Cruising delays Posts

We returned from a cruise on Memorial Day Monday. In addition to souvenirs, I brought back a cough and have been under the weather ever since.

Cruise recap: We flew from Indy to Chicago to Dublin, Ireland on May 13 and checked into the Arlington Hotel near the O'Connell Street Bridge. The afternoon was spent wandering Dublin. Various souvenir shops and Marks & Spencer Department Store were among the stops.

On the 14th we took a bus trip to Galway. The primary purpose of the trip was that it stopped in the village of Cong. Cong doubled for Innisfree in John Ford's 1951 classic "The Quiet Man" [John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglan, Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald, etc.]. It is one of our all time favorites. Cong was the lunch stop, so we picked up sandwiches, chips and drinks at a rest stop and ate on the bus. Cong is the stereotypical perfect Irish village, even if it is a tourist stop courtesy of the film. Galway was OK, but focused on a younger generation. We hooked up with Miriam's sister and brother-in-law back in Dublin and had dinner at the Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub, established in 1198.

[Genealogy note: Miriam's Murphy & Malone families were Dubliners.]

We boarded the Celebrity Reflection on the 15th.

May 16 - 1ST PORT: Greenock, Scotland, near Galway. Excursion: Stirling Castle. William Wallace "Braveheart" and Robert the Bruce waged war near the castle. The views of the Scottish countryside from the castle were magnificent. Our guide informed us that Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" renewed interest among the Scots. Scotland's emphasis on history in the classroom was sorely lacking. Sound familiar? Stirling Castle was one of the top excursions!

[Genealogy note: I wandered through a section of the cemetery on the castle grounds. A researcher's dream! The maiden name of the wife was given on nearly every tombstone! ]

May 17th: at sea.

May 18-19 - 2nd PORT: Reykjavik, Iceland: Day 1 - we hopped the shuttle bus into town and walked around Reykjavik. We visited with a local cat and dog, hit numerous shops and visited the main church, an architectural marvel! There was a statue of Leif Erikson out front. On the way into town, the shuttle driver was a bit taciturn to say the least. Our driver back to the ship was great and full of information. He pointed out the house where Churchill stayed during WWII and where President Reagan met with Gorbachev Day 2 saw an excursion to a couple of geothermal plants and a restaurant for geothermal baked bread and tea. Stops were either too short or too long. Probably the weak link of the excursions.

May 20 - 3RD PORT: Akureyri, Iceland: The excursion was to more geothermal sites, Sulphur fields, volcanoes, mountains and a water fall. Descriptions cannot do this excursion justice! The scenery was magnificent! We also crossed one of the places where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. #1 excursion!!

May 21-22: at sea

May 23: 4th PORT - Belfast, Northern Ireland: We toured the historic Crumlin Road Gaol, which closed in the mid-1990s. Our guide was a former guard. The tour included a visit to neighborhoods impacted by the "Troubles" between the Unionist/Loyalists [protestants] and the Nationalist/Republicans [Catholics] beginning in the 1960s.

May 24 - 5th PORT - Cobh [Cove/Queenstown], Cork: Excursion - Blarney Castle. The line to kiss the Blarney Sone was 90 min. and we had two hours on site, so no smooching the rock. I'm eloquent enough, I guess. The Cork countryside was beautiful. We also wandered around Cobh a bit.

[Genealogy note: My 3rd great-grandmother, Catherine O'Neil was a native of County Cork. She may have sailed from Cobh for England where she worked for passage to America.]

May 25 - back to Dublin and the Arlington Hotel. We did a tour of Dublin that included the Book of Kells at Trinity College and Dublin Castle. We took in a dinner show at the hotel as well.

May 26: Home. A 7+ hour flight took 10+ hours thanks to snafus at the Dublin airport and storms in Chicago. We rented a car and drove back to Indy, rather than waiting on the delayed flight that arrived about the time we went to bed.

Somewhere along the line, I picked up a cough and Miriam caught a bug on the flight home. We have been uner the weather since!! Bleah!

Coming up: St. John update.

Advice #9: Online research

There are more and more records and books becoming available online each day. Many are free, others are pay sites and still other pay per usage.

Ancestry, My Heritage, Find My Past: Pay sites, millions of records, books, newspapers and family trees.
FamilySearch: Free, millions of records, books and family trees.

Fold3: pay, military records
Find a Grave: free, cemetery records

Rootsweb: free, family trees

Genweb: free, search for state and county records

Archive.com: free, online copies of books

Various repositories in Great Britain and other countries have searchable databases, pay per record options and research help.

Many organizational libraries [DAR, SAR, etc.] have free searchable databases, but records are available for a fee.

National Archives: Military records and pensions, personnel records. Washington, DC [pre 20th century] and St. Louis [personnel and 20th century military]

There are numerous online pay and free sites not mentioned here.

Advice #8: Societies

Returning to historical and genealogical societies: Join a local, regional or national society, or a combination of the three. Membership is generally reasonable and discounts are available on programs and products. Some of the societies will sponsor research trips to nearby research libraries, Salt Lake City or overseas venues. Most will offer speakers.

Advise #7: Software

Investigate the various family tree software programs that are available. Family Search [LDS], Ancestry, My Heritage, Find My Past, American Ancestors and other research sites have the capacity to host family trees. Using one of these can make your tree available for others to view.

You should have your data on a personal software program as well. There are several available to download for free, others are offered for a fee.

Among the highest rated are RootsMagic, Family Tree Builder, Family Tree Maker, Family Historian and Legacy.

Investigate the various software programs online.

Advice #6: Filing

Come up with a filing system for your research material.

Read articles or books on filing systems of others and then modify to suit your needs.

File folders work well. Some people digitize everything and keep it on their computer.

Advice #5: Document! Document! Document!

Documentation of sources is key to successful research!

Document:

1] Write the date, location and source of each document you find, be it probate, deed, vital record or map. Write the info on the back of each document.

2] Identify photos! On the back or on a note card write who or what is in the photo, when it was taken, by whom it was taken [if possible], who provided the photo.

3] Family trees: identify the source of each birth, marriage and death date for each person on the tree.

4] Local histories, genealogies, etc.: Make a hard copy of each page, write the title, author, publisher, place and date of publication, and page number. Better yet, copy the title page!

5] Family lore and interviews: Write down who said, when they said it and who told it to them.

Advice #4: Check into local opportunities

Many cities and towns have a genealogical or historical society. They generally have a research library. You can volunteer to help man the library, answer research queries, or some other activity. Many local organizations have monthly meetings with speakers brought in on various topics.

Help out or attend the meetings.