Category Archives: Family History

All Hallows Archives Online

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in Archives, Family History, History, Ireland

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All Hallows

All Hallows College, Dublin was a Catholic Seminary which trained Priests for dioceses across the world.

The College was opened in 1842, and from 1892 was run by the Vincentians, like most seminaries, the decline in vocations in the second half of the 20th century led to its demise, from 2008 the College became part of Dublin University.

The College archives have now been digitised and are available online through their website, these include photographic records of former students, and copies of the College Magazine, these will be of tremendous help to genealogists tracing their ancestors who were educated here.

The archive can be viewed here

 

DNA Testing – Is it worth it?

07 Monday May 2018

Posted by in Family History, General Information

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Having been researching my family history since my teenage years, largely through Ancestry.com I decided in March, after much deliberation, to undertake a DNA test. The popularity of these tests for genealogical purposes has become very popular lately, particular as a result of television advertising

After paying my fee of £79, I received my DNA kit in the post, the test involves filling a test tube with saliva, I sent the test-tube back on 12 March and had the results within a month.

The results have three main areas.

Screen Shot 2018-05-07 at 23.01.32

  1. DNA Story

This is supposed to pinpoint which parts of the world your DNA markers originate from. The results however are in my view slightly spurious, they undertake this test by sampling a couple of thousand individuals with long proven family backgrounds in different regions of the world, then match your DNA makers to theirs. Although this may seem like a very small sample base for a world population of more than 7 billion, apparently Ancestry has the largest sample base of any of the DNA companies.

Having traced all lines of my ancestry back to at least the 1700s (and many much further), I have found my background to be a quarter Irish and three quarters English.

Screen Shot 2018-05-07 at 23.05.12

These are my results from the Ancestry DNA story, the 27% Irish being as expected, however 65% from Western Europe, and only 5% from England, came as something of a surprise, I have found no European ancestry, only English so far, this is presumably suggesting that almost every single one of my English ancestral lines originated in Europe, a fact that I find unlikely.

  1. DNA Matches

This section matches you up to other people who have taken the test and who share DNA markers with you, delineated by siblings, 1stcousins, 2ndcousins, 3rdcousins etc.

Screen Shot 2018-05-07 at 23.10.18

It is in this area that for me the DNA test has been worthwhile, it connected me with four 3rdcousins (meaning we share a great grandparent). I contacted all four of these people, the first two I found were descendants of my father’s paternal grandmother’s siblings, including a line I had previously been unable to work out. The third was a granddaughter of my Mother’s maternal grandmother’s elder sister who had emigrated to America in the 1910s and the family had lost contact with – the family live in Buffalo on the banks of Lake Eerie, the final 3rdcousin turned out to be granddaughter of the illegitimate son of my father’s paternal grandfather’s brother, the discovery of this line has solved many mysteries in both our families.

The downside of this is that your shared matches have made their family trees private, as many people have, it is very difficult to work out family connections.

  1. DNA Circles

These it seems are linking you with distant cousins around a particular shared ancestor. I am still waiting for these to develop.

Screen Shot 2018-05-07 at 23.17.24

In conclusion, while I treat the DNA story with some dubiousness, for me the DNA matches have made the whole process worthwhile, after only a month I have made contact with distant cousins and have filled out some unknown lines of my family tree, and for this purpose I would recommend it.

Family History Research Conference

09 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by in Conference, Family History

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Catholic Family History Society

NW Region

 IMGP1196Family History Research Conference

 

Would you like to have some help in finding your ancestors?

Please come and join us Saturday, May 12th2018, 2pm-6pm

Venue – Holy Cross Parish Hall,

370 Liverpool Rd. Patricroft, Eccles, Manchester M30 8QD

Programme

2pm     Coffee & Registration

2.30     Introduction followed by

How to start your search and carry on further

Presentation by Dr. Brenda Hustler

3.30     Discuss your own research problems with Brenda

Other help desks also available

4pm     Afternoon Tea

4.30      How to use the Margaret Higgins Database

(275,000 Catholics in England 1607 – 1840)

Speaker,  David Hustler

5-6 pm   Return to the search

 

                             Book with Mrs Jean Smith,

                  10 Irving Close, Woodsmoor, Stockport SK2 7DX

                               jeansmith1934@talktalk.net

                                    (Tel:  0161-483-9199)

                    Cost for conference p.p  £12.00 payable in advance

                  Cheques made payable please to:  CFHS (N.W.Region)