Mary Lane's family has a 250-year-old shamrock plant.
Lane’s ancestors brought the original over from Ireland in 1751 “to have a piece of Ireland,” and the family has shared bulbs from the line since then.
“It’s the best inheritance you can have,” she said last week at her home. “It’s an heirloom that can be passed down through the generations, and everyone can get some.” [Link]
Members of the famed Guinness brewing family had their DNA tested to confirm their ancestor Arthur Guinness's claim that he descended from the Magennis chieftains of Iveagh, in County Down. It turns out that he descended from "the subsidiary McCartan clan, a far less eminent family."
The book [Arthur's Round: The Life And Times Of Brewing Legend Arthur Guinness] explains that where Arthur's genuine ancestors, the McCartans, once lived is a small village called Guiness or Ginnies.
The name of which is derived from the Irish Gion Ais, meaning wedge-shaped ridge -- thus clarifying the roots of the famous surname.
However, the pretensions arose when Arthur Guinness married in 1761 and engraved a silver cup with the armorial bearings of the Magennises of Iveagh -- a lion, with the red hand of Ulster, and a boar. [Link]
The 1911 Census of Dublin, Ireland, went online today. It may be searched or browsed by place.
On Sunday, April 2nd, 1911, a 28-year-old maths professor called "Edward de Valera" filled out his census form at home at Morehampton Terrace in Dublin. Across town, Oliver St John Gogarty did the same. In the marital status column he wrote "single", then crossed it out and replaced it with "married", apparently remembering Martha, his wife of five years.
Some entries are missing, of course. They include those for the suffragettes Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, Anna Haslam and Louie Bennett, all members of the Irish Women's Franchise League, who decided to boycott the census in protest at not having the vote.
When a policeman interrupted one of their meetings on the night before census day to remind them that it was illegal not to fill out the form, the women told him they had arranged for airplanes and submarines to remove them from the soil of Ireland for the night of April 2nd. [Link]
Lisa at Small-leaved Shamrock has announced the birth of a bouncing baby blog carnival.
If you have a blog about your own Irish genealogy or about Irish heritage and culture in general, you are invited to participate.If the only story you can think of concerns a man named "Paddy O'Furniture," keep thinking. The deadline for the first edition is November 19.
Our first edition will be about something everybody loves: a good story. What is your favorite Irish story? Show us that you've got the gift of blarney. Here's the specific request:Of all of the colorful Irish characters that you've learned about throughout your search for family history or your study of Irish heritage in general, surely you've come across some good stories. Share your favorite story about an Irish ancestor or other Irishman or Irishwoman with us on this, the inaugural edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.
Robert De Niro says he wants to investigate his Irish ancestry.
What were the full names of his Irish-American great-grandparents?
Extra credit if you can trace his Irish heritage one more generation through either of these great-grandparents.
Actor John Hurt was disappointed to learn that his ancestors were not Irish aristocrats. In fact, they weren't Irish at all.
He felt so close to the country that he even moved there for a spell. Now he can no longer be included in the roll call of great Irish actors.
"As far as I was concerned I was Irish," he said. "My disappointment was that they had managed to prove that the one thing I thought I did have was Irish blood and I haven't got any." [Link]
Paris Hilton reportedly will attend the Flat Lake Festival later this month in Ireland, where she will research her family tree and find out if she's related to British pop star Lily Allen. Kevin Allen—Lily's uncle and one of the festival's organizers—says, "We believe Paris wants to come to the festival which is at my in-laws' place at Hilton Park, to check out her Irish ancestry. They may be related."
A tongue-in-cheek notice on the Festival website provides other, even more dubious details:
More plausible rumors have it that Paris's great-grandfather was some German-Norwegian innkeeper named Conrad Hilton. She does, though, have Irish ancestry.We've ... been informed today of a glamorous visitor to the Festival. After receiving nationwide press interest in the Damien Hirst Art charity auction, We've extended an invitation to Paris Hilton. Sources close to the American star say that Hirst is her favourite conceptual artist and that she may bid for the Hirst painting entered into the auction.
Due to us banning telephone bids though, Miss Hilton will have to personally make the trip to Hilton where she could also confirm an ancestral link to Hilton Park country. Rumour has it that her great grandfather, oil tycoon, Waylon Hilton, is a descendent of the Hilton dynasty. By accessing the family archives she could well return to the US with clear evidence of her illustrious family lineage.
Church of Ireland rector Stephen Neill says he has found Barack Obama's ancestral village in Ireland. It's a place called Moneygall in Co. Offaly.
Update: Megan has more details on the search for Obama's roots. The records found by Canon Neill were the final piece of the puzzle she and her Ancestry.com cohorts had been working on since the Senator's Irish heritage was first revealed in March."I would be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this is categorical evidence of Mr Obama's link to this part of the world," said the rector.
It was initially believed the would-be president's third great grandfather Fulmuth Kearney was the only one of his family to have sailed from Ireland to New York aged 19 in 1850. But the newly-uncovered records show other family members had in fact emigrated to America since the 1790s. [Link]
Tom Cruise is looking to buy land in Ireland supposed to have once been owned by his ancestors.
Umm, make that his great-great-grandfather Dylan Henry Mapother, who emigrated in 1850. Correct country of origin, though!Mr Cruise is believed to have visited the area around Kilteevan three years ago as he traced his Irish roots.
The Collateral star was born Tom Cruise Mapother IV in New York in 1962.
The small ruined cottage included as part of the sale of the farm was once occupied by members of the Mapother family, and Mr Cruise's great grandfather Thomas is said to have emigrated from Roscommon to America in the early part of the last century. [Link]
St. Patrick's Day passed by without notice here at The Genealogue, so allow me to offer belatedly this story of the death of an Irish gentleman named (not surprisingly) Paddy.
His wife went to the newspaper to place his obituary. The newsman said the cost was $1 a word.
"I only have $2," Mrs. Paddy said. "Just print 'Paddy died.'"
The newsman decided that old Paddy deserved more. He gave her three extra words at no charge.
"A kind man you are," said Mrs. Paddy. "Print me husband's obituary this way: 'Paddy died. Boat for sale.'" [Link]
Sharon Shea Bossard has come to cherish her Irish ancestry and has even "acquired a slight brogue," despite the miserable St. Patrick's Days of her youth.
Her mother, Helen Shea, dutifully would fasten green satin ribbons to her four children’s school uniforms. That evening she would cook a traditional meal of potatoes and cabbage, pour herself a little whiskey and then play Irish melodies on the piano – alone.
Sharon’s father, Michael, headed straight for the local tavern from his job at a meat-packing plant and never showed up until late at night. He was distant and mysterious, his life locked behind pursed lips and vague references to the past.
“The only advice (my mother) ever gave me was: ‘Never marry an Irishman.’” [Link]
I learned through Irish Roots Cafe of a provocative new article by Emily Heinlen called "Genealogy and the economic drain on Ireland: Unintended consequences."
Heinlen argues that digitizing genealogical records has had the negative effect of discouraging people from traveling to Ireland and spending money. As more records have gone online, she says, fewer genealogy tourists have made the trip. The number of visits actually increased from 1999 to 2000, but dropped by almost a quarter in 2001, and remained stagnant through 2004.
I'm curious why she fails to address the obvious explanation for a precipitous drop in tourism in 2001. Given the aftereffects of 9/11, I'm not sure that the correlation between digitization and lack of tourists is as strong as Heinlen needs it to be. (You can check out Irish visit stats for all classes of tourist here.)
That being said, some of Heinlen's recommendations to raise more genealogy tourism revenue are worth a read. And listen to the January 30 Irish Roots Cafe Podcast for an interview with the author.
Update: Megan says She's Got It Backwards on her Roots Television blog.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has the freakish ability to detect distant Irish ancestry. Aussie Dominic Dunne met her at a book-signing in Washington, just after a group of Irish tourists.
After the Irish family had their book signed, I approached the altar and stood before the high priestess, who said perfunctorily: "How are you?", as she started to scribble her name, without extending so much as a glance in my direction.
"Very well thank you, Senator. How are you?" She suddenly looked up, taken, I assumed, by my Australian accent.
"Oh, very well, thank you!" she said, looking me in the eye. She signed the book and off I walked, overhearing her say to her assistant, "Everyone's from Ireland tonight".
I wanted to turn around and say: "Senator, you either know nothing or you're very perceptive. I speak with not a scintilla of an Irish accent, yet somehow you can detect my Irish roots." However, I feared her minders would remove me before I had the chance to explain that my ancestors lived in County Kildare. [Link]
A third of United Kingdom residents suffer from "plastic paddy syndrome," according to a recent survey. There is no known cure.
The survey, commissioned by Rankin Selection Irish Breads, found that nearly half of all English, Scottish, and Welsh people would prefer to be Irish.
Welsh emerged as the least popular with only 13% choosing it, while English was just in front with 14%. Scottish came second with a modest 29%.
A mutual love between the Irish and Scottish was also revealed with 58% of Scottish people choosing to be Irish and 72% of Irish people opting to be Scottish. [Link]
An article in The Irish Echo examines the different ways black Americans have dealt with their positively Irish surnames and possibly Irish ancestries.
These days, some prominent African-Americans, including Detroit's mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, are keen to make a public proclamation of their Irish background. Kilpatrick is reported to once have wryly described himself as America's first "6-foot, 6-inch Irish African American" mayor.
Still, not all black celebrities are rushing to wrap themselves in Irishness. "I'm not Irish," basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal informed the New York Times on St. Patrick's Day 2003. "I'm from the Brick City - Newark, New Jersey - and don't pinch me on the butt if I'm not wearing green." [Link]
From Reuters.com:
Scientists discover most fertile Irish male
Tue Jan 17, 2006
By Siobhan Kennedy
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Scientists in Ireland may have found the country's most fertile male, with more than 3 million men worldwide among his offspring.
The scientists, from Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that as many as one in twelve Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th-century warlord who was head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland.
His genetic legacy is almost as impressive as Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor who conquered most of Asia in the 13th century and has nearly 16 million descendants, said Dan Bradley, who supervised the research.
[snip]
[Read the whole story]
From Yahoo! News:
Ireland-Canada deal will put census online for 70 million
Tue Dec 6, 7:20 AM ET
DUBLIN (AFP) - Details of two 100-year-old Irish censuses are to go online for an estimated 70 million people around the world who claim a connection with the country, Heritage Minister John O'Donoghue revealed.
Under a new cultural agreement between the Irish and Canadian archive offices, all the details of Ireland's census in 1901 and 1911 are to be indexed and made available for free on the Internet.
[snip]
The 1901 census is the earliest surviving such document for all the 32 counties of the island, including the six in British-ruled Northern Ireland.
The data from previous censuses dating back to 1821 were either deliberately destroyed, pulped during World War I because of a paper shortage or were lost in a fire at Dublin's Public Records Office during the country's civil war in 1922.
[Read the whole story]
From Scotsman.com of Oct. 18, 2005:
Most famous living Scot 'is an Irishman'
SIR Sean Connery, probably the most famous Scotsman alive today, is in fact Irish, according to new research.
His great grandfather was a tinker from Wexford, the research released today shows.
Ironically the Irish accent he used in the 1987 film the Untouchables playing Chicago cop Jim Malone was voted the worst accent of all time in a poll.
[snip]
[Read the whole story]
Serious researchers of Irish genealogy have long depended on the eight volumes of The Search for Missing Friends: Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in the Boston Pilot, edited by Ruth-Ann Mellish Harris, Donald M. Jacobs, and B. Emer O'Keeffe (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1989-). Now these records are coming to the Internet, albeit in abstracted form, through Information Wanted, a website of the Boston College Irish Studies Program.
The Missing Friends advertisements, dating from 1831 to 1921, were placed by those seeking information about an Irish immigrant to America, and contain a varying amount of identifying data.
The advertisements contain the ordinary but revealing details about the missing person’s life: the county and parish of their birth, when they left Ireland, the believed port of arrival in North America, their occupation, and a range of other personal information. Some records may have as many as 50 different data fields, while others may offer only a few details. The people who placed ads were often anxious family members in Ireland, or the wives, siblings, or parents of men who followed construction jobs on railroads or canals.Anyone finding a relative will still want to consult the original text, but the online index will surely help speed their research in the right direction.
