A guide to tracing your Clare ancestors using oral, documentary and genetic evidence

Shannon Archaeological and Historical Society

8:00pm Wednesday 17 January 2018

Oakwood Arms Hotel, Shannon

by Paddy Waldron

WWW version:

http://pwaldron.info/Shannon/

YouTube version:

TBA

Introduction

• Tracing your Clare ancestors (or ancestors who lived anywhere in Ireland) has never been easier.
• Your strategy should combine:
• oral evidence;
• documentary evidence; and
• genetic evidence.
• Soon you will be well on your way to recording the known family histories of all 16 of your greatgreatgrandparents and beyond in your favourite simple genealogy software

Oral Evidence

• The first sources to consult are the family elders.
• Then check the family papers:
• letters;
• diaries;
• memorial cards;
• newscuttings;
• tombstone inscriptions;
• wills and title deeds, etc.
• Remember Larry Brennan's mantra when establishing the Clare Roots Society:

  Genealogy is about names, dates and places.
  These are the bones; family history is the flesh on those bones.

• The boundaries between oral evidence and documentary evidence can be blurred:
  • Is the description of the deceased on a death certificate oral or documentary? (Estimated age at death, parents' names, mother's maiden surname, etc.)
  • Are family letters and diaries oral or archival?
  • Are published or unpublished family histories oral or archival? (Griffin example.)

Documentary Evidence

• Armed with the basic information from the oral evidence, one can go online, and go back through the generations, filling the gaps in the oral tradition by using the various free websites made available by national and local authorities in recent years.  These contain:
• census returns;
• civil birth, marriage and death records;
• church records;
• land records;
• etc.
• Unless a person's name is extremely rare, narrow down the search by place before you begin.
• For most genealogical events, there are up to four different associated places:
  • the place where the event happened;
  • the place where the event was originally recorded;
  • the place where the original record is stored today; and
  • the place(s) or website(s) where a manual, photographic or digital copy (or copies) of the record can be seen.
• In rural areas of Ireland, we can typically identify the townland in which the event happened.
• In urban areas, we can typically identify the street address at which the event happened.
• The administrative division(s) in which the genealogical event is or was recorded and stored depend on
  • the townland where the event actually happened;
  • the nature of the event; and
  • the general time period.
• Ireland has been partitioned many times for many non-genealogical purposes, but the genealogist needs to become familiar with some of these repartitionings.
• Depending on the record, there may be
• an all-Ireland index;
• a 26-county index;
• county-by-county indexes;
• indexes for subdivisions of counties; or
• indexes for areas crossing county boundaries.
• Once we know the townland, we generally need maps and/or lookup tables to figure out where to look for the record; for a summary, see this table.
• In your genealogy software, document the source of every name, date and place that you find, whether it be a family oral source, a local or national documentary source, or a genetic source.

The most basic source is Google, which is great for more unusual names or combinations of names, but Google, by accident or design, does not harvest many genealogy sites.

The major free online sources for Irish ancestry include:

genealogy.nationalarchives.ie

• The National Archives of Ireland 1901 and 1911 Census of Ireland website and search form can be used to look for your parents, grandparents, greatgrandparents, greatgreatgrandparents, or more distant ancestors and relatives.
• The census is just the first in a series of stepping stones through the past.
• Maps of DEDs courtesy of logainm.ie
• National Archives of Ireland Genealogy website has more than just the census:
  • Census of Ireland, 1901 and 1911
  • Tithe Applotment Books, 1823 – 37
  • Soldiers’ Wills, 1914 – 1917
  • Calendars of Wills and Administrations, 1858 – 1920/1922
• National Archives of Ireland main website has more again, e.g. more recent Calendars of Wills and Administrations (Guide from Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations)
• There are many other websites where you can start your research before you visit libraries and archives.

IrishGenealogy.ie

• Current status reported at November 2017 lecture to Genealogical Society of Ireland (see Ireland's Genealogical Gazette)
• Birth records 1864-1916.
• Marriage records 1870-1941 (Catholic marriages for 1864-1869 and non-Catholic marriages for 1 Apr 1845-1869 to be added).
• Data protection arguments relating to data on living persons are used to explain why more recent birth and marriage records are available offline only.
• Death records 1878-1966 (1864-1877 to be added).
• Data protection arguments relating to data on living persons are also used to explain why more recent records related to deceased persons are available offline only.
• Births over 100 years ago, marriages over 75 years ago and deaths over 50 years ago due to be added in annual increments.
• Basic civil records search form
• Advanced civil records search form
• The one-size-fits-all search form can mislead beginners.
• The birth index includes mother's maiden name only from Abt 1900-1916.
• Sometimes the groom is Party 1 and the bride is Party 2, sometimes the numbering is reversed.
• Search separately for Kelly, O'Kelly, O Kelly and OKelly to cover all angles.
• Similarly for Mc Namara and McNamara.
• Church records for only about four counties or dioceses, mostly pre-1900.
• Alternative search form.
• The results from the main search form provide links to other free government-backed online databases.

FamilySearch.org

Can be used to overcome the gaps in the official online versions of civil records
Free registration now required

FamilySearch.org --- Irish Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958

Includes more recent births and marriages than the official website.
See sample page from original index (1866)

Registration districts in this index are:

• the pre-Famine Poor Law Unions for non-Catholic marriages 1 Apr 1845 to 31 Dec 1863
• the post-Famine Poor Law Unions for all births, marriages and deaths from 1 Jan 1864.

The indexes don't include spouse or parents, apart from the birth index from c1928-1958, which includes mother's maiden surname only. To narrow the search, you can fill in one of (a) birth date and/or place (b) marriage date and/or place or (c) death date and/or place. Filling in fields which are blank in the record you want will prevent you from finding it.

FamilySearch.org --- Ireland Births and Baptisms mostly 1864-1881

Searchable by parents' names, unlike the official website.
See sample birth record

To narrow the search, you can fill in both parents' first and/or last names and/or birth date and/or place. The appropriate placename to use varies from year to year and from record to record. Try townland or dispensary district or Poor Law Union or county.

FamilySearch.org --- Ireland Marriages mostly 1845-1870

These years are not yet on the official website.
See sample page from marriage register

To narrow the search, you can fill in spouse's and/or father's first and/or last names and/or marriage date and/or place. Irish marriage certificates did not until relatively recently include the name of either the groom's mother or the bride's mother.

FamilySearch.org --- Ireland Deaths mostly 1864-1870

These years are not yet on the official website.

See sample death record

To narrow the search, you can fill in death date and/or death place and/or residence place. Irish death certificates did not include the name of any relative until c2004, unless the informant happened to be a relative, and even then the relationship may not have been specified. The appropriate placename to use is generally the townland.

Full worldwide familysearch.org search

In some non-Irish records the familysearch.org transcriptions may include father's first name, mother's first name and mother's last name, but not father's last name! See, for example, many entries in New Jersey, Marriages, 1678-1985. You must leave the father's last name blank if you want to find these records.

registers.nli.ie

Catholic parish registers up to Abt 1880.
Newmarket-on-Fergus stops in 1865 (marriages) or 1866 (baptisms).
John Grenham lists other registers (e.g. Kilkee, Ennistymon) which were missed when registers up to 1880 were microfilmed.
The professional and charitable Clare Heritage and Genealogical Centre has indexed the original registers up to 1900.
These indexes are usually available to researchers only in the relevant parish offices.
Similar companies in most other counties now make their indexes available to subscribers at ROOTSIRELAND.ie
The National Library of Ireland microfilms are also transcribed (badly!) on other commercial websites.

Maps

First edition 6"/mile OSi maps, later 25"/mile maps, live street maps, five-yearly aerial views

Example: where are we?

Here in the townland of Smithstown ...

... in Drumline civil parish in the barony of Bunratty Lower in the county of Clare in the province of Munster.
Not to be confused with Smithstown in Kilshanny civil parish in the barony of Corcomroe and many other Smithstowns around the country.

In the 1911 census, this Smithstown was in Clenagh DED and the Kilshanny Smithstown gave its name to its own DED.

We are in the Poor Law Union of Ennis (both pre- and post-Famine).
Julius Caesar: Divide and conquer - divide et impera

Griffith's Valuation (askaboutireland Family Name Search or Place Name Search - free)

It is apparently not possible to hyperlink to specific map locations - see discussion. It is possible to link to the occupiers of a specific location using the PlaceID, e.g. Ballina (PlaceID=1223328). Results are stupidly broken into pages of 20 occupiers at a time. To view Original Page or Map View, right click on icon and select "Open Link in New Tab".
Some people evaded Griffith's publication by moving at inappropriate times.
Try lining up the OSi maps, Griffith maps and Google Street View - details here.

Offline sources

• Local Studies Centre, Ennis
• General Register Office, Werburgh Street, Dublin - for BMD records not yet online 
• Valuation Office, Irish Life Centre, Abbey Street, Dublin - for revisions of Griffith's Valuation.

Genetic Evidence

Where does our DNA come from?

• When a sperm fertilises an egg, each brings DNA, which is replicated in every cell of the resulting person.

• autosome is short for autosomal chromosome.

Inheritance paths

Y chromosome

Only males have a Y chromosome.
The Y chromosome comes down the patrilineal line - from father, father's father, father's father's father, etc.
This is the same inheritance path as followed by surnames, grants of arms, peerages, etc.

X chromosome

Males have one X chromosome, females have two.
X DNA may come through any ancestral line that does not contain two consecutive males.
Blaine Bettinger's nice colour-coded blank fan-style pedigree charts show the ancestors from whom men and women can potentially inherit X-DNA.

Autosomes

Exactly 50% of autosomal DNA comes from the father and exactly 50% comes from the mother.
Due to recombination, on average 25% comes from each grandparent, on average 12.5% comes from each greatgrandparent, and so on.
Siblings each inherit 50% of their parents' autosomal DNA, but not the same 50% (except for identical twins).
Similarly, siblings each inherit 50% of their mother's X DNA, but not the same 50% (except for identical twins).
Sisters each inherit 100% of their father's X DNA.

Mitochondria

Everyone has mitochondrial DNA.

Mitochondrial DNA comes down the matrilineal line - from mother, mother's mother, mother's mother's mother, etc.
The surname typically changes with every generation in this line.

• all those closer than third cousins in the DNA database;
• about half of all fourth cousins in the database;
• about 10% of all fifth cousins in the database; and
• small proportions of the very many more distant relatives in the database.

The Autosomal DNA and Genetic Genealogy Websites

• GEDmatch.com
• FamilyTreeDNA.com (FTDNA)
• AncestryDNA

Examples

Keanes of Kilkee (work in progress)

• greatgrandson of Mary Kean (m. Kilkee parish, 4 March 1859)
• greatgrandsons of Catherine Keane (m. Kilkee parish, 28 February 1862)
• Both marriages took place the Friday before Shrove Tuesday
• The greatgrandsons have 114 and 123 shared centiMorgans
• DNA implies 2nd cousin-4th cousin
• If Mary Kean and Catherine Keane were sisters, then they are third cousins
• But Kilkee parish is full of Keans, Keanes, and other variant spellings.

O'Deas of Newtown

• My Family Finder results are dated 15 Nov 2013.
• My paternal and maternal first cousin's results are dated Apr 2014.
• Paternal first cousin's closest match had an e-mail in a Texas law firm.
• I mentioned this to his Limerick namesake on 2 Sep 2014 and discovered that they were the same person!
• We compared what we knew and found that we both had ancestors in Ballybrown and were both somehow related to John Smith (1849-1909) of Adare.
• My GGGGgrandfather John Keas (c1777-1845) farmed first in Conigar (now part of the Irish Cement site) and then in Ballyveloge, where he first leased a 145-acre farm in 1819 (Registry of Deeds, book 840 page 259 deed 563759).
• John Keas was grandfather of John Smith.
• The match's GGgrandparents John Ryan and Bridget O'Dea married in Ballybrown, Lurriga & Patrickswell Catholic parish on 21 Feb 1821 (no. 469).
• John Smith (who married into the business in 1877) employed the young Denis Ryan (1858-1928), grandson of John Ryan and Bridget O'Dea, and is reported to have later said to Denis Ryan: "Why didn't you tell me you were related to me?"
• 
• Lease of Ballyveloge "for and during and untill the full end and term of the natural life and lives of Edward Keas, 2nd son, of the said lessee and John Keas, 3rd son of said lessee and William Keas, 6th son of the said lessee" (Registry of Deeds, Book  858 page 327  deed 572827)
• Edward Keas remained in Conigar when the rest of the Keas family moved around 1819 from a parish with no surviving baptismal records today (Mungret) to an adjoining parish with surviving baptismal records (Ballybrown, Lurriga & Patrickswell).
• John Keas and John Keas Jnr., although apparently Catholic, signed the minutes of a Vestry of the Established Church legally called and held at Kilkeedy Church (now in ruins) on 17 Dec 1832.
• William Keas was baptised in Ballybrown, Lurriga & Patrickswell on 31 Oct 1821 "ex Joanne Keas et Maria O'Dea".
• So John Smith and Denis Ryan each had an O'Dea grandmother!
• Were they sisters? Or is the age difference too large? Maria's last child was born the year that Bridget married.
• Almost certainly both were daughters of Edward O'Dea, after whom they named sons.
• A possible third sister was Anna O'Dea who married James Frost in Patrickswell parish on 7 Jun 1825 and had children baptised in Sixmilebridge parish between 1832 and 1844.
• But which of the many James Frosts in that parish was Anna's husband?
• Relationship diagram
• 
• Autosomal matrix
• But whatever became of William Keas?

Irish DNA Atlas

• Map
• PDF research paper
• Participants were kept waiting for years before it was explained to them that the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland deemed it unethical to give them the raw data file extracted from their own DNA for use on the cousin-finding websites. 
• The objective was to enable more specific and more accurate ethnicity percentages to be calculated.
• Ethnicity percentages are  heavily marketed and poorly explained by AncestryDNA.
• Most Irish people are deemed by FamilyTreeDNA to be within the assumed margin of error of "100% British Isles".

Clare Surnames

• Y-DNA results for 352 men in the Clare Roots project at FamilyTreeDNA.com (of which I am co-administrator)
• R-M269>L23>L51>L151>P312>Z290>L21>DF13>DF21>S5488>FGC11358>Z17568>L1336 (Corcomroe) surnames
• Cahir
• Clancy (Corcomroe?)
• Considine
• Cunningham
• Davoren
• Donnellan/O'Donnell
• Dunn
• Hanrahan (some)
• Marrinan
• Neilon
• O'Brien (a few)
• O'Carroll
• O'Loughlin
• O'Neill
• R-M269>L23>L51>L151>P312>Z290>L21>DF13>ZZ10_1>Z253>Z2534>FGC5618>L226 (Dalcassian) surnames
• Casey
• Clancy (Tradaree?)
• Corry/Curry
• Costello
• Crowe
• Cusack
• Darcy
• Doolan
• Egan
• Fitzgerald
• Frawley
• Green
• Hannon
• Hanrahan (some)
• Hogan
• Kelly
• Lynch
• McMahon
• McNamara
• Meehan
• Moylan
• Neal
• O'Brien (most)
• O'Dea
• O'Halloran
• Phelan
• Roche
• Slattery
• Estimated time to most recent common male line ancestor (DF13) of both groups: 4300 ybp.
• Estimated time to most recent common male line ancestor (L226) of Dalcassian group: 1450 ybp.
• Estimated time to most recent common male line ancestor of Corcomroe group not yet available.
• The male line descending from most men alive 5000 years ago is now extinct.

What next?

IGP's County Clare Ireland Genealogy group at facebook.com

4,034 people tracing their Clare roots (as of 17 January 2018) 

Ireland Reaching Out