Last Updated on April 14, 2024 by Travelationship
We have all seen the commercials on TV for Ancestry.com, and I am sure some of you have even contemplated signing up and digging into your family tree. Well, I did just that. Then, I followed it up by planning a trip centered on doing some actual on-the-ground searching. For those who haven’t signed up for an account, the main limitation stems from the inability to view the names or records of anyone still alive. This little wrinkle makes it harder to shake hands with a distant relative. I wasn’t going to let that stand in my way, though.
Ancestry Gets the Search Started
I planned to amass as much information as possible, get to the town listed, and place local inquiries. First up, I searched my father’s line. As I started my research, the first relatives I could find born outside of North America were from Kilkenny, Ireland. I was hot on the trail now, or so I thought. Further research into Kilkenny led me to discover that it was a town and a county. Consequently, as the county seat, Kilkenny was the primary records center, and entries could be made for anywhere in the county.
Persistence and comparing many other users’ family trees to mine led to my first clue. My relatives appeared to be from a little town called Three Castles in Kilkenny County. I had my first solid lead as my great-great-great-grandfather and his father were both known to be buried in the area. Unfortunately, tiny towns typically mean small amounts of Internet information. I didn’t let that deter me as I started to search for cemeteries in the area. That’s when I got my first lucky break from a blog called “Ireland In Ruins” by someone dubbed Castlehunter. A photo on his blog matched one I had seen posted on Ancestory.com, and now I knew the cemetery I was looking for. As a bonus, Castlehunter included directions to the old church and cemetery: Yahtzee!
On the Ground in Ireland
The moment of truth had come, and I was on the ground in Ireland with Heather and my parents. We rented a car and stayed in Kilkenny, as Three Castles is tiny and only 7 miles away. We followed Castlehunter’s directions to the cemetery and only managed to get ourselves turned around a few times. As we parked the car, I started to get excited. We headed up the walkway towards the church and proceeded to enter the grounds, and suddenly, I became aware of my accelerating heartbeat. Thanks to some help from another user on Ancestor.com, I had a picture of the gravestones I sought.
As I showed the image to everyone, it became like a game for a moment to see who could find them first. Within a few minutes, we located them, and then we took another few minutes to soak it all in. It is odd to have some attachment to a stone planted in the ground with words carved in it, but I did. After that, we each examined the grounds and scoured the other headstones for more possible family members. We were excited that it was working out so well, but what happened next was unreal.
From a Longshot to a Jackpot
After we left the church, we just wanted to drive through the town of Three Castles to get more of a feel for the place. I had spotted some cows that I was thinking of taking some photos of on our first pass and pulled over on the way back to do so. That is when my dad noticed a man doing some yard work and decided to go over and chat for a moment.
It turns out the man knew some people still in the area who shared our last name and gave us directions to their place. Twenty minutes later, we were knocking on the door of the house of a potential relative. We had gone to Ireland, thinking we might get lucky and find a few graves. However, thanks to my dad for taking a complete shot in the dark, we spent the next hour or so having tea and cake and talking with our family. It felt like straight out of a movie; we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.
Next up was tracing my mother’s heritage in Sicily. Would we be so lucky again? Stay tuned…
Have you ever gone searching for your ancestors, any luck? We would love to hear your stories.
Read About Our Road Trip Through Ireland
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Very interesting. In India, since we used to have a joint family system, our lines are quite visible. Maybe I should just go make a trip and visit them all. Should be fun . Thanks for the inspiration .
Ami @ http://www.thrillingtravel.in
Ami, I wish others countries were half as organized as India sounds to be. I think for sure you should plan a trip to visit your relatives, it was a great experience. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Ami- Definitely recommend it. Please let us know how it goes for you.
I have been doing genealogy on my birth family since the early ’80’s. For someone who is adopted that is extremely difficult when you have no names to go by. In 1991 in my birth city of Madison, WI, I got the big break. I was able to obtain my original birth certificate. This led to me asking for the birth certificates of my sister, brother, birthparents. It is illegal in Wisconsin for adoptees to search for their families. I didn’t know this at the time. The clerk who was very adoptee-searching friendly let me know that my birth father had changed his last name in 1949 when the state of WI learned that he had been using his step-father’s surname. This was the big break as well as my sister’s certificate that stated there were 4 living children before her. The clerk pointed me to the huge ledgers in the next room. I spent some time perusing the books. Hint: sealed records are blacked out but if you discreetly hold them up to the light you can read the names blacked out. If you searched old newspapers for birth announcements in the local papers at the library you may come up with some real gems. On all of our certificates it lists the parents of the mother and father. Names, state or country of birth are included. Sometimes only the country and not the actual city. Ancestry now has birth records from other countries. My great-grandfather was listed as coming from King of Kings. Had no idea where that was so I googled it. Not much info except that it was a region in Italy. It took another 10 years before I discover a photo of my great-uncle’s application for a passport that listed the city as Naples, Italy. My great-grandfather had emigrated from Italy in the 1840’s. He met and married an American born Irish girl. Somewhere along the line they separated after having 8 children. Still not sure of the circumstances. She took the 2 youngest with her to Wisconsin. One of those was my grandfather who married a German/English woman who family can be traced to indentured servants on the Mayflower. They were also generals in the Am. Revolution fighting alongside Gen. George Washington. In June of this year I met a long lost 4th cousin from this side of the family. I was the only member of the Wolf family that he had ever met. DNA is what connected us. I have found over 200 matches on my DNA. My husband and I attended the Wolf family reunion in Minneapolis and had a wonderful time. I hope that I will be able to find more on my Irish great-great-grandparents. Her name is Bridget. She married ? Kane. There are thousands of Kane family members – but which one is mine. I’ve only seen 1 reference on Ancestry regarding my g-g-grandmother visiting my g-grandmother during a census. Also my g-grandfather’s Italian lineage is still a mystery. I do know that his father was Michael Angelo Gilberti or Giliberti. They changed it to Gilbert when they arrived in America. They lived in Brooklyn, Kings, NY. I know the info will come to me eventually and I search every day for it. I am planning a trip to the east coast to do more research sometime next year. Then I hope to visit my g-g-grandparents homelands of Ireland and Italy. Oh. My maternal side was easier. She was born in the USA but her parents were both Swiss. After finding my birth records I found my older sister the same day and she filled me in on the other siblings. We found a younger brother. We still have 2 younger ones to find. The sister, brother I grew up with and me were 3 of 10 children. My brother is gone now but I was so glad that shortly before he died I was able to tell him about his Italian roots.
Karen, Sounds like this has been quite the journey. I wish you the best of luck and hope you are able to track down your two remaining sisters. Thanks for sharing.