Irish genealogy research can be challenging in many ways.
Most of us hit a “wall” around the early 1800s. Church records start around that time; census records pre-1901 have been largely lost; land records are hit or miss; and civil records weren’t widely kept until the 2nd half of the 1800s. But all hope is not lost… The explosion of DNA testing in the last decade has made it possible to find blood relatives who live in Ireland *today* no matter where we live in the world.
In 2012, I met one of those distant relatives in person, thanks to a Y-DNA link. Now I’m finding many more relatives in Ireland via autosomal DNA, and you can too…
Here’s the method I’m using that you can try if you’ve tested with MyHeritageDNA OR uploaded your DNA to MyHeritage, which is a great place to find Europe-based DNA matches (note: I am not an affiliate of MyHeritage, and not being incentivized for writing this in any way):
- Go to your DNA Matches page on MyHeritage.
- Click or tap Filters at the top, then where it says Locations, select Ireland. This will filter all of your matches to only those who list their current location as Ireland.
- Click or tap Sort by at the top, and select Largest Segment. This is my preference because it will find matches where you share a big chunk of DNA, potentially (though not always) increasing the odds of a more “recent” in time set of common ancestors.
- Start a spreadsheet – I use Google Sheets, you can use Excel or whatever works for you. Set up columns like Match Name, Age (you’ll often see a range like “60s”), cM Shared, Total Segments, Largest Segment Size, Chromosome (which chromosome you match on the largest segment), Start (beginning point of largest Chr. match), End (end point of largest Chr. match), Triangulated Matches (if you recognize any, note them here), Locations, and Likely Side (family you likely connect on). I also have a Phased column for when I have segment already phased to a specific ancestor.
- Enter the details of your top match, as much as you can find from their MyHeritage page.
- Create a new ‘sheet’ or tab in your file for each match. This is where you’ll try to create a family tree for them. Here’s one of mine with their name, parents, grandparents, etc. (all blacked out for their privacy), just to show you where I’m going with this:
- If they have a family tree, put the names, dates and locations they provide. For living individuals, I usually just put “Mr.” or “Ms.” and then the surname.
- This is where the fun comes in, especially if you’re lucky enough that they list back to at least their grandparents. Now you’re going to grow their tree, take it back in time and confirm locations if they didn’t provide them. Pull up the Irish Civil Records that are digitized and online. Start to search for their grandparents and find their marriage if possible. Fathers’ names will be listed. Find the grandparents’ births if possible. Record what you find in your spreadsheet, including townlands, parishes and counties.
- Once you find the grandparents, try to go another generation back. Then repeat. See how far back you can take them, narrowing on the surnames and geography of interest. Now this isn’t always easy with common names, but if you’re lucky you’ll have some uncommon ones or can piece together the trickier ones with occupations, checking witnesses, corroborating between records, etc.
- Utilize church records as well to fill in gaps or grow the tree. Consider subscribing to a site that has already transcribed millions of records like RootsIreland.ie, even if just for 24 hours (one of the options).
- Consider checking trees that have already been created on FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, etc. to see if you can find the family. But do this at your own risk, user-generated trees can be wrong. Use them as a guide and verify with civil, church and Irish census records that are online.
- Once you’ve exhausted available records and you’re stuck, return to the first page of the spreadsheet, and update with locations for that matches’ family, surnames if you’d like or other notes. Update your educated guess on the family line you may connect through.
- Move on to the next match and repeat.
Through this process, I’ve found some really amazing things…
- One match has all 4 grandparents from Birr, Co Offaly, just a few kilometers from Eyrecourt, Parish of Clonfert, Co Galway where my ancestor Patrick KILLEEN was born in 1809. Surely we connect through him.
- One match has roots in Virginia, Co Cavan, extremely close to Bruise, Co Cavan where my ancestor Ann FITZSIMMONS was born in 1824.
- One match has roots in Askeaton, Co Limerick, almost the exact spot my immigrant ancestor Thomas KENNELLY was from (likely born in nearby Glin Parish c1820). I also have numerous autosomal DNA links to the Cornelius KENNELLY family of Askeaton Parish.
- One match has roots in northern Co Monaghan, Northern Ireland, a stone’s throw away from Dromore Parish, Co Tyrone where my ancestor John McQUAID was born in 1836. Surely we link through him.
Even though the common ancestors predate records, and I haven’t seen familiar surnames on every match (though I have spotted common surnames for a few), the locations are right on to where my DNA matches should be today in Ireland. Incredibly, they are within a 5 or 10-mile radius or less for where some of my ancestors were born. I wouldn’t have ever known that without going through the matches and building out their trees one by one.
Most of the matches DO NOT list exact locations for their grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. Only names. But that’s where the Irish civil and church records came in, providing those locations.
Next up: I could start writing to these matches and letting them know where I suspect the connection lies. You never know what might come from it, could be worth a try… Give this a shot with your own Irish matches, and let me know what you find!
Craig Kanalley 
80 responses to “How To Make Connections With Living Distant Cousins in Ireland 🇮🇪”
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