My partner’s deceased father was Irish, as was her paternal grandfather, but she knew very little about her Irish ancestry except that the family emigrated to England from CountySligo. After seeing a copy of her dad’s Birth Certificate referring to a placename we couldn’t locate on modern maps, we contacted Gerard to see if he could offer any help in investigating this branch of our family history.
Gerard carried out an initial free evaluation in which he concluded that, having found the small Irish townland and historical references to the family surname in the vicinity, he believed that direct ancestors could almost certainly be identified after some dedicated research. We were intrigued by the amount of research avenues Gerard said he could quickly check out. Our own previous enquiries about Irish ancestry to various authorities had usually got negative responses saying that very few documents had survived political upheavals over the years. We were led to believe (by others) that our dreams of an Irish family tree would remain unfulfilled.
In return for paying the minimum deposit for research work, Gerard offered to dig up some documented proof of the family’s earlier residence in Ireland ….. or he would happily refund our payment. This was more than a fair offer from a researcher we quickly grew to trust through his honesty and openness.
Gerard prompted us to confirm any information about my partner’s Irish grandfather of which we were 100% certain, and then asked us to list any additional information such as family folklore. We couldn’t offer much more than that shown on Dad’s Irish birth certificate, i.e. we had granddad’s name, his wife’s name, a strange-sounding location and an approximate age for granddad from childhood memories. The extra folklore stuff amounted to stories that granddad came from a large family (not exactly unusual for Ireland), some siblings probably emigrated to the USA, and one elderly paternal uncle once mentioned that his own Uncle Tom served in the American Army.
We were astounded when Gerard’s first weekly report by e-mail told us that he had got a copy of granddad’s marriage certificate listing the family residence in the same small townland as dad’s birthplace. And this document gave us the names of the bride and groom’s fathers. A great start to our tree, but Gerard had much more for us to consider.
He said that by consulting a census database and other reliable sources, he had found five sibling names ….. and another family with the same surname (assumed as probable cousins) living right next door to our own ancestors. The good thing was that Gerard did not pressurise us into taking our research or expense further. He summarised his findings in a written report and advised us to digest the information for a few days before considering the next step. Our e-mail exchanges were always friendly and informal.
Cutting a long story short, at regular intervals Gerard was commissioned to find out more and more aspects of our Irish family history. Each investigation concluded with an updated report and the transfer of copies of verifying documents. We always knew by mutual agreement what Gerard planned to look into next, and vitally a maximum cost for each task.
To our amazement, we learned that granddad had ten siblings, and there had been eleven first cousins and their parents residing in the cottage next door to our Irish family homestead. Most of the members of these two families shared the same Christian names, so how Gerard initially sorted out these family groups still baffles and amuses us to this day. We now have a potted history of the life and times of the majority of each member of our large extended Irish family.
Considering that all of them were born in the 19th century, enduring the poverty of rural Ireland at the time, and most chose (or were forced) to emigrate to the USA at a young age, it is a glowing tribute to Gerard that we now know so much about each of granddad’s siblings and cousins, and descendants of their individual families. Gerard used public records and church records in 3 countries to piece together our hitherto unknown Irish family story. We even know the full names of our great-great-grandparents in Sligo, and the history of the land on which they lived spanning 150 years.
Finally, Gerard has encouraged us to visit places of family interest in Ireland and to commence communication with our newly-discovered not-too-distant living cousins in both Ireland and America. Yes, as we joked with him, Gerard can trace living relatives as well as all the dead ones!! We are now able to fill in the missing gaps from the more recent inter-related generations on our own by talking to these cousins. We were always appreciative that Gerard was very wary of his clients spending money unnecessarily when some tasks can be undertaken directly.
We can’t thank Gerard enough, and he genuinely shared in our excitement and emotions as more and more of our Irish ancestry was uncovered. We now have a treasured Ancestor Report complete with proven tales of family achievements after extreme adversity, plus a file full of historical records and some wonderful memories of the journey of discovery. We even have the proud US military record of our great-uncle Tom, a career soldier. Priceless!
