Newry and Mourne Museum helps the Magee family find their Irish roots

In late July, Raymond Magee from Denver, Colorado contacted Newry and Mourne Museum via Facebook enquiring…

In recent years, newspapers have become an increasingly useful source for genealogical research. This is due to the massive digitization projects that have been undertaken, making it easier to conduct broad searches for specific references to surnames and place…

James McHenry (November 16, 1753 – May 3, 1816) was born into a Scots-Irish family in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland in 1753.   Sent at age 17 to North America McHenry lived with a family friend in Philadelphia before deciding to finish his preparatory…

George Michael Cohan was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and producer. Assumed by many to be Jewish because of his last name, which was really Keohane! Known in the decade before World…

Ken and Antonette Kaufman came on a Wild West Irish Tours special "Emigrant Trail Ancestry Tour" to find his family roots. Here is his story:

As long as I can remember, I have had a desire…

A game of hurling in Mercedes, Argentina (1917)

A frequently asked…

Administration of the estates of the landed gentry in Ireland during the Victorian era was meticulous.  Large estates employed agents, accountants, solicitors, valuators and cartographers, all of whom created detailed records.  These collections, if they survive, can be a treasure…

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (1888 – 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. Born in a Broadway hotel room in Longacre Square (now Times Square), in the Barrett Hotel. He was the son of Irish immigrant actor James O'Neill, Rosbercon, County…

Those of us who are involved in long term genealogical research note that ages recorded on census returns and, indeed, on death records are frequently found to be quite inaccurate. There may be many reasons for such inaccuracies, not least because some individuals may not have known…

This is part four in a series of articles on "Searching for Your Irish Ancestors" written by Ireland-based professional genealogist Nicola Morris of Timeline Genealogy. You can find the other installments of this series…

Where does red hair come from?  There is a lengthy and complex discussion of the red hair genetics here. Be sure and read the comments (everybody has an opinion and is an expert!) Within this…

Professor James J. Ryan II was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1903.  In a most literal sense, Professor James Ryan earned his nickname. A professor in the University of Minnesota’s mechanical engineering department from…

The scarcity of 19th century census returns for Ireland means that we genealogists place a huge emphasis on census substitutes. What is a census substitute ? My colleague, John Grenham explains it very well when he states, "Almost any document which records more than a single name can…

Britain declared war on Germany 100 years ago today, on 4 August 1914 and on 9 August the British Expeditionary Force began leaving for France. Some other Wild Geese have blogged here about their ancestors who fought in the war, so I just thought I'd put up these resources…

Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Sshe was the daughter of Carmen Louise (née LaPorte) and John Watson Slaton, both of whom were waiters. Dorothy Lamour was of French Louisianan, Spanish and Irish descent. Her parents' marriage lasted only a few…

This is part four in a series of articles on "Searching for Your Irish Ancestors" written by Ireland-based professional genealogist Nicola Morris of Timeline Genealogy. You can find…

If your great grandfather listed his occupation as a hostler – what did he do?

The word is spelled "hostler" in American English, but "ostler" in British English. It traces to c.1386, meaning "one who tends to horses at an inn"—and also, occasionally, "innkeeper." It is…

It is a source of great pain and frustration to genealogists that most 19th Irish census returns have been destroyed. The destruction is generally blamed on the fire at the Public Records Office in 1922 during the Irish Civil War. While the 1922 fire did consume a great deal of…

Back before there were affordable and reliable alarm clocks, the occupation of a knocker-up made a few pence a week in England and Ireland by using a long, lightweight stick, often bamboo, to tap on their clients’ upper floor windows and wake them up so they could get to…

Confusion over the term "family crest" probably arose from an understandable abbreviation of the terminology in heraldry for an important part of a coat of arms. One of the most respected sources for heraldry information is Fairbairn's Book of Crests of the Families of Great…