I'm looking for my great great great grandmother. Born in ? Ireland around 1798. She came to Philadelphia with other family members in 1812. They left on a ship from Londonderry. She married George W. Stewart and they were in Kentucky when their first son was born in 1823. She died in Washington county, Indiana in 1949. Would love to know where in Ireland she was from. She is my brick wall. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
Connie
Connie,
Researching in Ireland in the 1700s is very hard going due to the general lack of records. If you don’t know where they lived it’s a needle in a haystack. Ideally you need to know the person’s exact denomination and the townland or parish they lived in to have any chance of finding them, and even then there may not be any records for that location.
Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.
The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price. http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).