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Reconnecting with your Irish Ancestry Facebook, Blog, & social media
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Researching your Irish surname There is a lot of information available online about Irish surnames, their meanings, their origins, and their distribution in Ireland. This is covered in the section below and will give you some useful background information that will help you identify some possible or probable locations for where your Irish ancestors came from in Ireland - your so-called Irish Ancestral Homeland. It may help to organise your research under several headings and there are some suggestions below, but it is up to you - the choice is yours. Distribution within the Caribbean It can be useful to study the distribution of your surname within the Caribbean as this might give you clues as to where it first arrived. It may be that your Irish surname is localised exclusively to a particular island. Below is a table with links to the telephone directories of most of the Caribbean islands. Just click on a name to be taken to the telephone directory for that particular country. You may wish to copy and paste the table into your own document and enter the number of people with your surname in the column to the right of each country. Also look up the known spelling variants of your surname - for example, if you are a Sweeney, you should also look up the variants Sweeny, Swiney, MacSween, McSweeney, and MacSwiney. Even though the spelling is different, these may still be your cousins!
Origins, Meaning, & Early History (1200-1600) A good place to start searching for background information on your surname is Wikipedia. There will be links to other websites, references, and sources such as Clan websites which will usually have a detailed history of your surname, it's meaning, and where it originated. Specific websites that may prove useful include:
Many books have been written on Irish surnames and their pedigrees over the past 150 years or so. Some are available online via Google books, including:
End of the Gaelic Clans (1600-1700) The 1600's were a tumultuous time in Irish history marked by the Catholic Rebellion of 1641 and the subsequent conquest of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell. The old Gaelic clans were finally brought under the control of the English. Many people lost their land during this time, others fled Ireland and went into exile, some sold themselves as indentured servants, and others were sent as slaves to the Caribbean and the new American Colonies. There are two excellent websites (both run by Trinity College, Dublin) that help tell the story of your family's surname during this time. You can check if anyone with your surname appeared in the depositions relating to the 1641 Rebellion, and details of any transfer in land ownership is beautifully described on The Down Survey of Ireland. This will help tell you where your family held land, the name of the local area, and it's location in both historical and present day maps. Another useful free online source is the 1659 census which nicely compliments the other two sources. Later history (1800-1900) The 1700's represents a large genealogical gap for Ireland - it is the "silent century". There are much fewer records available for this period than there are for the 1800's and 1900's. For many Irish people, they can trace their family tree back to 1800 but no further. The situation may be similar for many people with Caribbean heritage. However, resources that can prove helpful for performing a general search for your family name include:
Searching for specific Irish people If you want to look for a specific person, the various resources available include the following: Births, Marriages, & Deaths
Census records (& Census substitutes)
Newspapers & Books
Burial records
Pre-1800 records These are relatively scarce and few are available online. We have mentioned the 1641 depositions and the 1670 Down Survey above. You can find what additional records are available at the following websites:
The emphasis on the above records is those that are essential for starting your family tree and those that are free of charge. Other sources are available online and you will find a useful list of these on the Irish Ancestors website and in the Google Books version of John Grenham's Tracing your Irish Ancestors (3rd edition, 2006).
How did your family get to the Caribbean? Write your own story. Or has someone done it for you? Do a Google search for any online family trees or message boards that might already contain your relatives. The best way to do this is go to www.google.com and enter "genealogy: " and then the name of one of your ancestors (the rarer the name the better - Ermintrude Alicia McSweeney would be a good start). If there is an online tree with him/her in it, or a message board query from someone already researching your family, or a relevant record, then it should come up in your search. DNA testing & your surname To check if anyone with your surname has already been DNA-tested, and to see if there is a DNA project associated with your surname, go to www.familytreedna.com and enter your surname (and its variants) in the box below "Search Your Last Name" (on the right side of the home page). Be sure to click on any links that come up to explore further.
Researching your Irish Surname Irish surnames in the Caribbean
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1) LDS stands for Latter Day Saints, an abbreviation of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormons. They have created a huge genealogical resource, particularly for Caribbean records, and as well as running the free genealogical website www.familysearch.org, they also have many Family History Centres throughout the world where you can order and view microfilmed records from Ireland and the Caribbean going back to the 1600's. Check out their website for more info. 2) The following gives a summary of the Irish BMD records that are available via your local LDS centre. Some of these microfilm reels will have to be ordered and this may take up to 6 weeks. However, this service is free. Any records that fall outside of these years will have to be ordered via the GRO at 4 euro per record.
Maurice Gleeson May 2013 |
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