Irish Americans (Irish: Gael-Mheiriceánach) are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 35,975,855 Americans (12% of total population) reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey.

In a two part series Feargal O’Donnell of RootsIreland dispels some of the myths of records available or soon to be and discusses some amazing nuances about researching your Irish family tree.

He also gives a few tidbits of information that you can work with that you may not have been aware of because of the knowledge that the “native” Irish who are transcribing the records have that you and I don’t.

If you are of Irish decent and have found all the records that you can through the most common sites on the web I would encourage you to take a look at the site. While the records are not free, finding that one person’s record that has you stumped may unlock the door to your Irish Roots.

Roots Ireland – Part 1

Roots Ireland – Part 2

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.

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.