Did your ancestors come across the sea from Ireland ? Irish Roots Project

Question

Or did they stay in Erins Green Isle ?   Either way the Irish Roots Project may be of interest to you.  You can find us at http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Irish_Roots.     If you are already one of the 150 or so members of this lively project we would love to hear what discoveries you have made or what you are currently working on.  If you would like to join the project just let me know.  

Céad míle fáilte (100, 000 welcomes)

Comments

My great grandmother (Bridget Elizabeth Fox) came over in 1888 when she was 14 years old,as per census forms. I think I've traced her baptism to July 24,1874 in Dublin but been unable to get more info on her parents, John Fox and Mary Thornton or any siblings. Any help would be appreciated.

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Did she come with them? You can check immigration, ship records, census from where she was in 1890, 1900 as she may show up with family. From there see if there are any death certificates or marriage certificates for people with the Fox surname wherever she ended up settling in America. Hope that helps. The Irish records seem like they  are still being put online. You can check and see if there are other Baptisms for the same surname in Dublin to see if there are others who may be related. Hope that helps. Ireland is a tough one for research.Good luck!

Answer 1

I love Ireland, and went there twice. One of those times I took two days of a 9 day trip to research. The only family I was able to trace "across the pond" is my Rowley line to County Longford (center of the country). Records for the family appear to stop with the father who didn't come over, Hugh Rowley.

My Duffy line stops in Pennsylvania, Charles born about 1800 in Ireland. Charles went to Summit County, Ohio and was the first to attempt citizenship there (first on the list!). Those citizenship records appear to have been lost, so any gleanings as to his origin are also lost. I haven't given up, I'm just on pause for now. I've annoyed the local library, county records office, Ohio Historical Society, Summit OGS, and loads of others there for a while.

I wish you all luck!

Comments

Thanks Barbara, and  may the luck of the Irish be with you too :)

Answer 2

I've been searching for the ancestry of my 3G-grandfather [[Walsh-3173 | Thomas Walsh]].  I had previously known only his name, that he was born in Ireland, and worked as a tenant farmer in feudal Prince Edward Island.  After years of working with inadequate paper records, I am excited about a genetic clue.  I recently found a cluster of five genetic distant cousins on 23andMe sharing at least one gene segment of 9 to 15 cM and two segments of 5 to 9 cM. Two have known ancestry in County Leitrim on Sligo Bay at about the time of Thomas' birth around 1790, and two are Canadians including a confirmed 3rd cousin descendant of Thomas.  Of over two hundred distant cousin matches on 23andMe, I have not previously found such a consistent pattern of short segment gene matching; and I hypothesize it represents a small gene pool from that area of Ireland.  We are compiling known family surnames of that time and place including Cannon, Clancy, Maxwell, Mulrooney and Sweeney.

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OMG AL how exciting.   You now have my full attention as you list Maxwell as one of your surnames.   How do you intend adding this to WikiTree?  See http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Maxwell_Name_Study  my Maxwell  in Ireland One Name Study.   Might be of interest to you.    Good luck to you indeed and thanks for sharing this with us.

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At present, the profile includes only paper sources, but with a note summarizing the "genetic evidence."  Assuming such information becomes available, I would propose to flesh this genetic evidence out citing specific lineages of individual profiles sharing chromosome segments identified by chromosome number and base-pair boundaries.

The question of whether these chromosome segments might be coincidentally "identical by state" (IBS) recombinations rather than "identical by descent" (IBD) copies from a single ancestor might be a judgement call based on the cM length of the segment(s) shared by the identified descendants.  Longer gene segments would presumably represent higher confidence levels.

Number of shared gene segments is a more complicated issue.  I understand a gene segment of 7 cM is considered to be IBD with about 50% confidence; although that varies with the populations involved.  Small gene pools may have increased probability of IBS recombinations.  I suggest multiple short segments might be regarded as evidence of a shared gene pool rather than an individual ancestor, with the confidence of an individually identified profile depending on the single longest segment; although areas seldom cleaved during gamete production (such as the centromeres) might require more careful evaluation.

Useful time interval for genetic matches is limited by assumed statistics for chromosome cleavage during reproduction. I understand identifiable gene segments will be shared by virtually 100% of first cousins, 99% of 2nd cousins, and 90% of 3rd cousins.  Common chromosome cleavage locations indicate sharing probability drops off sharply for more distant relationships: fewer than half of 4th cousins, about 15% of 5th cousins, about 5% of 6th cousins, and one percent or fewer of more distant cousins.

This usually means we probably will not share genealogically useful gene segments with more than half of cousins through ancestors born more than about 120 years before we were.  Genealogists able to obtain a sequenced genome of their oldest ancestor will be able to start that 120 year count (actually 4 generations) from the birth of the ancestor who provided that genome.

Answer 3

My Grandmother's parents both came from Ireland. She was Anna Cecile Cashman b. either on the boat to the USA or right after in New Hampshire Bb.10/20/1890 to Great Grandfather John Cashman b.03/15/1834 Cork, Ireland died in New Hampshire, USA 01/15/1912 woh married two Irish wives  both from Ireland = #1-? and #2 my Great Grandmother Mary Ellen Donahue b.11/10/12864 in Ireland and d.12/25/1931 in New Hampshire, USA.   Having trouble finding ancestors past these.  Do know John Cashman's father was Timothy Cashman b. in 1803 in Ireland andhe died in New Hampshire, USA in 1860 and might have been married to a Mary Murphy...   Woukd be great to find out more information.   Sandra Colby (Giroux) Bowman

Comments

Thanks Sandra.

Answer 4

I know that the Hehirs arrived in Boston, MA in the 1850s, whereas some of the Maloneys arrived in New York. Only Daniel Maloney arrived with his wife, Margaret Hehir in Boston, MA in 1854. As for the Doyles, John and Margaret arrived in Boston on April 15, 1825.  James Maloney stayed behind and died in Ireland.

Comments

Thanks Tanya.

Answer 5

Yes, indeed. I have three lines, a convict, two free settlers and an ex-soldier who was part of the Fencible Militia formed to protect Auckland NZ during the Maori Wars. Would love to find out more about their ancestry but have hit the usual hurdles for Irish genealogy. Sadly.

Oops...there are four. A lady from Birr, Co Offaly.