A True Success StorySource: North Irish Roots, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring, 1984), p. 28Published by: North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27696564 .

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Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths, General Register Office, Dublin Castle, Dublin 1,

Republic of Ireland. National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Registry of Deeds and Documents, Henrietta Street, Dublin.

Representative Church Body (Church of Ireland), Braemar Park, Rathgar, Dublin.

Presbyterian Historical Society, Church House, Fisherwick Place, Belfast BT1 6DW.

Wesley Historical Society (Irish Branch), Aldersgate House, University Road, Belfast BT7

1RH. Friends Historical Society, Magheralave Road, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Friends Historical Society, Eustace Street, Dublin.

Society of Genealogists, 37 Harrington Gardens, London SW7 4JX, England. (From August 1, 1984, the Society's address will be: 14 Charterhouse Building, London E.C.1.) The

Society has a great deal of family history material relating to Ireland.

(Additional information regarding Record Repositories will be published in this Journal as and

when the necessary details are available.)

A TRUE SUCCESS STORY "Nothing succeeds like success'. So the saying goes! A number of correspondents have written to the Society asking about its services and achievements. The question usually asked is: "Do you think the North of Ireland Family History Society would be able to help me in my researches?" In all cases the reply has been a

resounding "Yes, of course it can!", and these are not empty words, as the following story shows.

A year ago one of our Canadian correspondents (who later became an Associate Member of

the Society) wrote to an Irish member, as both were researching the same surname. The

Canadian had become 'stuck' at one of his ancestors who died in Bungay, Suffolk, England, in

October 1 823, so that was as far as he could get back in that particular line of his ancestry. Within hours the Irish member was able to compile a pedigree for the Canadian which brought

him back a further nine generations (husband and wife in each case, except in the generation furthest back when the wife's name was in question), and added thirty-two ancestors to his

list. The Canadian had known that he had English ancestry, but did not know that he had

Scottish roots also; in fact, he discovered that he had much more Scottish ancestry than

English. When he got back beyond the point at which he had become 'stuck' (the ancestor in

question had been a Major General in the British Army), he discovered that his ancestors were

aristocrats, and when he went back further still he learned that some of his Scottish ancestors married into the Royal House of Stuart, and that he is a descendant of Robert II,

King of Scots, as well as of other notable Scottish personalities. Indeed, because of his social

background in the earlier centuries, he has now lots of opportunities to get back further still in other ancestral lines and is, no doubt, related to present-day British Royalty. All these discoveries were possible because the necessary research had already been done by a distant relation of the Canadian (of whom the Canadian had not previously heard), almost fifty years ago, and because the documented manuscript had been deposited in the Library of the

Society of Genealogists in London. The Irish member happened to have a copy of the

manuscript and was familiar with its contents; so when the Canadian wrote to the Irish

member, the latter had no difficulty in getting the Canadian the kind of information he never

expected and certainly could never have hoped for, but which certainly thrilled him beyond words.

Now, "miracles" of this magnitude don't happen every day! But this true story proves that

miracles can happen. The Society cannot give any guarantee that a similar miracle will

happen again; a lot depends on how much research has already been done on a particular

family in the earlier centuries, whether the results of the research have been put into

manuscript form, and whether the manuscript has been deposited in some library or other

type of archives. All this shows the importance of not only doing family history research but

getting it into published form and making sure that it is preserved for future generations of

historians.

Why not then become an Associate Member of this young Society, if you are not a member

already, and you might well be able, later, to let us hear of even more wonderful discoveries that you have made as a result of your association with us?

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