Tracing Irish American immigrants seems a lot like finding a four-leaf clover—if you find a clover with all four leaflets, you’re bound to have good luck.
The four leaflets (or steps) of Irish immigrant research are:1. Seek to discover the immigrant’s Irish origins using U.S. records.
2. Identify your immigrant ancestor’s family and friends.
3. Trace the origins of family and friends.
4. Learn more about the immigrant in Irish records.
Follow these steps to experience the luck of the Irish and discover your Irish roots.
Begin with U.S. Records
A few years ago I volunteered weekly at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City to help individuals with their “Irish research.” We would meet together for an hour to assess the research goal, invariably focusing on the Irish American immigrant. I kept a tally, and nine times out of ten the conversation turned to searching U.S. records to discover the immigrant’s place of origin in Ireland. Almost everyone I met with initially overlooked the need to broaden the search in U.S. records, hoping instead to immediately jump into Irish research.
I have observed dozens of individual meetings where visitors to the National Archives of Ireland and National Library of Ireland in Dublin sought guidance from genealogical consultants on tracing their Irish-American immigrants. Many a tourist asked for “all the records” on his or her immigrant ancestor without first knowing where the ancestor was born in Ireland. The research consultant would kindly recommend that sightseeing would be more productive than any attempt at family history research. On the other hand, those visitors who came prepared with the parish or townland of origin found excellent guidance on which Irish records to examine to learn more about their Irish ancestors.
Seek to discover the immigrant’s Irish origins using U.S. records. Consult family papers, parish registers, vital records, censuses, naturalization papers, passenger lists, probate records, city directories, local histories, and many more historical documents. Every community where the immigrant lived created records that may provide meaningful information. To begin your U.S. records search on FamilySearch.org, start here.
Identify Family and Friends
Irish family history searches should focus on the family and sometimes even the friends of the family. Family and friends may have left more clues about their Irish origins than your immigrant ancestor.
Expand the circles of people you research beyond the immigrant ancestor. Looking back on your ancestor’s life, snoop around the neighborhood and get to know his friends and neighbors. Shadow him over the course of a week, visiting his church, his place of employment, his fraternal organization, adjacent properties, the local high school, the grocery store, the newspaper office. Rummage around wherever you go—listen to the stories, document what you uncover, and see how folks are related. Meet the family and learn their stories. Get to know his friends, coworkers, fellow servicemen, and acquaintances, especially those of the same ethnicity—find out where they originated. Expanding your research into “cluster genealogy” will reveal far more about your immigrant ancestor’s origins than you could learn through studying the immigrant exclusively.
Family Circles
- Birth family: parents, brothers, and sisters
- Families by marriage: spouse, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law
- Children: of the immigrant and his siblings
- Extended family: grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins
- Others of unknown relationship living nearby who shared the same surname
Circles of Friends and Associates
- Religious circle: godparents, marriage witnesses, clergy, church members
- Fraternal circle: members of the same fraternal benefit society
- Military circle: veterans who served with him
- Educational circle: schoolmates of the same ethnicity in the high school yearbook
- Neighbor circle: people on the same or adjacent street, block, borough, or farm
- Economic circle: employees at the same company or farm
Trace the Origins of Family and Friends
Leaving the family and the ancestral home to start a new life across the ocean took courage. Many of our immigrant ancestors chose to join family or friends already settled in the new world, seeking economic, religious, and social support to ease the transition into a new life abroad. When family and friends joined up in stages, they effectively created a pattern of chain migration. Here’s an example from my Irish family:
- Daniel and Margaret (O’Connor) O’Neill left County Kerry, Ireland, during the Great Famine
- Daniel and Margaret raised their family in Michigan, including a son, John O’Neill
- John O’Connor left Ireland to live with his cousin, John O’Neill
- Daniel Sullivan left Ireland to live with his cousin, John O’Connor
- Daniel Sullivan moved from Michigan to Massachusetts to live with his two sisters
- William O’Connor left Ireland to live with his cousin, Daniel Sullivan, in Massachusetts
My grandfather, William O’Connor, was part of a family migration chain, as cousins lived with cousins during their first insecure years in America.
Your immigrant ancestor may have joined up with parents, siblings, cousins, or friends from the same town or parish of origin. One key to immigrant research is to investigate the origins of friends and family who may be easier to trace than your direct-line ancestor. Remember to examine the birth, marriage, and death records of your immigrant ancestor’s spouse and children, as these records may reveal the family’s ancestral origins. Also check the vital records of others you suspect may have come from the same ancestral village.
Seek Out Local Records in Ireland
Knowing the Irish parish of origin, you can now enjoy doing Irish family history in the records of Ireland. Explore the national birth, marriage, and death registers and the Catholic, Anglican, and Presbyterian Church records. Scour the 1901 and 1911 census returns for more recent relatives. Also search the major census substitutes such as the tithe applotment books of the 1820s and 1830s and Griffith’s Valuation from the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s.
All these records are fair game once you know where your ancestors lived in Ireland. Many of these records are now online. Check out the National Archives of Ireland, the National Library of Ireland, Ancestry.com, FindMyPast, and FamilySearch websites first, and enjoy a fruitful search of Irish records.
David Ouimette, CG, CGL, manages Content Strategy at FamilySearch, prioritizing records worldwide for family history. He has conducted archival research in dozens of countries across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. David authored Finding Your Irish Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide.
For more Irish genealogy help view videos interviews with David Rencher, FamilySearch.org chief genealogical officer.
