Lost and Found: Locating Ancestral Origins with FAN Club and DNA

It’s hard to do genealogy well without studying your ancestors’ Friends & Family, Associates, and Neighbors – their FAN club. If your ancestors are Irish, you might have no luck at all without those FAN principles. But if you combine FAN club research with DNA, you might have just the winning ticket to get you back to your Irish ancestor’s origins. In this case study presentation, learn how focused research pointed the way from Ohio to townlands in County Mayo for an 1850s-era Irish immigrant.

Presenter: Mary Kircher Roddy, CG became interested in family history in 2000 in anticipation of her husband’s sabbatical at the University of Limerick in Ireland. While she didn’t learn everything about her ancestors while they lived there, she was hooked! Since then she earned a certificate in Genealogy and Family History from the University of Washington and her Certified Genealogist credential in 2019. She is a co-founder of the Applied Genealogy Institute, whose motto is “Learn by Doing.” She served as treasurer for the Association of Professional Genealogists from 2018-2021. She is a trustee of the Board for Certification of Genealogists. Mary is also co-editor of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.