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 actualContinue reading “Ancestry Travel: Preparing to Visit Northern Ireland”

Identifying John Wilson’s Irish Origins, Part 3: Documentary Evidence & 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 findingsContinue reading “Identifying John Wilson’s Irish Origins, Part 3: Documentary Evidence & Conclusions”

Identifying John Wilson’s Irish Origins, Part 2: Autosomal DNA Analysis

Having identified the probable ancestral origin of John Wilson (1716-1799) using Y-DNA in Part 1 of the blog post series, Part 2 uses autosomal DNA (at-DNA). The purpose here is to provide corroborating evidence that John’s ancestral origin is County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland as well as to offer greater geographic specificity within the county. Compared to Y-DNA,Continue reading “Identifying John Wilson’s Irish Origins, Part 2: Autosomal DNA Analysis”

Identifying John Wilson’s Irish 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 toContinue reading “Identifying John Wilson’s Irish Origins, Part 1: Y-DNA Analysis”