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 genealogy 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.
Filed under: Ireland | genealogy, griffiths evaluation, irish genealogy, irish roots|No Comments
Many thousands delight in the hobby and history of their family’s genealogies. In America, a land of immigrants, this search can take them through many countries and cultures. If you know what country your ancestors were from, then you are well on your way to climbing your family tree. If you have German genealogy to climb, you are in luck, more so than at any other time in history. There are many websites, hobbyist genealogists and German genealogy societies willing to help you out. Hopefully, then, you could help them or any other genealogists out with any information you might know.
No Monopoly
One of the attractive aspects of the genealogy hobby is that no one person or group has the sole monopoly of information. Everyone pretty much has to share what they’ve learned with everyone else. This means many gaps in family history trees can be filled because of mutual information sharing. With German genealogy, this is even more apparent. While you might want to discover about your ancestors, those you may be related to in Germany are trying to find out about those who left for America.
Get That Mouse Clicking
The best (and most cost efficient) place to begin tracing your German roots is online. Just type “German genealogy” in your favorite search engine, and a whole virtual world of resources come to your fingertips. One of the best places to start is The German Heritage and Genealogy Home Page http://www.daddezio.com/germgen.html, which includes a huge database of German family coat of arms, mourning cards and the New England Naturalization Petitions, which includes the names of a lot of German immigrants.
You can also use the web to find out other information about German genealogy and the times your ancestors lived. Despite the terrible ravages of two World Wars, some records still survive the centuries. These public genealogy records have been mostly transcribed to online sites. You can search marriage certificates, cemeteries for the resting places of your forbears, and the meticulous military records that survived the World Wars.
Other resources about German genealogy that can be found on the web include, believe it or not, online auctions such as eBay. They often have old journals or, even more importantly, family Bibles for sale. The Family Bible was, for centuries, the main record of European and American families. Often, the two or more blank front pages were the only pieces of blank paper in the home.
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Many people, mostly Americans, believe that every family was once issued a coat of arms and then everyone born with that family name automatically gets to use the same coat of arms. If you believe that, it is time to correct the myth.
NOTE: There is an exception. I am told that Samurai families in Japan do have family coats of arms although they do not resemble British or European coats of arms. In any case, if your ancestry is 100% Japanese Samurai, the rest of this article does not apply to you.
To begin with, coats of arms are never issued to families; they are issued to individuals. Coats of arms are issued by heralds and there are different heralds in each country in the United Kingdom and in Europe. A coat of arms is granted by the King of Arms in England and in Ireland, while the court of the Lord Lyon King of Arms grants that right in Scotland.
England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland have the most rigid system of heraldry (coats of arms). Other European countries do record and permit coats of arms, but do not restrict their use as much as do the English and the Scottish heralds. A repository called the College of Arms holds an official register of all granted coats of arms that exist in England and Wales.
The United States has never accepted the concept of nobility and therefore has no officially-recognized heralds. Several American organizations claim to be able to issue coats of arms but any such arms issued by an American organization have to be considered as “unofficial.” There is no official issuing body in the U.S. Most Americans who wish to obtain legitimate coats of arms apply first in the name of a foreign-born ancestor with the heralds in the country where that ancestor lived. The American descendant may then apply to use the ancestor’s coat of arms as his own as his “inherited right to arms.”
Throughout history, an individual could apply for a coat of arms and the heralds would decide whether or not to approve it. Coats of arms generally are issued to men although there are numerous exceptions. The Queen of England always has a coat of arms, as do many high-ranking officials. For instance, Margaret Thatcher was issued a coat of arms when she was prime minister.
In medieval days, coats of arms were issued only to knights and to noblemen as an emblem to be displayed on shields and on various banners for use in battle. After all, it was difficult to see through the eye slits in the helmets they wore and every soldier wanted to make sure he was swinging the broadsword at the enemy, not at his commanding officer. The brightly painted coats of arms helped identify the combatants back in the days before uniforms.
As the years passed and the battles decreased, a wealthy merchant class began to flourish and many merchants obtained coats of arms as well. So did clergymen, elected officials, and a few others. In every case, the coat of arms has always been issued to an individual, not to a family. You might find a coat of arms issued to someone with the same family name as yours, but that doesn’t mean that you are entitled to use the same arms.
When a man is entitled to display arms, his sons also may apply for coats of arms. Note that granting of coats of arms is not automatic, each person must apply. Sons usually are granted coats of arms that are very similar to their father’s but are changed slightly, to add some small detail that shows that this is the shield of their own branch of this particular family. If a man has multiple sons, each son applies for his own coat of arms with slight differences, even different from those of his brothers. The use of slightly modified coat of arms is called “differenced arms.”
When the father dies, the eldest son may then apply to use exactly the same coat of arms that his father used. Once granted, he stops using his differenced arms. His younger brothers continue to use their differenced arms, however.
Obtaining permission to use your deceased father’s coat of arms is not automatic. For instance, each King of England traditionally uses his own design and does not use that of his father.
There have always been a few instances in which women could inherit a coat of arms and to use them. However, a woman can not pass them along to her children unless she has no brothers. If this is the case, the woman owns the coat of arms, to pass along to her children, and she is considered to be the heraldic heiress to the coat of arms.
The wearing or display of coat of arms is restricted in most countries that recognize the ownership of coats of arms. There are no such restrictions in the United States; you may wear someone else’s coat of arms, if you wish to. Even the countries that do restrict usage rarely enforce such laws. Therefore, the sale of bogus “family coats of arms” is rarely stopped by the authorities.
In the countries that do restrict usage, only one person may use any particular coat of arms although a grantee’s sons or younger brothers might be using similar, but differenced, coats of arms, assuming they have applied for and received permission to use those differenced arms.
Did you ever receive an ad for “your family’s coat of arms?” That ad isn’t worth the paper it is printed on or the electrons used to display it on your computer screen. Regardless of your last name, you should display a particular coat of arms only if (1.) you have applied to the heralds for permission to display the particular arms and (2.) if such permission has been granted. Once that happens, you are the only person in the world authorized to display that coat of arms.
Displaying arms without proper authorization is a form of impersonation; you are trying to identify yourself as someone else. Legal or not, such impersonation is always in bad taste.
For authoritative information about heraldry (the display of coats of arms), I suggest you look at the following:
Polish Genealogy and Heraldry Society: http://www.feefhs.org/pol/frg-pghs.html
Luxembourg Society of Genealogy and Heraldry: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hotel_claravallis/genealog.htm#genealogy
Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies – Encompasses all aspects of genealogical and heraldic research, art and practice: http://www.ihgs.ac.uk
Heraldry Society of Scotland: http://www.heraldry-scotland.co.uk
Heraldry Australia, Inc. – Australian Heraldry Society: http://www.heraldryaustralia.org
Heraldiska Samfundet – Swedish academy for the science of heraldry and related subjects: http://www.heraldik.se
The Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry: http://www.bmsgh.org/
Scandanavian Heraldry Society: http://www.heraldik.org/
Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland: http://www.nli.ie/en/heraldry-introduction.aspx
The Augustan Society – An international genealogical, historical heraldic and chivalric society: http://www.augustansociety.org/
South African Heraldry: http://www.geocities.com/heraldrysa/
Heraldry Society of Sweden: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1284
Cambridge University Heraldic and Genealogical Society: http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/cuhags/
Russian College of Heraldry: http://www.armorial.ru
Slovak Genealogical-Heraldic Society: http://www.genealogy-heraldry.sk/
Heraldry in South Africa: http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~heraldry/page_optima.html
South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society Inc.: http://www.saghs.org.au
Royal Heraldry Society of Canada: http://www.heraldry.ca
The American College of Heraldry – a non-profit body with the aim of aiding in the study and perpetuation of heraldry in the United States and abroad: http://www.americancollegeofheraldry.org
Croatian Genealogical and Heraldic Society – CGHS: http://feefhs.org/cro/frg-cghs.html
CUHAGS – The Cambridge University Heraldry and Genealogy Society: http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/cuhags/
The Heraldry Society – The Heraldry Society exists to increase and extend interest in and knowledge of heraldry, genealogy, ceremonial and allied subjects: http://www.theheraldrysociety.com
The College of Arms – England. Holds the official register of all Coats of Arms or heraldry in England and Wales. Also grants arms to individuals and organizations: http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk
The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com
Filed under: Posts by Country | coat of arms, coat of arms england, coat of arms ireland, coat of arms scotland|No Comments
After a little over a month in creation of the Genealogy Soup Blog I have decided to make some changes to the format.
Because I would like to provide literally thousands of links to all the resources you may find useful, in a way that is organized and helps the most, I have realized that it is just too hard to put all the links on one page. So I am in the process of creating State and Country specific pages to help you to find the relevant information and links you need.
My frustration with links pages has very often been that you wander off somewhere and then cant find your way back, or they are organized in such a way as to make it difficult to figure out where to go next. After doing my own research for the last 20 odd years I want to try to make the task of researching much more relaxed.
Things can get funky during this process so bear with me as this may take a bit of time. As always if you have suggestions on articles, links, categories or would like the link to your personal website on one of these pages please let me know by sending me an email @ info@genealogysoup.com
This site is dedicated to everyone who has helped me along the way so your feedback will only make it better!
~To Your Roots
Filed under: - On a Personal Note | |No Comments
Where do you come from? Who were your grandparents’ parents? Or their parents? Have you ever asked those questions? These questions typically lead people to retrace their genealogy. One of the ways you can retrace your genealogy is through genealogy forums.
If you happen to retrace your roots to Ireland, then the Ireland genealogy forum is a great place to find out just where you came from. On the Ireland genealogy forum, you’ll meet other like minded people who, just like you, are wondering where you came from. You may even be related in some way to some of these people. You can trade stories, compare notes, and you can hopefully get deeper and deeper into your family history. That makes the Ireland genealogy forum an invaluable resource for your search into your family tree genealogy.
Rich History
Ireland’s rich history has much to uncover. If you are in fact from Ireland, then it’s worth it to trace your roots into that very history. When you sign onto the Ireland genealogy forum, you can introduce yourself and tell the others on the forum that you think you’re from Ireland, or that you know you’re from Ireland, and hopefully you’ll make a connection. By comparing notes with others and by sharing stories and histories that you’ve found, you can dig deeper into your family history. This is a great resource for discovering just who you are, and who your ancestors were, and how you came to be and how you arrived at where you live today.
Meeting Others
The best part about the Ireland genealogy forum is that you’ll meet other like minded people. Digging into your family’s history can be a very long and tedious practice, but it’s also very interesting. It can be a very lonesome process, as well. However, when you meet others who are into genealogy just like you, it’s very liberating and you can possibly uncover more history that you wouldn’t have otherwise.
Sometimes, when retracing your roots, you may hit a wall. You may find that you can’t dig anymore because of lack of records, or some other reason that prevents you from finding out just who your early ancestors were. However, when you sign onto a forum like the Ireland genealogy forum, you can possibly meet someone who has dug further from you and you just might meet a cousin or other relative of yours that you never knew existed. That’s what’s so fun about retracing your roots.
Filed under: Ireland | genealogy, Ireland, irish genealogy, irish roots|No Comments
