Search Results for: blog top ten irish surnames

Irish Hotel Offers “Genealogy Butler” Service

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Did your ancestors come from Ireland? Are you having difficulty tracking down vital records for them? Genealogists who are planning a trip to Ireland might want to see if they can book a room at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. They have a Genealogy Butler service. There is something very special about traveling to the country that your ancestors came from. Part of my family tree includes ancestors who came from Ireland. I remember when I was a little girl, and my grandmother sent me a postcard while she was on vacation in Ireland. I still have it today. About … Continue reading →

Are You Irish?

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St. Patrick’s Day is a day to celebrate your Irish heritage. One of the cool things about this holiday is that you don’t have to be Irish to celebrate it. Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, no matter where their ancestors originated from. Are you Irish? If you aren’t sure, there are some things that genealogists can do in order to find out. Start by taking a look at your surname. Certain letter combinations tend to indicate that your ancestors were Irish. If your last name starts with an O, like O’Leary, or O’Connor, then you most likely have … Continue reading →

Gifts for Your Irish Relatives

Are you Irish? I am one-quarter Irish, which means that quite a few of my relatives have Irish heritage, too. Every Christmas, we search for gifts to give each other that reflect, and celebrate, our Irish roots. Sometimes, we even start our Christmas shopping in March, around St. Patrick’s Day, when it’s easy to find a lot of Irish stuff. If you happen to be searching for gifts to give to your Irish relatives this year, I have some excellent suggestions. If you are searching for something fancy, you cannot possibly go wrong with a gift of Waterford crystal. Their … Continue reading →

Top Ten Irish surnames

Are you Irish? You might be if your surname happens to be one of the most common Irish surnames. As you are working on genealogy, you may discover that you have ancestors who came from Ireland. You might want to extend your search into Irish databases, to learn more about your relatives. I am an American with Irish heritage, even though I don’t happen to look very Irish. My married name is from English origin, and my maiden name is Swedish. I know I am Irish because one of my grandmothers spoke fluent Gaelic, and her surname was Darcy, (which … Continue reading →

Take an Online Genealogy Course

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Would you like to learn more about a particular aspect of genealogy? There is probably an online course that you can “attend” that will teach you what you want to know. Many of them do not require you to apply to a particular college or university in order to take the class, and some of them are offered for free. Family Tree University is not, technically, an accredited university. It is the name that Family Tree Magazine has given to its learning center. The online classes that genealogists take through FTU will enable them to learn a lot about a … Continue reading →

German Sausages

I really like food. I like food a lot. When I spent a semester in Europe there was only one time this miser freely opened his wallet: an open air, pre-holiday festival of food. I rounded a corner on a wintery day after stopping to visit an old church and happened upon a scene from a 1960’s Cary Grant spy chase scene. The smells were intoxicating and I went to the closest ATM, paid willingly the various service charges for withdrawing money in a foreign country, and got to eating. This was in Germany and the variety of sausages cooking … Continue reading →

Genealogy Tip: Try “Misspelling” Your Ancestors’ Names if You Hit a Brick Wall

Some of us with unique first or last names may be used to others misspelling them or mispronouncing them. If you are researching your family history, it is important to keep this in mind as you do your record searches. From census takers to immigration officials, humans have played a role in the recording of the documents that we rely on for genealogical research. Some records have been transcribed so that they are searchable on the internet, which is great, but it is important to remember that the transcribing of those records was done by; you guessed it, another human. … Continue reading →

Twitter Genealogy Resources for Outside the US

Twitter has more than genealogy resources that are relevant to the United States. You can also find genealogy related links to help extend your research into other countries. If working on your family tree has led you from somewhere in the United States to somewhere else in the world, these links might be useful in helping you learn about your ancestors. Here are some Twitter genealogy resources for outside the United States: @sandngenealogy is the Twitter name for S & N Genealogy. They are located in Chilmark, Wiltshire, in the UK. They tweet links to parish transcripts that have been … Continue reading →