Sunday 2 March 2014

The 5Ws - Where did they come from?

 I wrote in last month's  post that Who, What, When, Where and Why will guide me in this and subsequent posts for my contributions to this blog. I wrote two Who posts so thought I would attack the next on the list WHAT and now I am quite flummoxed as to how I should describe the WHAT of my genealogical activities.

Should it be:

What am I researching?
What do I use to research? 
What involvement do I have in the geneaworld?

As a born procrastinator I will park the What post for the moment and move on to Where.


Where my earliest ancestors came from:


Richard Aspinall - Wigan, Lancashire, England

Katherine Bowe - Kilkenny, Ireland
Catherine Connolly - Kilkenny, Ireland
Mary Cregan - Eniskillen, Fermanagh, Ireland
Patrick Curry - Clare, Ireland
Eliza D'Arcy - Templemore, Tipperary, Ireland
James Duncan - Aberdeen, Scotland
Robert Hayward - Oxfordshire, England
James Homer - Manchester, Lancashire, England
Patrick Kealy - Ballyfoyle, Kilkenny, Ireland
Catherine Maxwell - Glasgow, Scotland
Margaret McRone/McKeon - A mystery woman
Michael Molloy, Meath, Ireland
Eleanor Moore - Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Elizabeth Phipps - London, England
James Pusell - Warrington, Lancashire, England
Bridget Ryan - Kilbeggan, Westmeath, Ireland
Dennis Tierney - Roscrea, Tipperary, Ireland
John Tucker - Datchet, Buckinghamshire, England
James Westbrook - London, England

Looks like my blood is mostly Irish with a good dose of English and a dash of Scottish.


Using Google Maps I created a custom map to show where those ancestors came from. The birth places of my ancestors can be found on the map below. You can use your mouse to navigate around the map.




So that's where I come from. How about you?


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I'll be blogging here again on the 2nd of next month. In the meantime, I'll be blogging at http://geniaus.blogspot.com . You can find me on Google+ as Jill Ball and sometimes on Twitter as @geniaus

11 comments:

  1. I'd always thought that I had mostly English ancestry with a few other "bits" - but now find it is 1/4 Scots, 1/5 Irish, 1/10 American and only 1/2 English with some whispers of possible Chinese and Indigenous in there as well ..the latter two will be the challenge to determine I expect

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  2. I too have an ancestor born at Enniskillen, Fermanagh, Ireland. Mary Jane NICHOLSON, b.c.1830 (sometimes listed as Sarah Jane) may have been the daughter of a soldier, possibly Richard NICHOLSON, but there is conflicting evidence. At the moment she is in the 'too hard' basket, but I'll get back to her someday.

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    1. Judy, There is a record at PRONI that should provide a clue for my Famine Orphan Girl. Look forward to getting to Ireland to view it one day.

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  3. Mine are mostly from Wales (OWEN from Anglesey, LLOYD and DAVIES from Cardiganshire). Though there were whispers of a French man or woman in there somewhere.

    The other half is a mixture of Irish (DELANEY, Wicklow/Wexford and GAMIN, or possibly CANNELL, from who-knows-where); SIMPSON (Yorkshire); MARSHALL (Manchester area); RICHARDS and WICKING (Deptford, Kent); HARRINGTON (Hackney, London/Middlesex); HENLEY (Hastings); HOGARTH and WINTER (Westmorland); GRAHAM (Cumberland); and BELL and RICHARDSON (Durham).

    Then there are my big brick walls, WILSON and BAYL(E)Y, from... ?

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  4. A thought provoking post and I enjoyed your approach to the question "Where". My own ancestors are very firmly English - Danson and Rawcliffe from the Lancashire Fylde, and my brick wall surname is actually English!; also Weston and Matthews from the West Midlands - Wolverhampton and Shropshire. On my husband's side, they were mariners so span Leith in Scotland, South Shield on the Tyne, Scarborough, London's docklands, and Portmouth (Donaldson, Moffet , and Iley White), plus In Northumberland the lovely evocative name of Hawkyard - there was a family story here of Irish connections, but I have never found any.

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    1. I should do Mr GeniAus 's family as well - quiute a number come from your neck of the woods.

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  5. Plenty of Kilkenny people there Jill. I'd be quite happy to know the "where" for a few of my Irish....at least back beyond a certain point in time.

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  6. I may just have to try this approach to the families I research, both mine and those of my hubby. Fun idea.

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  7. You are so talented. Love this approach. Now if I can figure out how you did it.

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  8. I love the map! I've used custom Google Maps to track the dislocations of my ancestors families during WWI and WWII.

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