John Donovan

John Donovan is the earliest known ancestor I have. It appears that he was born in Ireland and either did not make the move or moved around the time of the Irish potato famine. Irish genealogy is a tough nut to crack, but with persistence I should be able to overcome this issue. The biggest problem I have is the distance between me and the records. Researching these families from Alabama is tough, if not impossible! But we have a few hints about where John was born. Most likely he was born in County Cork, Ireland since there are a lot of Donovan's there. Unfortunately, there are little, if any, records of the massive flight of Irish families during the potato famine. If anyone has any hints I'd love to hear them about how to research genealogy in Ireland in this era.

The Roberts mystery

The problems of researching the family you don't know anything about. I'll bet that it's like a professional genealogist researching a family for someone. There's very little evidence or word-of-mouth about the family I'm looking into. The only one I'm sure about is Edith Roberts (1883-1976), and we know that her father is John Roberts based on the marriage record. We know that he was dead by December 1915, because the marriage record indicates it. Now, from other family members, we know that he was a sailor, and the rumor is that her family was from Wales. Of the records available from 1883-1911, the 3 census records available only narrow the results down a little. Looking at the records that have Edith born between 1881-1885, and who have a John Roberts as a father, we get about 10 people who fit the description. My great-aunt says her mother's name was Maria, and if that's the case, then John was anything but a sailor. One job was a leather stretcher for car seat belts. This is a tough nut to crack, and I'm not sure of how to find out what her mother's name is. My other option is to look for John Roberts death record, but how do we find out which John Roberts is the right one when we don't know for sure which one it will be!

The First Post!

I'm making this blog to try to connect with people that may be related to me. If you find a common ancestor, drop me a line or comment on a post and let me know how we are related! This side of my family is a bit tougher to research than my dad's, but I have still done a pretty good job all things considered. All comments welcome!