My Trails into the Past

I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (April 2016) , where we write 26 blog posts featuring each letter of the alphabet. I is for Ireland One fourth of my ancestry is Irish.  This comes from my father’s side of the family. Here you can see his ancestry on his mother’s side of the family. My father's maternal Irish ancestry Irish surnames I am researching: Gleeson Tierney Murray Sullivan Sheehan The Gleeson , Tierney , and Murray families ended up in Ontario, Canada. Some of the Gleesons moved to the United States. I think the Tierney and Gleeson  families came from County Tipperary, near Nenagh. County Tipperary The Sullivan and Sheehan families were from County Cork near Castletown Berehaven, which on the map below is near Schull. The Sullivans arrived in the United States in the 1860s.  County Cork I hope to someday visit the land of my Irish ancestors, both in Canada and Ireland. Copyr...

My father, William J. Hork, was one half German through his father’s line and one half Irish through his mother’s line.  In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to summarize a bit about the Irish side of my family. These families came from both Ireland and Canada. The records in Ireland are a bit sketchy and I hope to someday learn more! Generation 1 1. William Joseph Hork : born 23 Apr 1930 in Ontario, San Bernardino Co, California, USA; died 13 Oct 2007 in Walnut Creek, Contra Costa Co, California, USA. Generation 2 3. Anna Marie "Anne" Sullivan : born 15 Oct 1892 in Anaconda, Deer Lodge Co, Montana, USA; died 14 Feb 1979 in Palo Alto, Santa Clara Co, California, USA. Generation 3 6. John H. Sullivan : born 20 Jun 1854 in Ireland; married Anna Marie Gleeson 1882 in South Dakota, USA; died 28 May 1932 in San Bernardino, San Bernardino Co, California, USA. He claimed on the 1900 census he arrived in the U.S. in 1866. He was not naturalized until 1...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has challenged us to find where our ancestors were living on 1 Jun 1863.  This was very challenging but lots of fun.  I found that I need to do land research to learn more about exactly where my ancestors were living!  I have no photos of their residences.  Here are my father's side of the family: My second great-grandmother, Maria Catharine (Trösster) Hork (1813-1874) was living in Oberhundem, Westfalen (present day Germany).  I do not have a photograph of their residence, nor do I know exactly which house it is.  I would love to visit the small community someday.  My great-grandfather, Johan Anton Hork (1843-1906) was part of this household, as he had not left for America yet. My second great-grandparents, Vincent (1823-1890) and Susanna (Raduntz) Sievert (1832-1911) were living in Joliet, Will County, Illinois.  I do not know where their residence is located, although in later years they lived on Hicko...