I've always wanted to know where my Irish roots originated and visit the places in Ireland where long ago relatives may have lived. (A cliche, I know!) I'm sure lots of people know how to do this. I've googled family names, but not much help. Anyone know where to start? A geneological website perhaps? My older relatives are all gone, so can't do the obvious and ask them.

Heres one hint. Find your oldest relitive (Great grandfather for instance) who you know was born in Ireland and died in the U.S. and get the death certificate. Sometimes ,not always it will list place of birth and father and mothers name. If your lucky the place of birth will say somthing other than just Ireland and the mothers maiden name might be listed. If that person had sibblings check their certificates also, the info can vary greatly. In Ireland, depending on the time frames most people have better luck with church records than goverment records. I'm sure other people with other hints. Good luck.

A good site to help guide you is www.genuki.org.uk - but you need as many clues as you can get from within US records to start off with.

Don't expect to find everything (or all that much in the case of Irish records) on the Internet. Many records covering Ireland were lost in the Civil War of 1922.

You need to exhaust all research possibilities in the United States. Without some solid leads, a search in Ireland is most likely to be nonproductive. One problem is the spelling of last names. The same family can be recorded under numerous spellings, in old records especially. On a trip to Ireland, I found in a phone book, a person with a last name spelling closly resembling my own fairly rare one: McMane. I phoned, and remarked on the resemblance to the nice lady on the other end of the line. "Well yes, she said, but my husband's cousin, just down the road, spells it differently."

The Library of Congress has tremendous resources.

For internet purposes, it will be helpful to get the spelling of genealogical and genealogy right.

If your grandparents, great-aunts or great-uncles died in the US you can start with their death certs; you're very likely to find their place of birth and their parents names. From there you can continue tracing backwards, with the name of X, child of Y and Z, to find their parents' marriage certs, which will have their parents names, and so on. Eventually you'll get back to Ireland, perhaps many places depending on the branches of the tree.

This kind of research can be done through Vital Records Offices in most states. It takes some footwork -- the internet is too hit-and-miss, I've found. But you can find the VR offices on line to learn how to request a certificate.

In Ireland, you can get birth certs in Dublin and in the county courthouses, IF you have the right county AND the right name, including alternate spellings, DOB and both parents names. (I used to work in the Maryland State Archives, where this kind of research went on all the time.)
Good Luck!

There can be nothing more rewarding than visiting your root of origin. I agree with the other posters that you must get started now on your search in the U.S. Get as much info from living relatives as you can -- take notes while they talk -- but bear in mind while you believe them -- sometimes their info can be mistaken -- so keep a notebook as sometimes you need to piece the puzzle together from several different sources and make the most likely choice.

Libraries will often hold a seminar or class on how to get started on researching your roots.

Good websites to start with:

Ancestry.com -- the free version is okay -- but I would try your local library as they may subscribe to the full version service and tap in there. They also list a world database and I have found help here. You can use there message boards for free at Rootsweb.com and post an inquiry under the surname your researching. Some people are "experts" with a certain name and if your lucky you may get excellant insights.

I have also used the message boards at genealogy.com to post inquiries. I have been fortunate in that my brother and sister are interested in family history and it has been more rewarding searching with them -- however I am the leader--director in organizing the searches.

Our research has taken us to visit our original family farm along the St. Lawrence Seaway in Neuville, Quebec and also to our ancestor's church, St. Maclou in Rouen, France. It is well worth the effort.

Wow, great ideas! Thanks for the help, everyone. Never thought of the death certificate idea. I'll start there.

Try the principal Mormon Church in your locality.

Another clue: There are family names that are associated with one locality (County Mayo, for example). That may help. More common names (O'Connor, for example - five different branches) may be found all over.

If you suspect Limerick County roots, try Limerick Regional Archives, the Granary, Limerick City. I don't know if other Counties have a parallel to that.

Finally, you can hire the services of a professional Genealogist in Dublin.

It's a complete waste of your time and your holiday to do any searching in Ireland without doing a great deal of reasearch before you leave.

And there's no easy, quick way of doing this. The ony nway you'll get results is by detailed, conscientious, research.

This has to be done systematically. There are hundreds of thousands of forlorn messages on web sites saying "I'm called O'brien. My family left Ireland in the mid-1850s. Does anyone know them?" They've all stayed unanswered for a decade

There were 7 million people in Ireland in the mid nineteenth cemtury, with probably fewer Christain names and surnames than any othewr 7 million people in Europe.

Go as Nedsireland says, to your nearest Mormon church. Buy - for roughly £1 - their little "tracing your ancestors: Ireland" booklet.

Follow its recommendations <b>to the letter </b>. Don't go anywhere near the Web, or anyone in Ireland, until you've followed every step recommended.

Or for a fuller, more detailed, version of the same advice, buy John Grenham's Tracing Your Irish Ancestors.

I've also been searching my Irish roots for years and agree that working backwards is your first step. Then knowing or discovering the county where your ancestors are from is key. Each county in Ireland has a family history office---frankly with varying degrees of helpfulness on the part of the staff and you have to pay varying fees.

On one side I knew County Mayo was a starting point and found their family history people incredibly helpful. On the other side I could find nothing. My greatest resource was a branch of the US Archives. I live near Boston and there is an office in the suburb of Waltham. I assume other major cities may also have a branch. At the archives I was able to locate my grandfather's naturalization papers and there I found the county---Westmeath.I still have other branches I'm searching for but each discovery is a little victory and actually visiting where your &quot;people&quot; are from is cool. Good luck.

I do: 'pub genealogy' (i.e., find a pub close to the P.O. where Pensioners go to cash their weekly old age pension checks, let it be known who I am &amp; who my people are or were, and wait for the folks to find me). In a small village in County Mayo I visited a 105-year old 1st cousin of my Mother and some other relatives whom I didn't know existed. I went back the following year and the lady was still going strong.

In west Limerick I found at least two self-proclaimed Historians, one of whom had copies of Passenger Manifests of most of the Ships that went from Cobh or Charlestown during the Famine. But my relatives emigrated more recently.

My Paternal Grandmother was an O'Connor from Telmpeglantan (Limerick). Someone told me about a Michael O'Connor there; I visited him and he laid out Genealogy for the Kerry O'Connor's and the 'Flay' O'Connors, the latter being my branch. I discovered 2-second cousins, one nearby and the other in east Limerick. The one nearby goes to a free 'Senior' lunch in Abbeyfeale on Thursdays. That will be one of my stops if and when I return.

So, in addition to the Professional Genealogists like Eileen O'Connor in Dublin, there are numerous self-styled historians and there are people like Michael O'Connor who just know a lot about their own family tree; and then you have the Senior Citizen's Lunch to which transportation is provided, which might be another valuable resource.

Been there! Done that!

I am so impressed by all your ideas. Seems like we Irish have a penchant for rooting out our relatives! Thanks again, and please keep the suggestions coming!