West Ulster Genealogy Services

26/11/2025

LINKS ACROSS THE WORLD

I had great craic chatting with Stephanie on zoom a couple of weeks ago and hope that the conversation we shared is helpful to all those in the diaspora who are searching for their Irish roots.

https://youtu.be/FFeQPT2ll3E

20/11/2025

HEROES of the THE GREAT WAR - A SHARED HERITAGE

Dougie Bartlett of the Roe Valley Historical Society has sent me this wee video of myself holding forth when I spoke to the society in Limavady a couple of weeks ago. The theme of the talk was that we in the province of Ulster have a shared heritage, we have as much in common as divides us, and I was using World War one to demonstrate this.

First, as per the video, I wanted to show that yes, there is a strong connection between the Ulster Unionist community and WW!, especially with respect to the Battle of the Somme, and this was true of Limavady as much as anywhere else. But then I moved on to show that the Irish Nationalist community also played a very significant role in the British army during WW1 by highlighting the fact that THE most famous newsreel clip of the war actually shows a man I once researched who was a member of the IRA.

Thanks again to Limavady for the warm welcome I received.

21/10/2025

ANOTHER PRACTICAL RESEARCH SESSION FOR Strabane History Society

Hope to see some of you there. (Holy Cross College used to be called St Colman's High School)

26/09/2025

THE AUTUMN IS HERE, IT MUST BE GENEALOGY COURSE TIME

Great venue, hope to see some of you there.

An opportunity to explore your family tree in St Connell's Museum, Glenties they are hosting Boyd Gray from West Ulster Genealogy Services on a 6 week course to explore your family tree. This training is provided free of charge thanks to funding received from International Fund for Ireland. To book your place on this please complete the online booking form https://forms.gle/jciST9WdU8jypZjm7

29/08/2025

AI ENHANCED FAMILY HISTORY PHOTOGRAPHS

We all have dozens of old faded or cracked pics of our nearest and dearest that we would love to enhance. Now AI claims to do it at the click of a button. So, where do we stand?

What do you think of these efforts from "Copilot"? I would love to hear your comments. Do you think the likenesses are good? What are the issues? Are there other programmes and are they similar?

25/08/2025

DISHONESTY

I see Facebook has discovered yet another wheeze to drag more clicks out of us. They now include comments on totally unrelated posts under our "Notifications" just to get us to click on them and garner Fb a few extra coppers. Despicable.

24/08/2025

YES, A MAN CAN BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE!!

Researching the McKeegans of Cushendall for Catherine in Scotland, I ran into a wee conundrum. Catherine's great great grandfather seems to be in two places at the same time. Surely not possible? I think it is.

Our John McKeegan appeared to be in Glenaan:
- in the the Griffiths Valuation in 1861
- when a son is born in 1879
- when his land passed to Daniel McKeegan in the GVRBs in 1911
- in when he died in 1912

BUT, he also appears to be in the townland immediately north of Glenaan, called Falmacrilly:
- when he married in 1872
- six times when his children were born between 1873 and 1882
- when the 1901 and the 1911 Censuses were taken
- and ........ in 1912 when he died and his will was read.

And it is this last that proves he IS the same man no matter where he thinks he lives. Same name, same death date, different addresses. Have a look at the photos.

It is resolving these little puzzles that makes researching family history so much fun.

02/08/2025

WUGS TALK at ST CONNELL'S MUSEUM, GLENTIES

If you are up Glenties way in West Donegal on Tuesday, 5th August, at around 11am, feel free to call in at St Connell's Museum where himself will be giving an illustrated talk on how to go about researching your family history, using three local families. Anne McLoone's of Maas is just one of them.

17/07/2025

BOYD'S SOCKS!

I get all sorts of little prezzies in return for some small genealogy tasks that I do for people but I do not think I have had a cuter one than these hand knitted Patagonian wool socks knitted by Caroline for me. I shall have the cosiest toes in Ireland this winter. Thank you, Caroline.

05/07/2025

A VISIT TO BALLYTOBER

Having spent maybe three months researching a family, and when you think you have gathered every scrap of information from the internet, which nowadays contains about 90% of all you will ever find out about any family, it is essential to visit the actual location of that family, see who lives there now and what extra information they can give.

Thus it was that I visited the townland of Ballytober as part of my research into the Browns of Ballytober on one of the wettest days this "summer". And, as always, it was most productive and a lot of fun. Have a look at the attached photographs.