I had concerning my father. At first I had some reservations about making progress via a website due to my age; I was born in 1918 and the internet is fairly alien to me. However, Gerard soon put me at ease and convinced me that my age and memories would be the biggest advantage for my genealogy quest. After the initial exchange of information via the “dreaded” e-mail, Gerard was considerate enough to contact me by telephone to expand upon my ancestor enquiry.
I had visited Ireland to seek out the original family homestead in my younger years, so I had gathered some useful resource material from both sides of the Atlantic regarding our family history. I sent Gerard a parcel in the post containing copies of a draft extended family tree and other notes of historical family trivia. With amazing speed, Gerard was able to send me a sample of copy records by e-mail detailing my father’s early life in New York City which a colleague kindly printed off for me. These included census returns and naturalization papers.
We agreed a further research content package and I specified that I would be more comfortable corresponding by letter using the good old-fashioned postal system, and Gerard obligingly respected my wishes. As planned, I received and looked forward to weekly updates. Each envelope revealed more and more documentary evidence regarding my parents’ emigration from Ireland to America, and much information about my parents’ many siblings, most of who also settled in the USA. I could now complete much of the family tree with corrected birthdays, marriage locations and dates, etc. It was gratifying to learn all about the life of a kindly Irish American great-uncle, originally from CountyLeitrim, who provided bed and board for the young Irish immigrants in 19th century NYC until they had found their feet in the New World – just as our family folklore tales had told us.
In the second phase of Gerard’s research, he concentrated on locating records of my grandfather’s existence in Leitrim. Emigration ship passenger manifests had confirmed the name of the small Irish townland to be the same as my sister’s notes scribbled down decades earlier after chats with elderly aunts and uncles. Gerard produced a copy of Ireland’s 1901 census for the area showing that my grandfather and grandmother were still at the homestead at the turn of that century.
Gerard’s agreed final task was to find a written record for either of my Irish grandparents’ births or deaths, or even better a marriage certificate. We were both downhearted when Gerard reported that this search turned up nothing in the Irish civil record archives. This is apparently not uncommon in Ireland where official registrations were not rigidly policed in the era in question. The search failure also concurred with a previous attempt by a family member to trace public records undertaken many years earlier.
Although I didn’t request any further studies, Gerard was not to be beaten. A few weeks later, I was both surprised and delighted to receive a transcribed copy of a local RC church record detailing the marriage of my grandparents in 1874. Gerard sent photos of the church, both inside and out, and these are now treasured possessions which have been circulated to my many nieces and nephews and their offspring.
Gerard’s findings have made an old man very happy. He’s a great guy and provides a terrific service. Thank you Irish Ancestry Research.
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