Conlet

My sister and I are starting to plan a genealogy trip to Ireland. We will need to be in Dublin (for National Archives, etc. and in Kerry which is where our ancestors originated. if anyone has undertaken such a trip, we would appreciate any advice.
Thanks.

flanneruk

I've found limited going on no practical benefit in visiting where ancestors lived.

Practically all of rural Ireland has been rebuilt in the past 60 years and most Catholic church buildings date from the 1880s or later - though if you have ancestors who belonged to the Church or Ireland, their churches usually go back a couple of centuries earlier (nonconformist records and remains are a whole nuther story, and usually need specialist research). Virtually no hard information, such as burial registers, are kept locally. Few Irishpeople before the late 19th century were buried in marked graves.

That's not to deny the psychological interest in detective work that culminates in the realisation your ancestors are probably among the hundreds buried without trace in the churchyard you're standing in. Or walking the fields (where possible, which isn't often) your forbears went across to get to church, or realising that hideous modern bungalow stands on the spot where your ggmother and five children lived in one room, according to the 1881 census. Actually: might stand. 19th century censuses in rural Ireland didn't carry GPS coordinates, and most attempts to tie down a census return or parish register address to a specific place is little more than guesswork

But for that to work, you need hard data. Most of it's on the web, especially via the Mormon website. There's richer data in Dublin, but you will make the most of your limited time there only after meticulous research of your family's knowledge and records, the Mormon site (and the microfilms your local Mormon family history centre can get for you) and the web-based versions of censuses and government births, marriages and death registrations.

There are a few examples of data, such as baptismal records, being accessible only in the area concerned: usually the local diocesan offices. To discover this needs the same homework, and such data often needs some pre-arrangement to access.

Turning up in Ireland without doing that homework is

flanneruk

"Turning up in Ireland without doing that homework is"

...close to a complete waste of time. Except that you get to see Ireland.

One important piece of advice: take a decent-sized laptop (researching this stuff on a smartphone is almost impossible) and make sure your hotels have all got decent, affordable wifi. However much research you've done before, being on the ground throws up new questions.

Tony2phones

OK. firstly, you need to do as much research as you can Before you come over. Much of the National archive is available on line http://www.nationalarchives.ie/

Where in Kerry? big county and fairly undisturbed outside Tourist towns..

The more information you give the more help you can get. Try also asking on the Trip Advisor Ireland forum where there are a couple of good contributors for genealogy assistance.

Try also http://www.irelandxo.com/node/69

Padraig

There is relatively little that you can achieve on the ground that cannot be achieved online. That is particularly true of Kerry ancestry. Have you researched in: http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffi...nealogy.ie/en/, and http://www.kerrylaburials.ie/en/Index.aspx?

You don't want to use expensive time in Ireland doing what you could do sitting at your desk at home.

I would treat flanner's advice as cautionary rather than definitive. I went to Kerry well-prepared and under no pressure because I live in Ireland and can visit again any time I want. I came away with pictures of the house my g-g-grandmother was born in (still standing), the house my g-grandmother was born in (falling into ruins, and the house my g-grandfather (and probably his father) was born in, now a farm outbuilding. I also picked up a family story from 1856 that I was able to verify from documentary sources. And I have a sense of strong linkage: there is something special about seeing a well and knowing that my g-g-grandmother drew water from it.

You can meet a number of people here with an interest in Irish genealogy: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1288. Some are very knowledgeable, and almost all are helpful.

Padraig

Two urls in my last post got fused together:
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffi...tion/index.xml
http://www.kerrylaburials.ie/en/Index.aspx