Findmypast launches new Irish and British collections: 14,000 records

Findmypast launches over 14,000 new records as the first installment of their new Findmypast Fridays.

This press release was received from Findmypast.com today.

We are proud to announce the launch of our first ever Findmypast Friday! Every Friday from now on, we will be bringing you thousands of new records to explore over the weekend on our dedicated Findmypast Friday page. We promise to bring you new, and often exclusive, record sets every single week.

This week’s Findmypast Friday, we’re excited to release a new collection of Irish parish and cemetery records as well as British marriage and baptism records. If you have family from the Irish counties of Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone or Wicklow or from Eastbourne, East Sussex in the UK, these records will be of particular interest.

Compiled by genealogist, author and professor of history, Dr. David R. Elliott, the new Irish records collection includes a variety of parish registers from County Fermanagh as well as cemetery records for Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Wicklow.

My Irish surnames on this St. Patrick's Day

I live in the U.S. but I have ancestral ties to Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Germany, Scotland, and Sweden but the Irish ancestry is prevelant. They are from several counties in Ireland:

County Kerry (Dingle Peninsula):  Bowler, Fitzgerald, Walsh, Welch (mine ended up in Winona and Ramsey counties in Minnesota; a branch resided in the Boston, Massachusetts area)

County Limerick: Cook, Green, Moriarty/Moriarity (my branch of the  Cooks ended up in Rice and Ramsey counties in Minnesota)

County Tipperary: Hanley (mine ended up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Winona and Ramsey counties in Minnesota; a branch ended up in North Dakota)

Irish Newsletter Septs Wins NGS Award

At this month's National Genealogical Society Conference in Kansas City, winners were announced for many special awards. Among the winners was the Irish Genealogical Society International, which is based here in Minnesota. The IGSI quarterly journal, the Septs, won first place in the NGS Newsletter Competition under the category of Major Genealogical or Historical Society Newsletter.

Along with my congratulations, I want to add "you've come a long way, baby!" since the early 1980s when the typed newsletter was assembled on my dining room table for several years and before and after that in other members' homes.

IGSI is truly an international organization with members in all 50 U.S. states and ten other countries. Check out its website and then see how easy it is to join online. I had let my membership really lapse and just rejoined. The Septs and the website make this $30.00 fee very worthwhile.

The excellent IGSI library is at the Minnesota Genealogical Society's Library at 1185 Concord St. N., South St. Paul, Minnesota. The library is on the second floor and parking is free!

Researching Irish Ancestry

Want to learn more about your Irish ancestry?

• Eileen O'Duill, a professional genealogist based in Ireland, has some comments at Ancestry's 24-7 Family History Circle.

• The 2006 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Boston had many lectures on Irish research. For downloads of 60 Irish related lectures, visit here. These lectures can be downloaded as packages or by single lecture.

• In 2008, the conferences of both the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical Society have Irish research lectures. NGS is in Kansas City in May and FGS is in Philadelphia in September.

• The Irish Genealogical Society International offers a research library and classes. One Saturday a month, Irish assistance is offered in the library. Under the research tab, an extensive links section takes you to many websites for Irish research, culture, and history.

• The Irish Ancestral Research Association is another organization with classes, research trips, and more. A links section gives many other resources for Irish research, culture, and history.

• For many more Irish research, cultural, historical and travel links, use your favorite search engine to open up a world of information.

Happy St. Patrick's Day -- Yes, I am Irish

I may be a mutt as far as my ancestral origins, but the Irish far outweighs the others. My Irish blood is on on my maternal side. I know that some of my Irish lines may turn out to have some English -- but I need that trip to Ireland to work on that.

My maternal grandfather, Maurice Michael Hanley (100% Irish), was born 1893 in Winona, Minnesota to Michael Hanley and Johanna Welch. Michael was born in Ireland (county history says Tipperary) around 1840, came to Hamilton, Ontario,Canada in the 1840s where his parents supposedly died. He and his brother Martin ended up in Winona, Minnesota. There is supposed to be a sister Mary, but I have not found evidence of her to date.

Grandpa Mike's (Maurice Michael) mother was Johanna Walsh, born 1859 in County Kerry (Welch/Walsh, Fitzgerald and Bowler). Johanna followed several other family members to Winona County. Others were in Boston. I have a picture of the old family homestead in Kerry (Catholic parish of Ballyferriter) that was in the family until recently. That was a treasured gift from cousins who were born and raised in Ireland. Johanna Walsh was Michael Hanley's second wife. His first wife was Margaret Carney/Kearney who died in 1888 in Winona.

Some of the Walsh/Welch's remained in Winona but after Michael died in 1905 in Winona, his widow Johanna eventually moved to St. Paul with her children to be with other relatives. Maurice Michael met and married my Grandmother Gertrude Catherine Cook. Grandma Gert's father was John Thomas Cook and her mother was Violet Dow/Daoust (born 1875 in Montreal to a French-Canadian father and a mother who had English, German, and Irish blood.)

The Cooks are from the civil parish of Dromcolliher, Catholic parish Drumcollagher, County Limerick, Ireland where some children of James Cook and Mary Green were baptized. Their son Andrew, born 1842, came to Faribault, Minnesota. Andrew was followed by my great great grandfather, James Cook (born 1837) and wife Catherine (Kate) Moriarity. James and Catherine settled in Faribault with Kate's mother Ellen (Nellie). Eventually James and Kate and children moved to St. Paul. My great grandaunt used to tell us about connections to County Cork.

The bottom line is that I am almost 1/2 Irish. My youngest three grandchildren add a large dose of Irish blood from their Dad. Dougherty is just a bit Irish!