Ancestry Travel Debrief: My Visit to Northern Ireland

Ancestry Travel Debrief: A visit to Northern Ireland

Last month, I visited County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland to discover more about my Wilson ancestry. I’m still on a high having exceeded my ancestry travel goals. I met my Wilson cousins who still farm the same land from 400 years ago. I visited 17th century castles, 18th century estates, and ate like a king. I … Read more

Ancestry Travel: Preparing to Visit Northern Ireland

Ancestry Travel: Preparing to visit Northern Ireland

Have you ever wanted to visit the ancestral homeland for one of your ancestors? Not sure where or how to begin? Engaging in ancestry travel, or what the industry also calls heritage travel, can be daunting. For one, it can be expensive. It also takes years of genealogy and DNA research to identify the actual … Read more

Identifying John Wilson’s Irish Origins, Part 3: Documentary Evidence & Conclusions

Identifying John Wilson's ancestral origins, part 3: Documentary evidence and conclusions

Using both Y-DNA and autosomal DNA (at-DNA) in the previous two blog posts, the ancestral origin of John Wilson (1716-1799) appears to be in an area east of Enniskillen, which is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The purpose of the final blog post is to use documentary evidence to corroborate previous findings … Read more

Identifying John Wilson’s Irish Origins, Part 1: Y-DNA Analysis

Identifying John Wilson's ancestral origins, part 1: Y-DNA Analysis

Have you been fortunate enough to trace one of your American ancestors back to the 1700s but found no records indicating where in Europe they originated? Oh, and what if you are “lucky” enough for this ancestor to have a common or occupationally derived surname, such as Smith or Miller, providing no clues as to … Read more