Irish & Irish-American Research
Documentary research across the Irish emigrant experience: the famine-era parishes of Monaghan, Clare, and Wexford; the crossings to New York, Prince Edward Island, and the American Midwest; and the DNA networks that reconnect families a century and a half after they scattered. Destroyed censuses, late-starting registers, and a dozen people of the same name in one parish — this is the hardest genealogy in the world, and it is the heart of this practice. All of it built on primary sources, to the Genealogical Proof Standard.
Featured Irish Work
A sample of recent research from the Storyline Genealogy archive.
The Owen Hamall Mystery
Who was “Thornton Hammil,” listed beside Owen in the 1880 census? Seven years of investigation across three countries revealed a blended family, parallel tragedies, and a reciprocal baptism sponsorship that proved what no single record stated — the foundation of four generations of Hamall research.
Explore the Mystery →Hidden Bonds
Four orphans scattered across three states. A fortune hidden in a kitchen wall. A U.S. Congressman who never forgot his half-brother — and DNA carrying the signature of Brian Boru. The O’Brien family of Jamaica, Queens, from the 1874 tragedy to the DNA reunion 150 years later.
Explore the Series →The Donaghmoyne Network
Four couples married in one County Monaghan parish between 1841 and 1858; their descendants scattered to Chicago, Wisconsin, Joliet, Missouri, and Montana. A multi-page case study presents the segment-level evidence — including a deceased father’s DNA kit reconstructed from his children and validated across three platforms.
Explore the Network →The Research Collections
The family lines and documentary series — each a gateway into one chapter of the Irish story.
The Donaghmoyne Network
The umbrella research uniting four Donaghmoyne couples and their scattered descendants — segment-level DNA triangulation, a reconstructed paternal kit, an established Y-DNA signature, and the methodology of proving kinship when the Irish records run out.
Enter the Collection →The Hamall Line
A young Irish father who died four years after reaching safety. Four children lost in eighteen months. A cottage protected through the Illinois Supreme Court. Five generations traced through famine, emigration, tragedy, and resilience — with the parish churches of Chicago as companions.
Enter the Collection →The James Hamill & Ann Gartlan Line
The parents who stayed. James and Ann farmed the townland of Dian for over fifty years while their children scattered to Montana’s copper country and St. Louis — and DNA analysis now validates five family lines across three countries.
Enter the Collection →The Owen Hammel & Ann King Line
Married at the dawn of the Great Famine, fled within two years. Owen died at 41 on an isolated Wisconsin farm with no road access; twenty pages of guardianship records and DNA evidence connect his children to the Chicago Hamalls — and to a possible brother hypothesis.
Enter the Collection →The Susan Hamill & Charles McCanna Line
Married in Donaghmoyne in 1857, Charles and Susan raised ten children over six decades in Joliet. Susan’s death certificate preserved her parents’ names — opening the research pathway back to County Monaghan that DNA testing across her descendants now confirms.
Enter the Collection →Hidden Bonds — The O’Brien Family
From County Clare in the famine years to a hotel empire in Jamaica, Queens — a colorful patriarch, four scattered orphans, a hidden fortune, a Congressman, and the DNA that reunited the New York and Kentucky branches 150 years later. With prologue, epilogue, and companion pieces.
Enter the Collection →Two Families, One Story — The Kenny-Connors Line
Two Irish families baptized children pages apart in a Newfoundland register in 1832; their descendants married three times over on Prince Edward Island. From red-clay tenant farms to the Chicago Fire Department and the Cherry Mine rescue — with the maps, churches, and methods as companions.
Enter the Collection →The Brooklyn Mat Maker
My great-grandmother’s baptism certificate named her father as John Kenny; the 1879 Brooklyn directory lists thirteen. Only one made mats, and only he shared a house with “Kenny Elizabeth, wid. Richard.” The trade led, and his mother’s household proved him, back through every census to 1850.
Read the Case Study →The Park Avenue Kennys
Two death notices written ten years apart prove that Thomas Kenny of Park Avenue and Ann Kenny Corcoran were brother and sister. Was Richard Kenny, the mat maker’s father, the third? Thirty years as neighbours, a shared grave, a shared parish and DNA make the case; one alternative keeps it open.
Read the Case Study →Have Irish Ancestors?
This is the research I do for clients — from famine-era parish registers and the newly released 1926 Census of Ireland to DNA network analysis that proves kinship where the paper trail fails. Destroyed records and common names are not the end of the story. Every project is built on primary sources and documented to the Genealogical Proof Standard.
Research Services Start a ConversationExplore More
- The 1926 Irish Census: a genealogist’s guide to the newly released collection
- The O’Brien Legacy — from one probate line to a 150-year family reunion
- Three Names, One Life — proving one woman’s identity across three names
- Five Deaths, One Family, Seventy-Two Years — tuberculosis across three generations
- The Kenny Family Case Study — the Cherry Mine disaster, validated
- Irish Genealogy Challenges — what you’re up against, and what to do about it
- Browse all Donaghmoyne Network research on the blog