The Cooper's Daughter:Irish Genealogy Experts

It appears to be a few years since I last posted 😅. Lots of brick walls broken in genealogy and adoptees reunited with birth family using DNA. I’ll try to post a little more regularly with tips and tricks.

Your family tree is progressing at speed.. so many directions to take. Your ancestor blessed with the unusual name of Napoleon Clippityclop grabs your attention. He married Mary Kelly and she is added to the tree and left hanging there all alone. She is an addition to Napoleon but not worthy in her own right. Nothing came before her and only Clippityclops succeed her. Hints of other Kellys lurk in baptisms and marriage records but with names like John and Margaret they fade from your mind.

Are you missing a trick? You're damn right. Harder to research..surely. Less worthy..hell no. In my experience the very interesting named characters ,although easier to find, were just getting through life.. not much to report! Mary Kelly however was a suffragette, she came from a family of rebels and her grandmother hid weapons for the Fenians. Mary Kelly was the dominant family figure, her grandfather with a forgettable John Kelly title saved a child who fell in the canal or served in the Crimean War.. He went every summer from Wexford aboard ships to Canada for seasonal fishing work, eventually lived there for several years intending to bring his family but ended up returning home.

What stories do you hold Mary Kelly? Does your name obscure the vivid history your family holds? Murphy, Kelly, Byrne, Reilly.. leave no ancestor behind. Everyone has a story waiting to be retold.

Think outside the box! Your ancestors may have led a more colourful life than you have given them credit for. Many people I talk to seem very surprised to think that their family ever left the local village! In truth, thousands of Irish served in the British army in places such as India, Egypt, Canada and the West Indies.

Many men returned to Ireland having spent more time abroad than they had ever spent in Ireland. Others joined the Royal Navy and sailed the world. As commercial ships pulled into Irish ports for a final restocking before sailing across the Atlantic many youngsters went to sail for seasons and returned back to their homeland. If any of these ancestors left a lasting legacy behind, you may have relations in places you never expected!

Upon discharge from the army, many men returned to live in the lands they had just left. An intended place of residence in Bermuda or India was not an uncommon sight.

Emigration was not always a one way ticket. In my tree, many family members lived in America for a while before returning to the family farm ( often as a result of a clause in the family will! ). If you cannot find a family member, try looking further afield. You might be surprised where you find them...

The lack of a full surviving census for Ireland in the 19th century means that us researchers have to dig a little deeper. Griffiths Valuation is probably the most famous substitution. It records heads of houseland and related to the payment of tithes. It was taken between 1848 and 1864. Ask about Ireland is a free website that allows you to search by name or place name. It even has a cool feature where you can overlay the original maps with modern google maps. Very handy if you are hoping to visit your ancestral home. http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

Griffith's Valuation For a more powerful placename search, and to find everyone who lived in a particular place, use the Place Name Search option.

From the Power and Privilege collection at the National Photographic Archive several years ago. They have an amazing collection of photographs and admission is free. The current collection is "working lives". Find them at Meeting House Square, Temple Bar!

Beautiful colour photographs of Dublin city in 1961 by Charles Cushman. I tried spotting my grandparents....just incase! but no luck there :)
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/colourful-city-bringing-bygone-dublin-back-to-life-1.1658134

Colourful city: bringing bygone Dublin back to life Cushman Collection capturing images of the capital city in 1961 goes on display at the Little Museum of Dublin

I wouldn't mind this lovely tea van popping by now. Would love a cup of tea!

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/in-st-patricks-footsteps/query/Mayo

My father lived a few km from the mountain. He would have been 10 at the time. Are my grandparents climbing with him in this video? Always new things to discover...

IN ST. PATRICK'S FOOTSTEPS British Pathe, the world's leading multimedia resource with a history stretching back over a century. The finest and most comprehensive archive of fabulous footage and stunning stills.

In 1928 the St. Vincent de Paul Charity set up The Sunshine Fund. They took children from the dark and dirty Dublin tenements and brought them on excursions so they could play in the open air, away from their worries at home.

Traditionally in an Irish family the first male was to be named after the grooms father, the second after the brides father and the third after the groom...but this varied. The same often occurred for the girls in the family, named after the mothers of both parties. For different reasons the naming pattern was often varied. One of the most common reasons was to name the child after a sibling who had recently died. When the groom came from elsewhere and moved into the homeland of the bride, I often find the first born son acquires the name from the female side first. Did your family follow the naming pattern?

Barge on the canal late 1950s at Clanwilliam Place Dublin. A lovely picture from the IWAI.

Who says accountants and auditors are boring? here is one who has a more artistic side aswell!

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000035515/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000035515/