My Irish Quest
Submitted by GFH Grace@aol.com

It has been several months since I have been in a National Archive or FHC.

I was at a FHC the last time I was searching. I was reading microfiche. I had gotten nowhere, and my eyes were aching and I developed a splitting headache. I decided that day to take a break from the most frustrating search of my life.

Doing Irish genealogy can bring out all of the emotions known to man. I have gone through each and every feeling of frustration, anger, joy and sorrow. I asked myself that day, "Why do I continue to keep looking for folks that I did not even know?" That day I hit the proverbial "brick wall." I decided that I would take a break from the films and seek some information on the Internet.

Realizing that chances were slim, I still went ahead and looked at all the websites I could find. I knew that my ancestors came from Derry, and that I had to find a birth registration.

After many failed trips to the FHC looking for a birth registration, I sent out queries on message boards on the Internet, and I queried my names on many Irish mail lists. I also went into genealogy rooms on the Internet looking for clues on where I may finally be able to document the birth in Ireland. It was through one of these genealogy rooms that I had a stroke of luck. This happened in a general genealogy conference room. When you go into these rooms, you are asked to put up your names in the room to help you find a connection. All the time I was doing this, I used to think I was kidding myself.

I was the only one in my entire family that was doing the family history. Luckily for me, I was wrong. A friend told me about a site with the same name I was looking for. I went to the site, scrolled down the page, and then I see my grandfather's name! The birth date was right, and so was place of birth. I found him. After all these years, here was the information I have sought for so many years. After corresponding with the website owner, I received the documentation that I needed to connect my grandfather to Ireland. Hope set in again! I found him and I found my great-grandparents too. The journey to get to this piece of information was very long.

I started collecting my family history in a scrapbook when I was about thirteen years old. I saved letters, cards, announcements, obits, and whatever was printed about my family. Through the years, I have researched in Washington, D,C. at the National Archives and at the Archives in Laguna Niguel, CA. I have gone to any public library that had a collection of emigrant records, and practically every FHC from San Diego to Los Angeles. I belong to the local Genealogy Society and make use of their library. I use my notes that I made of the conversations with my Derry grandfather to search for the correct documentation. There were many duplications of the name I sought, so the search was not easy. Anyone doing the research of the Irish soon come to realize that the county name alone is not enough, and that Baronies, and Poor Law Unions and Townland names are needed also. Nowhere in my notes did I have these pieces of the puzzle.

I have always said that when I had found my great-grandparents that I would stop my research. I know now that I probably will not stop, for I found another name on that birth registration. I know that my grandfather would not want me to stop. He would want me to get to know about his mother's family too. I realize now that my supposition that it would not be too hard to find my ancestral roots was naive. I will be back at the FHC again and I will continue looking on the Internet. Somewhere I will find another piece to add to my history. I made the decision to do my family history so that my children and grandchildren would know of their Irish heritage. I also want them to know of the grandfather who was responsible for getting me into this fascinating and obsessive search of mine. Grandpa was worth the many emotions I have gone through, so the quest goes on.