20th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 20th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on Irish Stories, and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

19th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 19th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on "I speak from experience," and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

16th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 16th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on "Irish genealogy show and tell," and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

15th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 15th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on Irish portraits, and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

14th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 14th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been published! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on Irish reading, and topics will be due by August 30th. Enjoy!

An Early Irish History Book ...

(I'm writing this book review for the 15th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture early because I don't know if I'll have time later and because I want to make sure that I have an entry for that edition.)

For this upcoming edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture, I have to read book on Ireland, and so, I checked out a history book on Ireland from my local library. I have finished reading the book today, and the book I read was In Search of Ancient Ireland: The Origins Of The Irish From Neolithic Times To The Coming Of The English by Carmel McCaffrey and Leo Eaton (Chicago: New Amsterdam Books, 2002).

As you probably can tell from the title, this book in on the history Ireland up to the Norman invasion in 1167. I wanted to read up on Irish history for this edition, and as I was not very familiar with early Irish history, I decided to check the book out. This book happens to be a companion book to the PBS TV series In Search of Ireland. The book focuses on social aspects of Irish history and how the Irish lived in the past. Information that I read about in a previous book review on early Irish history meshed nicely with this book, and this book helped to illuminate and explain much of what I had read before. I enjoyed reading this book, and thus, recommend it to others. I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I did.

13th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 13th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on Irish vacations, and you can read more about it here. The topic for the 15th edition will be on the 2nd summer reading challenge, and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

12th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 12th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on "Irish names," and you can read more information about it here. Enjoy!

More Records Added to FamilySearch Lab's Record Search

Some records have been added to FamilySearch Lab's Record Search. The records added are the Irish civil registrations, 1869 Argentina census, and the San Francisco, California funeral home records. I hope this helps someone. As for me, I am going to take a look at the Irish records. Enjoy!

11th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The eleventh edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be Saint Patrick's Day Parade, and you find out more information here. Enjoy!

My Scotch-Irish Ancestors: My Key To Ireland?

For this upcoming edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture I am supposed to write about any information that I have uncovered that would lead to a village or location that my Irish (or Scotch-Irish, in my case) ancestors came from. Well, to be honest, I have not yet been able to determine where in Ireland my Scotch-Irish ancestors came from, but I do have one place where I can look for a marriage record.

As you may remember, I wrote about finding my great-grandfather's military service records a couple of months ago; however, I did not tell you that my ancestor was born in Scotland. In Scotland at that time (and maybe in the present), a person's birth certificate required that the date and place of the person's parents' marriage be included on the certificate. (Of course, that is if that person's parents married.) Thus, the information on the marriage of my great-grandfather's parents was listed on his birth certificate, and so, I now know that his parents were married in Ballymena, Antrim County, Ireland.

So, my next step is to obtain my ancestors' marriage certificate and figure out where they were born. I already know from my ancestors' death certificates and the 1891 census record that they were born in Ireland. Unfortunately, I still do not know where and when they were born. I am hoping that the marriage record will give me at least an idea of when they were born, and in addition, I will have to try to obtain the birth certificates of my great-grandfather's siblings as well, since some of them were also born in Ireland. Please wish me luck as I try to trace my great-grandfather's ancestors. Thanks!

10th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The tenth edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read the edition here. The topic for the next edition is on: "My key to Ireland. This edition will be dedicated to the stories of genealogists tracing their Irish family trees." You can find out more information here.

9th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The ninth edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read the edition here. The topic for the next edition is "Irish culture is loved worldwide. It is no secret that the love of Ireland is not exclusive to those with Irish blood running through their veins.For this edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, Small-leaved Shamrock invites you (whether you have Irish heritage or not) to share what you most love about Ireland and the Irish people."

(I do not know when the entries for the next edition are due, but when I find out, I will update the post.) Enjoy!

Update at 7:12 a. m.: Information on the upcoming edition can be found here, at the new blog for the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture.

Irish Ghost Tales: A Book ...

Although I now know that I have some Irish or Scot-Irish ancestors, I cannot report about any family traditions or superstitions from those ancestors since very little was passed in my family. So, in lieu of not having any family tales to share, I'll just write about a book I read several years ago instead.

Several years ago (when I was probably in Middle school), I visited a used bookstore, and bought a book that had caught my eye. The book I bought was True Irish Ghost Stories by St. John D. Seymour, and it was a thick paperback. (I forget what year my version was printed, but it was probably of a reprint of the second edition, since the book included the first ans second edition prefaces in it.) Obviously, one can tell from the title, the book is about Irish ghost stories, and the stories come from different areas of Ireland. As I think about this book, I'm starting to realize that is a really strange book. In the first preface, the author, who turns out to be a Catholic priest, writes that he wrote the book primarily because he could not find any books on Irish ghost stories while he could find books on English ghost stories. I find it highly unusual that a priest would have written this book, let alone have an interest in this subject, and because of that fact, I find the book to be very odd.

As I haven't read this book in several years (probably since I was a freshman in high school), I don't recall all of the stories in this book, but I can still recall some details of some stories. Of course, I really do not like thinking about this book or the stories in it due to the fact that the stories will bother me for some time after I've read them. I do not know what it is, but every time I read this book, I have this creepy feeling that I'm being watched by something, and I don't like the feeling. Since I become frightened every single time that I read the book, I have stopped reading it. (Yes, this type of stuff never fails to scare me.) When I told my dad about how the book scarred me, he mentioned that the Irish were known to be heavy drinkers and that I should keep that in mind when I read the stories. Even though I tried to keep that in mind, I still could not, and can't, keep the book from giving me the creeps. So, as you can imagine, I do not recommend this book for children as it could give children nightmares, and I do not read the book anymore. (I'm not kidding.) So, that's my caveat about this book.

Since I do not have any family tales of Irish ghost stories to tell, this is the best I could do for this topic.

8th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The eighth edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The next edition will be hosted by Bill West, and the next topic will be on:

"Halloween (or Samhain as it was known among the ancient Celts) is approaching and what better time to tell us about your family’s Irish superstitions? Perhaps you have stories about strange coincidences and events that might have been passed down by your Irish relatives, or even know of some favorite legend or haunted place in Ireland. Share them with us in the next edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture."

Enjoy!

Searching For My Ancestors: My Research Plan and Goals For My Ancestors Born in Scotland and Ireland

Although I have briefly mentioned before that I might have Irish or Scot-Irish ancestors, I have never posted any information on that family on this blog. To be honest, I hardly know anything about these ancestors. I primarily know that my great-grandfather was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and that his parents were born in Ireland. Other than dates of deaths for his parents, and names of a few siblings, I do not have much more on this family other than family tradition.

I have not spent as much time researching this family as I have with other ancestors only because I am still learning about how to do Scottish and Irish genealogy. I would love to do more research on this family, but it does not appear that I will have much more time to do research this year. Of course, I'll probably have time next year, so here are some of my goals and plans for doing research into this family:

• Find all of the birth records for my great-grandfather's siblings who were born in Scotland, and then in Ireland.
• Look for my great-great-grandparents' marriage record in Ireland. My great-grandfather's birth record listed his parents marriage as occurring in Antrim County, Ireland in December 1865. I think I should start my research into Ireland there.
• Find out when my ancestors came to Glasgow, Scotland from Ireland. (I still do not have an idea. I have found the family in 1891 census and my great-grandfather in the 1901 census. I have not yet found the family in the 1881 census for Scotland.)
• Since I already have information on when my great-great-grandparents died in Scotland, I probably should look for a will or probate record. In addition, I should probably look for an inquest record on my great-great-grandfather's death, since he died in an accident.
• And of course, before I do any of the above, I should familiarize myself some more with Scottish and Irish records.

I think this is a good start. I can't think of anything else I should do. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas about what I should, please leave me a comment. All suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

7th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The seventh edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted, and you can read it here. The topic for the next carnival will be either on genealogy research plans or learning more about Irish culture. You can find more information here. Enjoy!

A Book On The History of Ireland: A Reader's Thoughts Partway Through The Book

Since this upcoming edition was announced back in June, I have been reading Modern Ireland, 1600-1972 by R. F. Foster (Penquin Books: London, 1989). I have not yet finished reading the book, but I can write about what I learned and about my observations of this book.

Obviously from the title, one can gather that this book is a survey of a history of Ireland from 1600 to 1972. So far, though, I have only read up to the Eighteenth Century in the book. Most of what I have been reading has been dealing with the Seventeenth Century. The prologue of the book deals with the different varieties of Irishness, and I wish I had read that part of the book earlier since it fit nicely with the previous edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture. The other chapters I have read deal with the events of the 1600s, from the politics and transplating of Protestant English and Scots to the uprising of 1641. For a survey of the history of modern Ireland, this book does get into detail about the events and major players of the events. My only problem with this book is that I feel as though one must have a general knowledge of Irish history to understand or get the feel of the book. Since I do not even have a general knowledge of Irish history, I do not have a context that I can put the details of this history in. I almost feel as though I have to be reading another, less detailed Irish history book for me to truly understand the book. The best way I can explain this is if a person happened to read a detailed history book on the history of the United States, but did not have any previous general knowledge of the history of the U. S. This is how I feel when I read this book, and I'm a history major! Aside from this criticism, I think this book would be good for a person who has a great interest in Ireland's history.

Update on Irish Seminar

Well, I can't seem to be able to get this seminar. I happened to notice that ancestry said the presentation will be up at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow. I'm not sure what that means, but I couldn't get the presentation to work for me, if it was even presented. I have not received any e-mails to inform me whether or not there were any technical difficulties. Needless to say, I'm a bit frustrated. If someone could tell me whether or not the Irish research web seminar was even presented tonight, that would be nice. Thanks.

Ancestry's Irish Genealogy Research Web Seminar ...

I signed up to take the Irish genealogy web seminar offered by Ancestry.com. It was supposed to start at 8:00 p.m. EST time, but as of 8:30 p.m., the web seminar has not started. If it does start sometime tonight, I will post on the web seminar after it is done. Stay tuned ...