West Ulster Genealogy Services

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.

05/07/2025

ANDREW KANE: THE TOWNLAND ATLAS of ULSTER.

If anyone has a spare £69.99, this is going straight to the top of my Christmas list.

Thank you to the Ulster Historical Foundation for the video below.

Andrew Keane, researcher of the Ulster Historical Foundation and author of the Townland Atlas of Ulster presents on the historical significance and genealogi...

24/05/2025

32 TREBLE GREAT GRANDPARENTS

I'm often asked how to display a family tree on the wall. It's really only possible to display direct ancestors like my granddaughters are doing here. Lots of websites will do this for you.

18/05/2025

ONE of the BEST SPEAKERS on IRISH MIGRATION TO AMERICA

Don't miss it if you get a chance to visit Strabane on that date.

📣 **Upcoming History Talk – Don’t Miss Out!** 🗺️📚

Strabane History Society invites you to a fascinating evening exploring a vital chapter of our shared heritage…

🎤 **“Ulster Scots Movement to America”**
🗓️ **Thursday, 29th May 2025**
🕗 **7:30 PM**
📍 **Music Rooms, John Wesley Street, Strabane**

We’re delighted to welcome **Dr. Paddy Fitzgerald**, renowned historian and expert in migration studies, who will delve into the compelling story of the Ulster Scots' journey across the Atlantic and their enduring legacy in the United States.

This is a must-attend event for anyone interested in local history, ancestry, or the wider story of emigration from Ulster.

🆓 All are welcome!

📌 Mark your calendars and join us for an engaging and informative evening.

17/05/2025

STARTLING DISCOVERY at CHURCHTOWN GENEALOGY LESSON

It was the eighth out of ten teaching sessions at the Churchtown Community Association in Castlederg and I was helping Rosie research her Desmond ancestors of Arklow. We were looking for the marriage of her great great grandparents, Timothy Desmond and Elizabeth Treacy, but I decided that it was likely to be before 1864 and that was why we could not find it in Civil Records. So, Rosie went off to see what else she could find. But Rosie does not give up easily.

She had already discovered that some of her Desmond ancestors were listed as De Monde, which seemed reasonable considering the origin of the name Desmond amongst the old Anglo Irish ascendancy. But when she came back to me with a record she had found in Rootsireland, I was more than a little surprised. And when we found the record itself in the Catholic Parish Records online at the NLI, I was flabbergasted at what was there. Have a look see what we found.

14/04/2025

MORE "BILLINGIMS".

My maternal great grandparents were Thomas Bellingham, 1837-1917, and Rachel Georgine MacKay, 1853-1907, of Culmore, Kilrea, Co Derry. For no good reason, this line has turned out to be the one which has produced the most visiting cousins by far. Al Luce, Tamas Houlihan, Heather Bellingham and now Caroline Hall have all met up with me and toured the relevant Bellingham sites.

These occasions are always a lot of fun and it is great to meet up with long lost cousins. Caroline's grandfather was Alec Bellingham, 1895-1953, the brother of my grandmother, Maggie Bellingham, 1882-1957, which makes her my second cousin and, of course, I had no idea she existed until genealogical research brought us together.

Oddly, my mother, always referred to her Bellingham cousins as the "Billingims". Unfortunately I never asked her if this was how the name was pronounced back then or if it was just an affectation of hers. I DO know however that my aunt, her sister, Jean Mackie Gordon, DID insist that the MacKays were pronounced Mackie, as in her middle name, and not McKay.

08/04/2025

JAMES STEWART, THE YOUNG PRETENDER

There's nothing more calculated to make a family historian's heart sink faster than finding that his target in the 1911 census was born in an entirely different place from where you expected. So it was with James Stewart, 1845-1915, esteemed boot and shoe salesman and leather manufacturer of Church Street, Coleraine. It seems he was born in County Donegal. Oh dear. Where in Donegal? Because, if we cannot find where he was born, then we can not find the original Stewart family home, which is always the number one priority for anyone chasing his or her family history. Just what throne was this particular James Stewart occupying, or to be more accurate, which throne was his father, another James Stewart occupying.

There is no neat answer to this, in fact, it is a crie de cour for any thoughts which you may have on finding the Stewart home, using the evidence we have so far amassed. Kim, for whom I am conducting this research, would dearly love to see the family home when she visits later this year. So, please read on and let me know.