March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day, a day that is a big deal if you have Irish heritage. If you are like me, then you grew up very aware that some of your ancestors came to America from Ireland. Perhaps your genealogy research was how you first discovered your Irish roots. Either way, this week is a good time to explore more about the Irish side of your family tree.
St. Patrick’s Day is on March 17th every year. This week is the perfect time to check out some bagpipe and drum bands in a parade, or in an Irish Fest. While each Irish Fest, (which are sometimes called Celtic Fests), is different, there are certain things you can usually find.
These fests are a great place to enjoy some Celtic music. It’s fun to listen to musicians playing the flute, penny whistle, and bodhran, as they preform traditional Irish reels and jigs. There may also be Celtic rock bands, or even a choir singing Irish songs. Someone is bound to preform “Danny Boy”. There should also be Irish dancers. They will either be there to compete, or just to preform. If you are lucky, you might be able to find vendors selling Corned beef and cabbage, soda bread, or Guinness. Almost all Irish fest have booths filled with Irish crafts, and CDs of Irish music from a variety of bands.
If you are interested in learning more about Irish heritage in general, there are some websites that can help with that. A good one to start with is one that seems to be calling itself “Ireland”. This website contains free information about Ireland, Irish culture, and more. There is a genealogy section that lets you view coats of arms, gives you meanings of Irish surnames in Gaelic, and a list of books and guides that they have available They have their own search engine that genealogists can use. Or, you can spend some time digging through their “Research” section, and learn some Irish phrases.
Another good website to check out this week is called “Irish Genealogy”. It has a step by step guide to help you get started working on your family history. Somewhere along the way, this guide will lead you to a page filed with links that are very useful for genealogists who like to do their research online. Most of them lead to genealogy websites that are from the UK. You can also find a long list of links to church records.
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