Tag: Irish Genealogy

Free Irish Genealogy Records from NEHGS

Free Irish Genealogy Records from NEHGS

The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is providing free access to their collection of Irish Genealogy Records for St Patrick’s Day and more (March 15-22).

All Irish resources are FREE from March 15-22. This includes databases, guides and webinars. So there is no cost and no reason not to check out the NEHGS.

You might decide the FREE membership is right for you or maybe you’ll decided to join as a paying member. In any case you might find that elusive Irish genealogy record for free, or something else worthwhile, for nothing.

The NEHGS is at https://www.americanancestors.org

Ancestry  Irish Catholic parish records

Ancestry Irish Catholic parish records

A few days ago I wrote about free access to Irish Catholic parish records on Find My Past. These records are also availble on Ancestry,

In my experience to date I prefer the Ancestry Irish Catholic parish records. I have found a few new members of my extended family via the Ancestry Irish Catholic parish records. The records seem more complete, although that may or may not be true in general, it seems to be the case for my family.

I also like that the Ancestry index seems to be more often linked to an image of the actual record. That may be of limited value since the records are written in Latin and often hard to read. But it is nice to se the oriinal record and verify that it was indexed correctly. (I have not found a mistake yet.)

Free genealogy offer better

Free genealogy offer better

The free genealogy offer from Find My Past is better than I thought when I wrote my post on free access to this morning. I thought access to these records was free until March 7.

When I went online and started searching I noticed all sorts of Irish Records were being pulled up. Then I re-read the email from Find My Past: Continue reading “Free genealogy offer better”

Irish Catholic parish records

Irish Catholic parish records

Good news for those with an interest in Irish genealogy. For some time now, we have known Irish Catholic parish records would be put an the internet with a searchable index.

Find My Past has put a searchable index of Irish Catholic parish records online, and it is free for a limited time. This has long been desirable since the are the state of useful records for Irish genealogy is so poor. In fact, births of Catholics were not included in public records until 1864.

Many of those records that did exist were destroyed during the Irish civil war. So the state of genealogical records in Ireland is pretty bad for everyone and worse for those of us with Catholic ancestors. That is why a searchable index for Irish Catholic parish records is so important. Continue reading “Irish Catholic parish records”

Help with Irish research

Help with Irish research

These tips will point you in the direction of some good resources. In your case, some may be helpful and some not so helpful.

1. Maybe someone has already done a good bit of work on your family but you don’t know it. Perhaps a third or fourth cousin you don’t know. Or there might be some people searching the same surname who are not closely related but may have some advice. One way to check that out is my surname page (not ready yet) . Another option is to use Google or some other search engine to find the names that interest you. Be creative in your search terms!

2. There are also mailing lists where you get emails on a topic which could be a surname or an interest such as Irish genealogy or even as local as Co Limerick genealogy. Maillists work by sending a copy of each message to posted to all subscribers. Some lists are very small and some are large. Continue reading “Help with Irish research”

My Irish genealogy website

My Irish genealogy website

I am continuing the update of my Irish genealogy website.

The site serves as the County Limerick pages for IrelandGenWeb. In addition, I have a good place to read or post genealogical queries on the name Reidy and its variants. Also some good information of the REIDY, RIEDY, REEDY, READY, etc name.

The site has lots of links and resources for those of us with family from County Limerick.

I had a good bit of information on Irish Genealogy and I expect it will all be there shortly. Right now I have almost everything on the Reidy name moved, a most of what I have on County Limerick, and some general Irish genealogy information.

And it is all free to use.

Major update of my website

Major update of my website

I’m pretty busy these days updating my website.

The site is a work in progress as I’ve recent changed from HTML to WordPress. In the long-term I think this will be an improvement. I will be able to do more things and hope to improve the site as I learn. But right now my major task is trying to move all the content from my old site.

It is taking longer than expected. And it is also more work than I expected. But I guess that is the price of progress. A good bit of what I had has been moved over but much is still left to be done.

I had a good bit of information on Irish Genealogy and I expect it will all be there shortly. Right now I have almost everything on the Reidy name moved, a good bit on County Limerick, and relatively little on general Irish information and Irish surnames.

Irish Genealogy: John J Reidy 1906

Irish Genealogy: John J Reidy 1906

I’ve enjoyed my membership in the Genealogy Bank. I am now in my second year.

It allows searches in a wide variety of older newspapers and they are adding more newspaper every month. When I got my monthly newsletter today, I was pleased to see they added more issues of the Gaelic American. This is a New York news papers publishing thing of interest to Irish-Americans, including news from Ireland.

Since I am interested in Irish Genealogy including the name REIDY, I was pleased to see an obituary of John J. Reidy who died July 17, 1906. This was in the August 11, 1906 issue. Among many other things the article says he was from Ballyelan, Ballingarry, Limerick and was active in the Fenian movement, and an uncle of James Reidy of New York.

There were also quite a few articles in the Gaelic American of this time on James Reidy of the Brooklyn Gaelic society and other Irish-American organizations. I suspect this is may be the nephew mentioned above but I do not know this.

Since Ballingarry is just down the road from Rathkeale where my REIDYs were from, I found this especially interesting.

Calendars of Wills and Administrations, National Archives of Ireland

Calendars of Wills and Administrations, National Archives of Ireland

I had posted this months ago but thought I would update it. This website will give useful (but limited) information for those of us doing Irish genealogy research. The Calendars of Wills and Administrations, 1858 – 1922 at the National Archives of Ireland can be searched via a simple form. Continue reading “Calendars of Wills and Administrations, National Archives of Ireland”

Jeanie Johnston, the luckiest Irish Famine Ship

Jeanie Johnston, the luckiest Irish Famine Ship

I read All Standing: The Remarkable Story of the Jeanie Johnston, The Legendary Irish Famine Ship by Kathryn Miles because of an interest in Irish Genealogy. And then thought I should review this book since I enjoyed it and that is one of the things I do here. So that is how the book review got here and why it is listed under both Book Review and Genealogy.

I guess I should make clear than this is not a genealogy book but rather a history book about one of most important important events to Irish Genealogy.


I read the paperback version of the book and that runs to 214 pages excluding reference, acknowledgements, prologue and that type of thing. The book also comes as a hardback (if you want to spent a bit more) and a kindle version if you want to spend a bit less).

The ships the Irish traveled on to emigrate from Ireland during the potato famine were often called coffin ships because so many passengers died during the voyage. The Jeanie Johnson was an exception. It made many round trips between Ireland and North America carrying passengers one-way and cargo on the return voyage without losing a single passenger.

Although the Jeanie Johnston was called a lucky ship, this record was not just a matter of luck. The Irish passengers were usually malnourished and weak before beginning the journey. Conditions on the ship were not great and many succumbed to disease. But conditions on the Jeanie Johnson were better than usual and even more unusual was the presence of a ship’s doctor to care for the passengers. So the words remarkable and legendary in the subtitle are appropriate.

The book is about much more than the Jeanie Johnston. There is quite a bit on the Irish potato famine or the great hunger. And the inadequate relief efforts. The English who were in charge at the time did very little but did get around to apologizing about 150 years later.

There is also quite a bit about Tralee, the home port of the Jeanie Johnston and home of the owner. And a good bit of general information about ships of the time and the hazards they faced. Then whole story is interlaced with the stories of some of the passengers.

Unlike many history books which can have a tendency to bore you with too many detail, this is a lively history that reads well and quickly. I think in part that is because there is sufficient background to understand why this ship was so remarkable and then there are the remarkable stories of the ship and one of the families that traveled on it.

GenealogyBank trial

GenealogyBank trial

I am trying out GenealogyBank right now. I suppose I would have rather had a free trial but they charge for a 30 day access trial. The GenealogyBank search box to the right is free to use and gives you an idea of the site but you do need to pay to actually see the old newspapers, historical documents and books in their collection.

Most of the papers are from the U.S. but there are Irish American newspapers with information on Ireland and that is of interest to me. In fact, I’ve found a few worthwhile items there during this trial.

So far I’m a few days into the trial and feel it is well worth the fee for looking. They do have quite a collection and I have found quite a bit in a few days.

So if you think this might be of interest, look around. I’ll be writing more about my experience with GenealogyBank. I just noticed that I hadn’t posted in about a week and want to let you know what I’ve been up to.

Calendars of Wills and Administrations, Ireland National Archives for Irish genealogy

Calendars of Wills and Administrations, Ireland National Archives for Irish genealogy

Updated Jan 15, 2014.

See http://www.jackreidy.com/blog/2014/01/15/calendars-of-wills-and-administrations-1858-1922-national-archives-of-ireland/

Mailing lists for genealogy

Mailing lists for genealogy

If your hobby is genealogy you may like mailing lists where you get emails on a topic which could be a surname or an interest such as Irish genealogy or even as local as Co Limerick genealogy. Mailing list (sometimes called maillists) work by sending a copy of each message to posted to all subscribers. Some lists are very small and some are large.

Generally on lists, it is good practice to subscribe and then just read messages for a week or so before you post. Get a feel for the list. And read the welcome message you get when subscribing. List owners often describe the type things that are allowed and not allowed on their lists. Mail lists are a very powerful way to get your message in front of many people who may be able to help.

Learn the types of things that are unacceptable on the list, how people ask questions, etc. Participating on a list is not hard but it’s a good idea to make a good first impression.

Many genealogy lists are hosted by Rootsweb. And they are free. You may want to check out the Rootsweb Mailing list page. There are thousands of mailing lists and you are bound to find one or more that fit your interests. There are 2 search boxes and you can search the archives for a name or term of interest. Or search for a maillist (Find a mailing list) by keyword. The keyword Ireland pulls up about 200 mailing lists out of the 30,000 or so lists at Rootsweb.

John Greer and Julia Mary Hopkins family of New York City

John Greer and Julia Mary Hopkins family of New York City

Lately I’ve been filling in some details on close but not direct ancestors in hopes I’ll find something that gives me some insight or additional direction on my more direct line. So that’s what this is about. One of my great grandmothers was Elizabeth Greer born in Ireland to Ruth Allingham and Matthew Greer.

Elizabeth had an older brother named John Greer who was born in Ireland about 1860. I believe he came to the US in the 1870s and married Julia Mary Hopkins in 1888 in New York City (NYC). Continue reading “John Greer and Julia Mary Hopkins family of New York City”