Researching my Irish heritage

[AngusGibson]

I certainly hope I'm posting this in the correct part of the forum.

As I've stated many a times, I am part-Irish. That is nearly all that I know (other than being part-Scottish, British, and Spanish as well).

Here's what else I know:
My surname, Gibson, is Scottish, but can be found in England and in Ireland. My mother's maiden name, Ross, is also Scottish. My maternal grandmother's maiden name is Holmes, which comes from many places.
Here's where I get a majority of my Irishness: my paternal grandmother's maiden name is Griffin. Here's what wikipedia has to say about it:

The surname "Griffin" has two primary Gaelic sources in Ireland, which pertain to the towns of Ballygriffey in Co. Clare, and Ballygriffin in Co. Kerry. The spelling "Ó Gríobhtha" is associated with the Co. Clare family, whose surname was also anglicised as "O'Griffey" or "Griffey". "Ó Gríobhtha" translates to English as "descendant of the Griffin-like". The "Ó Griffín" spelling belongs to the Kerry family. In Ireland, the name can also be associated with the Norman surname "Griffith", but to a much lesser degree. (O'Laughin 1997) The surname Griffin is of patronymic origin.

Sooner or later, I'll ask my grandmother about how far back she has traced her ancestry, because for me, this is as far as it goes.

Anyways, I posted this just for your enjoyment. Probably a majority of you don't really care. :-)

EDIT:
WOOHOO! My grandmother apparently had been doing the donkey work for me!

She used Ancestry.com and traced our roots back to the 1400's. It is CONFIRMED! I am, indeed IRISH!

Now adding to the known countries of which my ancestry finds itself:
Ireland
Scotland
Germany
Wales
England
Spain

[raven_christina]

I still think we could be related. Gibson is my maternal mother's name, and my grandpa's family goes back a lonnnng time. I'll have to see if I can find out.
I, personally, think geneaology is awesome.

[zankoku]

The farthest back I have been able to go is about 1850 about the time the family changed the name from the Irish to English pronunciation. I am still researching

Keep researching. Ask Maggie, She is a boon to researchers.

Jim.

[Ggunsailor]

Wow!

[kathleen]

I have started researching my family heritage as well. Both sides of my family boast Irish, English and Scottish names.

Census and Migration/Immigration records help. The US did census reports about every ten years. Migration records and Military records are neat and can place people certain places in time.  Family bibles and older relatives are a great source for names and dates. I have joined a web site with records...Ancestory.com. My family has several books printed on family...names etc......

my problem...I can get to the mid 1700's and most are here in the US by then. LOL.... I can place both maternal families in South Carolina. On the paternal side, to North Carolina. But I can't trace back to the migration here. Seems Census and Migration records are scant at best durring the 1700's or earlier.  So I will continue to dig.

For me...I am an American...but with a wonderful mix of a past. Just want to know what it is!

Good luck Angus...let me know what you find!

[Ggunsailor]

I am totally interested in what you find! Keep going, man!

[zankoku]

Try church records. Sometimes you can find out if there was a church in the town they lived in. When my Dad was researching our ancestors, he got t letter from a lady who was following the descendents of the church founders.  Turns out they were writing a book and my great great grandfather was the founder in 1838. There was also a bio that started with his father back in 1745. So when the book came out, almost the first half was our family history with pictures. Several of the pictures resembled Abe Lincoln. (There were in Pennsylvania). You never know where your ancestor might show up.

[Jeanine]

I also am part Irish (though I fear I'm several generations away) and Scottish as well as French, English, and Dutch.  I've been doing some searching but lack a lot of needed information on my dad's side of the family which is where I know for sure the Irish side comes in.  I'm at a standstill right now with it unfortunately. Hopefully somewhere along the way I'll uncover the info. I need to find out the details I want to learn.

[anything4Chloe]

My grandmother, Rita O'Keefe, is Irish, came to America from Ireland in the 40's. But otherwise I'm Polish. My wife's family has Irish heritage, so my kiddies have a good ratio too.

I have thought about researching my genealogy too... would be interesting.

[Ggunsailor]

Okay, from what I know, my maternal grandmother's family is Britlish (Thames) and German (Meyer), my paternal grandmother's is Irish (Jones), and my father's is Italian. But I know there's some French in the family, too.
So I'm basically French, German, Italian, Irish, and British; as my great grandfather used to say "Heinz 57 sauce" .
Our family has been here since the 1800s, I think. I'll have to look at the family history again.

[zankoku]

One great place is teh LDS (Mormon) Geneological library in utah. You can usually find a Mormon library in communities that have Stakes. You can search at their local and as I remember, they can get the information from the main library. You don't have to be Mormon to use it either.I believe it is free also.

My Mom and Dad went to Utah several times to check teh records. Once my Grandmother was with them and she was ticked when she left. They had looked up the census that showed taht she was a year OLDER than she thought she was.

Jim

[Maggie]

A word about Irish names and ancestors....

(By the way, by "Irish" I mean born in Ireland.)

Your ancestor may have been Irish, even if their name was not.
For example....Jones is a Welsh name, but if they moved to Ireland and their children were born there,
the children were Irish.

Also, when researching your Irish ancestry, it is not enough to know the full name, unless you also know the village or town,
and the time frame, within a year or two.

With a common Irish name there are just too many branches to pin it down.
The only sure way is to ask parents, grandparents, or older family members for any information that might help.
Who kept the birth / marriage / death certificates?  Where can you get copies?
Was there a family bible with names etc inside?

[Ggunsailor]

Check out church records; they'll have a whole ton of stuff.

[Maggie]

Check out church records; they'll have a whole ton of stuff.

You can only check them if you already know exact names, dates etc.
You have to know which Parish your ancestors were registered in.
If you plan on contacting the Church where they worshipped, you will not be able to browse the records,
there are too many volumes and they must be handled carefully.
The good news is many records have been digitally recorded and are available online, usually for a fee.

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/records/index.htm

As I have mentioned before, when the Penal Laws were imposed on the Irish people, they naturally did not trust the British, so they gave them either inaccurate information or no information at all.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11611c.htm

QUOTE:
A general word of warning about civil registration:
A certain proportion of all three categories, births, marriages and deaths, simply went unregistered. It is impossible to be sure how much is not there, since the thoroughness of local registration depended very much on local conditions and on the individuals responsible, but experience in crosschecking from other sources such as parish and census records suggests that as much as 10 to 15 per cent of marriages and births simply do not appear in the registers.


There are many Family Heritage Centres around Ireland, also County Libraries which store information.

Here is one example:
http://mayo.irishroots.net/

[Maggie]

Here's another resource for you, the General Registry office in Dublin.
You can go and search the indexes there for a reasonable fee, but again you have to know
who you are looking for. If you don't have exact names with correct spelling, and the year (give or take 3 years)
you would be wasting your time.
http://www.groireland.ie/
This tells you about searching their records:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/records/state/

An example of having the correct spelling.....I just did a test search for my grandmother (I already know her details)
Her first name on her Birth certificate is Honora, on her Marriage Certificate it's Honor.
There were 6 unrelated babies with the same first & last name as her, all born in the same year in North Mayo.
If I hadn't known her parents names or which townland they lived in, I would have been lost.