Browse by Family
Research Stories, Case Studies, and Methodology Organized by Family Line
Immigrant families traced from the Old World to the New across four centuries of records. Each family line represents years of research, thousands of documents, and generations of ancestors whose stories deserve to be told. Explore by family to follow the interconnected lines, the research breakthroughs, and the methodology behind each finding.
Irish Heritage
Irish family lines from County Monaghan, Wexford, and beyond to Chicago, Brooklyn, and New York
Hamall Family Stories
County Monaghan, Ireland → Montreal → Chicago, Illinois
Three Thomas Hamalls, one cottage, 87 years. Illinois Supreme Court records and family oral history tested against the documents across three generations. Includes the flagship Owen Hamall case study—seven years of research to solve one census entry.
Explore Hamall StoriesO'Brien Family Stories
Ireland → Jamaica, Queens, New York
Four orphans scattered across three states. $11,000 in bonds hidden in a kitchen wall. A U.S. Congressman who never forgot his half-brother. The Hidden Bonds documentary biography series follows the family from 1874 to the present, with Y-DNA pointing the paternal line to County Clare.
Explore O'Brien StoriesKenny/McKenny Family Stories
Ireland → Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Mat Maker case study began here—seven years of research, dozens of John Kennys, and one occupational progression that separated the right man from all the others and opened up a complete immigrant family.
Explore Kenny StoriesKenny/O'Connor Family Stories
Wexford → Prince Edward Island → Chicago
Two Families, One Story. In 1832 two Irish families baptized children pages apart in a Newfoundland parish register; thirty-four years later their descendants married three times over on Prince Edward Island. Includes Captain Thomas Patrick Kenny's role in the 1909 Cherry Mine disaster.
Explore Kenny/O'Connor StoriesThe Donaghmoyne Network
Donaghmoyne, County Monaghan → Montreal, Chicago, Wisconsin
Four couples married in Donaghmoyne parish between 1841 and 1858, each with a Hamill spouse, and within a few years three of the four had emigrated. Their descendants' DNA shows the families came from one interrelated parish population. How the four were related is the question still open.
Explore the NetworkFrench-Canadian Heritage
Filles du Roi, voyageurs, and four centuries of Quebec parish records
The Guilbault Line
Aunis → Charlesbourg → the Pays d'en Haut → Rigaud
Seven generations from a Fille du Roi whose estate came before a judge who wrote the word “aversion,” through a masonry contractor and a voyageur who married an Ojibwe woman, to the last generation. The series that anchors the voyageur research, the Oka Mission work, and the Oregon migration.
Explore the Guilbault LineSoulière Family Stories · Tranchemontagne
Brittany → New France → Chicago
A mason who married three times and fathered nineteen children. A voyageur's widow who lived to ninety-one. A woman divorced and remarried in five days. Eight generations from Brittany and New France to Chicago, with their own founding mothers and fathers.
Explore the Soulière LineSéguin & Larocque Family Stories
Boucherville & Contrecoeur → Vaudreuil & the Lake of Two Mountains
Two founding families joined by one marriage at the Oka mission in 1744. Five documentary biographies and four case studies — a death date that belonged to another man, a decade on other men's farms, a soldier who signed with an X, and three brothers who married three sisters.
Explore Séguin & LarocqueAll French-Canadian Research
Normandy & Western France → Quebec → Chicago
Everything from the French-Canadian side of the archive in one place: Filles du Roi and soldier-ancestors, parish and notarial research, the Oka Mission and the fur trade, Franco-American migration, and the research techniques behind them. Every blog post across every French-Canadian line.
Additional Family Lines
Scottish heritage, Philippine research, and more family connections
Robertson Family Stories
Bendochy and Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland → Brooklyn
A weaver still at his loom at 81. A father dead five days after arrival. A son who vanished into the swamps. An orphan who became matriarch to 19. The Scattered Stones documentary biography series traces six generations across two continents.
Explore Robertson StoriesPhilippine Family Stories
Western Visayas region (Region VI) of the Philippines
Filipino genealogy research, Spanish colonial records, and family documentation. The Tamayo Family case study shows how FamilySearch's Full Text Search uncovered a family history spanning 26 years, and what it now makes possible in Philippine research.
Explore Philippine StoriesPetras Family Stories
Eastern Europe → United States
Petras family research and documentation. Stories of immigration, settlement, and family preservation across generations—navigating the unique challenges of Eastern European genealogy research.
Explore Petras StoriesHave a Family Line of Your Own to Trace?
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