hi all. looking for my family. i'm thinking the dead ones might be more

[mopinko]

interesting than the live ones these days. :P

i am actually trying to document my claim to irish (dual) citizenship, which i am entitled to on both sides of the family. i had an aunt that did a good job of laying out the pedigree on my dad's side. don't have actual docs, but have pretty much all the info i need. but i thought it would be interesting to do my mom's side. i also thought it would be easier, as they lived in chicago for a couple generations.
i quickly hit the wall, tho, as i am unable to locate records of either my mom's or her brother's birth. i suspect they were born at home, and not recorded. i am sure there is a baptismal certificate somewhere that would do, legally. just have to track down the parish. any west side (chicago) irish out there who would know the irish parish?
have both my grandparents death certs, which is leading me to a little info. didn't find anything in ellis island records, except that my grandpa went back at least once.
just not able to do this all from a keyboard, i guess.

anyway, what i was really wondering from the folks here is-
#!-just how the hell did these private companies, like choicepoint (!), end up owning all the old public documents in this country? you can't even freakin' look at shit. cook county now has all their old records online, but it costs you $15 a pop to look at the actual docs! i'm sure all this was expensive to do, but jeeeez. even just ordering a form online is kinda nuts, and that is less time than opening letters and taking phone calls.

#2- any recommendations for software, or websites that are worth anything? i know that the apple store sells a couple, but not sure if they are worth the $50. i am already starting to get confused, tho, and need to do something.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. When did the family members come over, and roughly when were they born?

If you know with a fair degree of accuracy when they were born and in which county, that's a good start. If you know something more than the county name you can get closer to determining the parish. My lines are from Galway and Mayo. The Galway male ancestor's record of birth was quite easy to find. The female Galway/Mayo border one I haven't found yet but I know the names of the townland where the family lived when she was a child and the town where her parents are buried based on the American family's records. There are county historical societies that will search the records for a fee.

Before you go to the Irish records, check the LDS site (www.family search.org) There are some Irish records indexed there -- I found the birth record for the brother of my male immigrant ancestor, but not him. I found cousins of my female ancestor but no one from her own family.

Also check the resources of FIANNA to become better acquainted with finding Irish records
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fianna/


There's a good site maintained by the Irish Times with some helpful tools but no primary VRs.
http://www.ireland.com/ancestor/


This is another fee site (fairly cheap) with a lot of records, but not VRs.
http://www.originsnetwork.com/


(as an aside, is Edison Park considered west side of Chicago? )

[mopinko]

2. thanks.

thanks for the links. i was reluctant to use the lds site, as i had heard to many bad things about it. i suppose it is a place to start, just with a grain of salt.

edison park is what ya call da nortwet side. what i know about my mom's family is the north austin area. a couple of them lived over the border in oak park. lot of them were my dad's family. my mom just had a smaller brood. dad's family was a little more typical irish catholic.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. One note about the LDS site.

The bad rep comes from the LDS user-submitted family trees. If you find a record that looks promising, check the source field. There ARE transcriptions of real records indexed -- you just need to pay attention.



A couple of branches of my Irish-American clan ended up in Edison Park and it seemed that everyone had Irish surnames around them. None of them live there now.

[Rosie1223]

4. Your profile says you're in Chicago

Check the Newberry Library. www.newberry.org

They have a huge amount of genealogy and government documentation and is free and open to the public. I haven't been there myself, but I have used their online lookups. They might have just what you need.

[mopinko]

5. that site came up with on the google

but i was tired, and didn't see anything but their "card catalogue"
i will try again with my eyes open. thanks.

[CBHagman]

6. Some useful activities.

1. City directories are your friends. If your local library or family history center has city directories on microfilm, you can track your relatives' progress around various areas. Pick an era, pick a last name, pick a city and away you go.

2. Local historical and genealogical societies can be a godsend for all sorts of basic records. I've got copies of marriage records, birth and death certificates, city directory listings, and even wills from a genealogical society.

3. Try posting queries on online genealogy forums. I've located a couple of cousins that way, and lots of data and leads.

4. See if your local library will allow you to access Census data and other genealogically interesting stuff for free, and right from home. My local library allows access to HeritageQuest to anyone with a home computer and a library card number.

5. No, you can't do it all online. Get ready to make enlarged photocopies of your ID, fill out and mail forms, and sit by mailbox. A lot of it's still down to getting access to records, and you're going to have to deal with the privacy laws to boot.

And exercise both a healthy degree of patience and skepticism. You'll need the skepticism because even official records contain errors, and don't get me started on transcription mistakes.

Good luck and let us know how you're doing!

[fudge stripe cookays]

7. Check here too...

IRAD is really helpful:

http://www.ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/deathsrch.html (Deaths to 1916)

http://www.ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/idphdeathsrch.html (Deaths 1916-1950)

http://www.ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/marrsrch.html (Marriages 1763-1900)