BlogTalkRadio: Irish Roots: lots of fun, lots of info

Hi everyone,

I really enjoyed being part of the GeneaBloggers BlogTalkRadio show, listening to everyone on the radio, and reading all the lines on the chat feed.

The show was a journey through the history and geography of Ireland.

Brian Mitchell's lovely Ulster accent was enough to keep anyone tuned in, but he also made some great points about how important it is to know where in Ireland your ancestors originated. By the way, I love his new iPad application because, as its name says, it is Irish genealogy "at a glance". There is a lot of information on it and links within the app to valuable web destinations. Give it a look.

Sharon Sargeant reiterated the critically important role of Geography in searching for your Irish ancestors. I felt as though I could visualize all of us travelling over the landscape of Ireland from the Provinces into the Counties, and the Baronies, and down into the Townlands.

Lisa from Small Leaf Shamrock began her segment with Eavan Boland's "That the Science of Cartography is Limited". Hearing Lisa read this Boland poem just lit me up because I wrote my Master's Thesis on Boland's work; the title of the thesis is "Creating a Trace of Her", and it is essentially about finding the women of Ireland in the history and geography of the land.

Mary Ellen Grogan gave the best breakdown and explanation of Griffith's Valuation that I think I have ever heard. If you haven't used Griffith's Valuation, make sure you take a good look at it, and visit Mary's links (via GeneaBloggers) to get a better understanding of how to make it work for you. By the way, if you want to see a picture of Griffith's grave just pop on over to 'Over thy dead body' and do a site search.

For my segment of the show, "the Famine and Famine ships in 10 minutes or less", I gave a very brief snapshot of what went on in the period of the second Great Famine 1845-1851/52 and all the resources available if you are looking for ancestors who emigrated in that period. I'll post the full list of research links tomorrow.

Debra Large Fox reminded us of the importance of Irish Oral history and making connections with other researchers. Personally I belong to a number of academic organizations, and to Cumann Geinealais na hÉireann: The Genealogical Society of Ireland and the Ulster Historical Foundation, but Debra made me realize that perhaps I should join some local organizations as well. (I'm just going to have to create a 36 hour day). You never know where you might make a connection.

At the heart of it all was, of course, the HEARTH of our GeneaBloggers community, Thomas MacEntee. I don't know if he will ever know how much he means to all of us, and here words fail me. I just want to say Thank You Thomas for creating this community.

Cheers,
Jennifer