Celtic Connections Conference, Day 2

I'm back home now after a long day! I started off Day 2 of the Celtic Connections Conference with Sheila O'Rourke Northrup's presentation on Irish immigration patterns. It was a very interesting lecture on an important topic. She mentioned the Erie Canal and its expansion, which is relevant to my family history. I then attended Brian Donovan's lecture "Murderers, Rebels and Drunkards: Your Irish Ancestors and the Law." Considering how many black sheep ancestors I have (and I keep finding more!), I may need this information! I then heard Bill Budde talk about Celtic timelines. During lunch, we heard a performance of traditional Irish songs. I then attended Kyle Betit's presentation on society records, which was of great interest to me because one of my ancestors was a member of the Repeal Association. The day ended with John Grenham's lecture on the reasons we sometimes cannot find Irish ancestors in online records when they are there, and ways to improve our chances. It was a great conference! The next one will be in Minnesota in 2016. I hope I will be able to go: I could combine the conference with a research trip!

Celtic Connections Conference, Day 1

Today was the first day of the Celtic Connections Conference, presented in Waltham, Massachusetts by The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA) and the Irish Genealogical Society International (IGSI). After the introduction and welcome, Brian Donovan spoke about http://www.findmypast.com and its resources for researching Irish family history. I then heard Kyle Betit talk about landed estate papers, and then attended Marie Daly's presentation "Researching Irish Domestic Servants." At lunchtime, Sean Ó Dúill spoke about the Irish Gaelic language. I then heard John Grenham speak about Irish church records. He mostly talked about Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland records, but he also discussed other denominations. Next, I was originally supposed to hear Dwight Radford talk about the Irish who stopped along the way before coming to the United States. I had been looking forward to this presentation, since some of my Irish ancestors lived in Scotland before going to the United States. Unfortunately, Dwight Radford was unable to be at the conference. But at least I have the lecture handout in the syllabus. Instead, I heard Janice Duffy speak about passenger lists for the port of Boston, 1848-1891. The original manifests are not the same as the ones given to the United States government. Some of them have detailed information about passengers which tells their stories. I had no idea that passenger lists could contain so much information and found this fascinating.

I am looking forward to Day 2 of the conference!