Our Joyce & O'Brien Ancestors: Loughaconeera, County Galway

Are you trying to identify and describe your ancestors' locations in Ireland?

Our Joyce & O'Brien Ancestors, one of a three-book Our Irish Ancestors series, may help you by documenting the processes family historian Joyce V. Kelly, Ph.D. used to identify her paternal grandmother, her grandmother's family, and their location in Ireland before they emigrated. Grandmother Mary (Joyce) Kelly (1872/73-1918) was born in Loughaconeera, near the Rosmuc peninsula in the Connemara area of County Galway. Mary left Loughaconeera and emigrated to the United States in 1888 when she was nearly sixteen years old.

Guided by the author's examples, you can learn to: (1) analyze DNA match results and share information with DNA cousins to identify possible common ancestors; (2) obtain help from professional genealogists and the Irish volunteer genealogical community; (3) access and analyze church and civil records; (4) develop a simple, step-by-step Genealogical Proof Argument to build and document valid family trees; and (5) write and share your family history. Our Joyce and O'Brien Ancestors also provides an extensive social history of 19th century Ireland, describing significant cultural, economic, and religious events in the lives of Irish tenant farmers.