family trees and roots

TravellingAbuela

Good luck Lulubelle but here is another warning! It becomes totally addictive, to the expense of anything else!!

Another free site not mentioned yet is www.british-genealogy.com. Lots of very helpful experts on the forum there.

milla

Liz33 wrote: »

Any one know the best way to search in Ireland i understand that a lot of there records have been lost i have be thinking about doing this for a while now?

Here is another good site !

http://www.census-online.com/links/Ireland/

old_grouser

I'm a professional family historian (of Irish descent) and from long and bitter experience I can tell you that there are really NO cheap and effective ways of researching Irish genealogy - unless you are very lucky, or spend a lot of time in Ireland (or, more probably both!). Most of the census records in Ireland were destroyed in a fire in Dublin in 1921 or thereabouts. Most of the pre-census records never existed anyway. Many of the records that do exist are inaccessible or turn out to be irrelevant for a whole variety of reasons. Many of the Irish genealogy portals on the web are aimed at the lucrative - and in my experience pretty gullible - Irish-American market, and are less helpful than they might be.
Most people of Irish descent living in England are the descendants of poor and often illiterate 19th Century immigrants, and the best we can hope for in establishing 'roots' is to find the part of Ireland that our ancestors came from - ideally the specific area (townland) but more likely just the county. Few of us will ever get any further than that; and even that is a considerable achievement. The best (cheap) way of doing this is to look at every English or Scottish census record you can access in the hope that (a) one of your ancestors told the census enumerator where they were born, and (b)the enumerator wrote it down instead of just putting 'Ireland'. This did happen. An even cheaper way is to look at the Irish Times genealogy website which will tell you the more likely locations for a particlar surname. You can spend thousands of pounds and still get no further than that! However, there are, paradoxically, many groups of people on the web who devote enormous amounts of time to helping others with their research. Some Irish county-based newsgroups are very good. If you know the name of the county that your ancestors probably came from, try looking for a newsgroup based on that county. Cyndi's list and Rootsweb are good places to start. I could go on... you need time, perseverance and a sense of proportion to tell you when to stop banging your head against the brick wall...but it can be very interesting, and occasionally wonderfully rewarding. One of my clients used to walk past a museum which had the same name as his, and wondered if he was related to the founder. (He was.) One of my clients believed that one of her ancestors might have come over with William the Conquerer. (She was wrong. The relevant ancestor WAS Wiliiam the Conqueror. She turned out to be descended from seven English kings and a couple of saints for good measure!) But these cases are rare, and even rarer if you have Irish blood in you...
Good Hunting, as we say!

TravellingAbuela

What an excellent post old grouser. Many thanks. We were trying to delve into my husband's family history - they originated in County Sligo. We were fortunate in that we knew the name of the village they came from and decided to take a holiday in Ireland and visit the village. Village is an exaggeration, it was more a tiny cluster of houses! We were so lucky to get talking to a very elderly lady who knew a good deal about the history of the "settlement" and even knew of the family and where they lived in the mid 1800's!! She took us to see the ruins of the house they all lived in and it brought the past alive for us. My husband was absolutely delighted with our findings but it's just unfortunate that that is the furthest back we are going to get!

dzug1

kittie wrote: »

I thought that I would start looking for my paternal roots as I have no knowledge whatsoever, having a father from Poland who fought in the Polish army from 1939 to 1947. He was exiled and couldn`t return home and never spoke about the dreadful times he had, fighting his way through Normandy up to Germany.

What a long time-consuming journey this is. £10 here and there £30 elsewhere etc. So expensive and also very emotional

What I am saying is maybe, if you are contemplating doing the same, have a think re the costs in money and in emotions. I have learnt that my gentle kind father had to battle his way out of Falaise probably with bayonets and he never ever got to see his parents and two siblings again before they died. Very sad stuff and it keeps me awake when I think about it.

Sometimes it is best not to know about the past when it is so personal

I see where you are going - but surely the emotions are the reason for doing it in the first place. Not a lot of point otherwise.