Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

The days since my research trip to Dublin, Ireland have quickly slipped away, but in addition to the travel log that I already blogged about, it's important to expand upon the most exceptional discovery I made. What better time to reflect on that find than on St. Patrick's Day? For a full look at how the discovery came about, click here for Day 3 of my Dublin adventures last year in 2023. Kira D. Foltz at the National Library of Ireland, October 2023 It was my very first day of doing research in a foreign country. I was in the Manuscripts Reading Room of the National Library of Ireland, and I was digging through the estate papers of the Cole-Bowen family in hopes of finding any mention of my Keeffe/O'Keeffe ancestors of County Cork. But more importantly, I was hoping to find a map of the local area in which they lived during the famine years.  National Library of Ireland Manuscripts Room, October 2023 The smallest unit of land is called a "townland" in Ireland, b...

Although I haven't yet had the chance of visiting our own National Archives in the States, on Donna Moughty's Dublin adventure in October 2023, I made it to the National Archives of Ireland (NAI)! National Archives of Ireland, Dublin DAY 4 While this was my fourth day in Dublin, it was only my second day of research and second repository of the trip, so needless to say, I still had some nerves about me when it came to visiting the archives. Luckily, we were walking over there as a group (a healthy 17 minute excursion, as Google Maps would claim -- probably a more realistic 20 minutes, especially with crosswalks and traffic lights). However, we only discovered later that one participant in our group had set off on their own before us, hoping to get a head start and not slow us down. We all got worried when they hadn't beat us to the punch, and instead, were missing! Somewhat terrifyingly, they had been given repeated misdirection from locals, pointing them toward the Registr...

Continuing my work on the Keeffes of Cork, the following is a log of information on the family I’ve uncovered over the past couple of years from record groups overseas. I hope to discover plenty more when I travel to Dublin later this year and get a chance to research in the National Archives and National Library of Ireland. Here is a recap of the discoveries made on this side of the Atlantic: Catching Up With the Keeffes During COVID . As to information I’ve gleaned from Ireland’s resources of late, one of the most beneficial was by an Irish local. The site IrelandXO functions as a message board and information hub for the public to reconnect to their Irish roots. Mostly managed by volunteers, the website’s mission is to seek out the Irish diaspora worldwide, knowing full well that millions of natives left the island in the mid to late 1800s and settled in all parts of the world.  I posted a query on one of the virtual boards in regards to the exact location of Lismonihis in Cou...