e-Newsletter

Make a cup of tea and enjoy the newsletter!

Our regular e-newsletters are emailed to all Members and are packed full of interesting articles on a vast array of subjects. They also keep you informed about what the Society and its Branches are up to with events, new transcriptions, courses and offers.

The following articles give you just a taste of what you might find in a newsletter.

A DNA MATCH

Maybe you are a bit like me regarding DNA testing, thinking that the main result tells you what part of the world your genes come from, and that is true, but you can get some very interesting and surprising results as you will see as you read on.

At the beginning of this year, 2023, Martin McDowell, NIFHS Education and Development Officer and DNA Projects Co-ordinator suggested that I do a DNA test to help with my Family Tree research. This was done and eventually the results came back.  We then started to upload on to the FTDNA website the information about my family’s history. My results once loaded started to find matches with different people with varying results. One match was very strong and had an email address which meant that this person was contactable. Martin suggested that I email that person to see if they would be interested in communicating. This I did at the NIFHS Research Centre. The following morning, I had a reply to confirm that she was in fact my third cousin, Jeanne Gledhill Towle and lived in Winnipeg Cananda. What a surprise. Even more of a surprise was that when she got back to me, she informed me that she had for a period of time wanted to do research on her family in Northern Ireland and had for a number of years planned to visit the NIFHS Research Centre, here in Newtownabbey. On the 23rd May 2023 I had the privilege of meeting up with her and her husband at the Centre. 

I thought that doing a DNA test only told you where your genes originally came from but as you can see a lot more can be found out about your family tree and maybe like me you might find another part of your family you didn’t even know existed.

Since my third cousin’s visit I have had several more matches and I am in the process of contacting them and getting some further information about those family connections. 

The search goes on.

Neill Cranston

Update – Since I wrote the above, I have found a further relative. A cousin’s son who now lives in Australia.   More cousins!

POOR THOMAS

This record was found by our long-time member, Elwyn Soutter.  It’s from Muff Church of Ireland marriage records in Co Donegal. (MIC1/249 at PRONI)

Thomas McCarroll and Ann Magee were to have married on 27th October 1843. The minister had evidently partially completed the register in advance of the ceremony. Then in the section where the couple and their witnesses should have signed is the laconic comment –

“Did not come – she was married next day to another man”

Poor old Thomas McCarroll left standing at the altar.

A whole story told in a few words. Oh dear, Ann!  I hope poor Thomas found happiness eventually.

Thank you Elwyn for sharing this with us.