When Irish Eyes are starting to smile

Dear Uncle,

I'm back on track and on the hunt for the Irish side of the family. I've used the searches on Ancestry.com , Rootsweb, and Family Search. I found another site that has the Griffiths Valuation and I've loaded the Griffiths Valuation info into a word document so that I can take my time with each of the names in each county.  I've been to the Goireland.com website and done a surname search to see if that might help in so far as where the majority of the surnames were most likely from. Handy site though.  It has the gaelic spelling of the names also.   I've printed out a beautiful map of Ireland from   www.failteromhat.com/eiremap.php .  I'll have to use a magnifying glass on the printout but I can go back up to the site and enlarge the map on the computer screen if I have to. I've checked the LDS site for my Irish kin and have found some info but it is for the US info, nothing yet for Ireland. And I do have a form for each person to help me sort out the emmigration situation. Passenger lists are an issue and will take alot of time to go through.

I have a box of  "stuff" that I had marked "Irish" which besides the individual folders of my folks contains heaven only knows what.  Just "stuff" that I found along the way which I probably thought I might need in the future.  I'll peruse that box tomorrow.

I went to the library today and met a woman by the name of Pat who is also known as "The Family Detective".  She volunteers at the library in the genealogy department.  Today was a quiet day and we shared a table.  I was looking at some old magazines that sometimes help give me a bit of inspiration as to where to look next. 

We got to talking about how long we've each been doing this (both 30 years), how things have advanced - from paper and pencil to computers and flash drives.  Then of course it came down to "So who are you looking for?"  We're both looking for - big sigh- Irish folks.

It would be lovely if we had some unusual names to look for, but of course not.  I've got Greene, Moran, Garvey and Morris, just for starters.  I had to send an email to Pat to get her folks names.  I figure I can just as easily check for her folks too  while I'm looking for mine.

I'll do an analysis chart on my folks and see if I can come up with some kind of trail to follow.  It's helped in the past.  Perhaps it will help again.

In the meantime I will send an etherial request to the Irish ancestors and see if they can give a little guidance, drop a few breadcrumbs, have a website pop up out of nowhere with all the info I need. You know...something a little serendipitous.

Until next time,
Fondly,
Your Niece