Foreign Dispatch: Looking for Roots and Finding Threads Connecting the Present

Ann Gregg, a genealogy consultant, helps Patricia Smith-McCarthy track down a cousin at the Genealogy Advisory Service at the National Library of Ireland, Dublin. Gregg helped Smith-McCarthy, who grew up on Long Island, New York and now lives with her husband in South Carolina, secure a copy of her grandfather’s brother’s marriage license, phone numbers, and email addresses of living contemporaries in County Cork. Previously, her siblings were only able to glean anecdotal evidence after asking around at a pub near the farm, she says. “It is very rewarding,” says Gregg about her work. Sometimes Americans, who make up three-quarters of all those seeking their roots at the Genealogy Advisory Service, come fresh off a tour bus after being told of the office. “They start making phone calls home to get whatever information they know is there,” says Gregg, who’s organization, www.ancestornetwork.ie, contracts with the library.

(DUBLIN, IRELAND) AUG, 2017 – THE AMERICAN WRITER MARK TWAIN ONCE SAID HISTORY DOESN’T REPEAT, BUT RATHER IT RHYMES. BILL MARCUS, WHO’S TRAVELING ABROAD THIS MONTH IN IRELAND, REPORTS ON ONE MAN WHO SAYS HE HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN HIS HEART FOR THE U-S BECAUSE 170 YEARS AGO IT TOOK IN HIS COUNTRYMEN WHEN THE REST OF THE WORLD TURNED ITS BACK.