Celtic Family History

03/31/2022

This photo was taken on board “The America” shortly before it docked in New York port on 28 April 1929. Unlike their compatriots from previous generations, these arriving Irish passengers were mainly educated and well prepared for the transition to a new and better life in the United States. We have identified many of the happy looking passengers in the photo on behalf of their respective descendants. If any of your ancestors sailed from Ireland (or England) any time after the Great Famine in the mid-1800s, we are confident we can track down their original home in Ireland – and hopefully identify new cousins who may still reside in this country. If you would like to follow-up, please contact: Edward in Dublin (edwdsweeney@gmail.com) and / or Marsha in New Jersey (mstesdal@verizon.net). All we need to get started is a little information about the first immigrant(s) in your family who settled in America. There is no cost or commitment on you for any initial research we carry out.

02/05/2021

The centrepiece of the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park, New York is the ruins of a traditional Irish stone cottage. This 180 year old structure is authentic – it should be as it was moved stone by stone from its original location in Co Mayo. The immediate area surrounding the memorial has been replanted with Irish indigenous grasses, weeds and wild flowers to mimic the landscape in the west of Ireland where the cottage once stood. Two roomed thatched cottages such as this were standard across Ireland in the 19th century, and the ruins of many can still be seen in the rural districts of Ireland. Celtic Family History specializes in tracking down the original home of Irish immigrants who settled in the United States. If you would like to find the homeplace of your ancestors and learn more about your Irish heritage, why not email Marsha (mstesdal@verizon.net); or Ed (edwdsweeney@gmail.com), a genealogist based in Ireland who has an intimate knowledge of this subject. We will carry out a free evaluation - there is no commitment on your part.

10/13/2020

Yes, Mike and Joe have at least one thing in common – their ancestors came from the same region on the Sligo-Mayo border in the West of Ireland.

Mike Pence’s grandfather emigrated to Chicago in 1924. The cottage in which he was raised has now been replaced by the modern house in the picture (discovered by our genealogists and published here for the first time!). Joe’s ancestor left his home in the local town some years earlier and settled in Scranton. The street where the family resided is pictured although the exact location of the original house is uncertain. Both candidates have visited their Irish ancestral homes and met with living relatives.

If you are one of the 10% of Americans with Irish heritage, we can help to build your Irish family tree and to pinpoint the location where your ancestors lived before immigration. Why not email us with whatever detail you have about the first immigrant(s) and we will take it from there. Without any commitment on your part, we will inform you within weeks if the original home can be located – and hopefully discover some long-lost Irish cousins along the way.

edwdsweeney@gmail.com or mstesdal@verizon.net (www.celticfamilyhistory.com)

06/09/2020

A common request we receive is to locate the cottage where ancestors once lived before emigrating to the States. Sometimes we find that the house has been replaced with a modern residence, now the home of cousins who stayed behind. But sadly, many of the structures we discover are just the ruins of the original homestead, often untouched since the last members of the family passed away. The reality is that, for the the vast majority of Irish immigrants in the 1800s, home was a tiny and basic cottage located in the rural village or countryside.
But there were exceptions. Check out the ruins of this palatial mansion which we discovered last year was the ancestral home of one of our clients. What a shock, and welcome surprise, for our client to learn that he descended from the local lord of the manor.
If you are one of the many, many Americans with Irish heritage, why not email us and there may be similar surprises in store for you. Without any commitment on your part, we can inform you within weeks if the original home can be located – and hopefully discover your long-lost Irish cousins in the process!
edwdsweeney@gmail.com or mstesdal@verizon.net

11/13/2019

"Every Irishman, and that means anyone with one drop of Irish blood, sooner or later makes a pilgrimage to the home of his ancestors. I have just made such a pilgrimage. I am half Irish; the rest of my blood being watered down with German and Massachusetts English. But Irish blood doesn't water down very well; the strain must be very strong."
John Steinbeck, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1962.

If you are one of the many many individuals with a "drop of Irish blood" in your veins, Celtic Family History can help to pinpoint where your ancestors were born and reared in Ireland. In many cases, we can reunite you with cousins who still reside in Ireland today.

To get started, all we need is a little information about the first-generation immigrants from your family who settled in America. There is no commitment on your part as we do not charge for time spent on research. If we believe we have something positive to offer, then we will make a formal proposal which you can choose to take (or leave) at that point.

To progress, why not check out our website: https://celticfamilyhistory.com/ or contact Celtic Family History genealogy researchers: Ed Sweeney, Dublin, Ireland (edwdsweeney@gmail.com) or Marsha Tesdal, New Jersey (mstesdal@verizon.net).

05/13/2019

More than 30 million Americans list their heritage as primarily or partly Irish. Check out this excellent production by the filmmaker Mike Leonard, formerly NBC News, who documented the search for his family roots in the west of Ireland. “Celtic Family History” has assisted Mike and countless others to find their Irish origins and / or to learn about the lives of their ancestors growing up in the country in the 1800s.
https://vimeo.com/166240733

If you wish to learn more about your own Irish or British ancestry, why not provide us with some basic information (no obligation) about the first immigrants in your family. We have an excellent record in tracking down the birth locations of Irish migrants and, often, can reunite our American clients with relatives in Ireland, where contact has been lost contact for centuries.

Contact: Ed Sweeney (Ireland): edwdsweeney@gmail.com, or
Marsha Tesdal (New Jersey): mstesdal@verizon.net
www.celticfamilyhistory.com

This is "inCommon with Mike Leonard: Crossroads" by The Telling Well on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

04/15/2019

06/11/2018

Celtic Family History provides genealogy research services for customers who have a family connection with Ireland. In particular, we specialize in building family trees for descendants of Irish people who wish to explore their Irish ancestry and heritage. We offer a very competitive and personalized service with no hidden charges. As we have researchers based on both sides of the Atlantic, we are well positioned to research your family history and build your definitive family tree. Check out

Celtic Family History Specializing in Irish - American Genealogical Research Learn More