Irish research presents unique challenges

If you’re using online indexes to Irish church records, then you are faced with some unique challenges. In your immigrant research, you know ages mean little as they can vary five or ten years in either direction with each census. Also, Irish given names sometimes vary. So what do you do when you find a baptism in an index which really catches your attention?

You have to come to terms with that targeted family in the index, even if it’s only to eliminate them. If I find an entry in an online index, then I take the entire family unit and look at naming patterns. If the targeted family has some unusual names (siblings of the potential ancestor), then ask if these name names passed down in your branch of the family. If they did, then you may be onto something. Another strategy is to see if any of the potential siblings, found in the index, immigrated to where your ancestor did.

Sometimes the name of the game is disproving what you find

An additional strategy is to see if the family from index, including who you think is your specific ancestor, actually stayed rather than immigrated. If they stayed when your family immigrated, then you have dis-proven them. However, this strategy can be a little tricky because of the massive amount of immigration. So look at it from the perspective that staying behind would answer your question.

Remember, what happens when you assume

Never just accept an entry from an index as your ancestor unless you have enough information to positively prove your case. If you do not know some information such as parent’s names, siblings names, or mother’s maiden name, then you certainly cannot use age, or even first names to necessarily identify a correct entry. In these cases, you are still working with an immigrant research problem, not an Irish research problem.

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You Know What Happens When we Assume

I want to reiterate why you should question what you’re seeing in online indexes. As more databases come online, I am noticing an explosion of incorrect assumptions drawn. I do understand why certain assumptions are made. The time period is correct; the name is unusual; the children’s names are familiar. It just makes sense.

For example, in dealing with an uncommon given name and common surname, I had a client find a naturalization record online for someone in Georgia with that exact name. However, the ancestor settled on the western Pennsylvania frontier. The migration pattern simply did not fit. Could it have been possible? Yes, as anything is possible. Was it probable? No. This is where knowing early nineteenth century migration patterns was usually from Pennsylvania down into Georgia; not the other way around.

Asking Additional Questions is Essential in Research

In another case, a client had found online a rather common surname in a medium sized town in the 1860 U.S. Census of the city’s poor house, except the father was missing. His name was the unusual one and would have acted as the identifier. I immediately suspected the odd first name pointed to him having Irish Quaker roots. I already knew this common, typically Irish Catholic surname, was also quite prominent in Irish Quaker circles. My subject was not a Catholic; rather was buried in a Baptist cemetery. I automatically began wondering about the Irish Catholics in the city with that surname. Were they actually the ones in the poor house? The mother and children had common Irish given names. The questions themselves not only opened up possibilities, but I believed helped in making correct decisions about which direction to go next.

In the next blog, I will continue with other examples. Always be careful about thinking you have found your ancestor in a database.

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