John Hamrock Joins Genealogical Speakers Guild

John Hamrock of www.ancestor.ie has recently joined the Genealogical Speakers Guild. The Genealogical Speakers Guild was founded in 1991 to facilitate better communication between speakers and societies. Their on-line directory at www.genealogicalspeakersguild.org is one step toward that goal.

Whereas, the Guild recognizes and respects the prerogatives of existing organizations and societies in the field of genealogy whose missions are to serve societies, educate and protect genealogical consumers, certify professionals, and provide for an exchange of ideas in broadly based avocational, professional, and entrepreneurial activities related to genealogy, the Guild therefore directs its objectives to the following:


To provide a unified, effective voice to promote speakers' interests by providing a forum for the discussion of topics of concern to genealogical speakers.
To broaden the speaker base by identifying, educating and assisting promising speakers.
To raise professional lecture standards.
To aid speakers in understanding and fulfilling their obligations to program planners and to audiences.

The Genealogical Speakers Guild Directory will help you find speakers like John Hamrock you are seeking.

Sarah Palin, Ballykilcline, Kilglass Parish, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, Family Roots?

Sarah Palin, Ballykilcline, Kilglass Parish, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, Family Roots?

A day after the U.S. vice-presidential candidates’ debate between Sarah Palin and Joseph Biden, The Irish Times announced that Sarah Palin may be able to trace her ancestors back to the pre-Famine era Co. Roscommon.

According to a US based genealogist the maiden name of Alaskan Governor Palin’s mother is Sheeran. The ancestors of Sarah Palin were evicted from their Irish townland of Knockhall which is in the Barony of Ballintober North, Parish of Kilglass, Strokestown Poor Law Union, in County Roscommon. The Governor’s Roscommon ancestor was a Michael Sheiran or Sheeran, who crossed the Atlantic in 1844 and subsequently applied for U.S. citizenship on 12 September, 1855. His son, Michael James Sheeran, was born on 10 August 1852 in West Rutland, Vermont.

John Hamrock, the author of Tracing Your Roscommon Ancestors, a genealogist based in Ireland, believes that the work of the American genealogist, Mary Lee Dunn, is credible. For more information on Sarah Palin’s Roscommon Ancestors or to buy a copy of Tracing Your Roscommon Ancestors, contact John Hamrock at john.hamrock@yahoo.ie or visit his website at http://www.ancestor.ie.

Antarctic Ancestor Adventure

Antarctic Ancestor Adventure

John Hamrock, Irish Genealogist and Writer, and Ancestor.ie (www.ancestor.ie), are proud to be supporters of the Shackleton Foundation (www.shackletonfoundation.org). The Shackleton Foundation is a newly established charitable trust which supports individuals of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds, particularly the less advantaged, who exemplify the spirit of Sir Ernest Shackleton and who are inspirational leaders in their own right, wishing to make a difference.



The Shackleton Centenary Expedition is made up of six members who are descendants of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s team of Antarctic explorers. The six members plan to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps and recreate the 1909 Nimrod Expedition which was intended to be the first mission to the South Pole. The original Shackleton team trekked to within ninety-seven miles of the South Pole before being forced back. One hundred years later descendants of the original group hope to finish the trek and then continue on, to finish the mission that their forefathers began.

The centenary team will depart from the Shackleton Hut at Cape Royds on October 29th 2008 at 10:00am, exactly one hundred years to the day that Ernest Shackleton and his men began their trek. The team will travel unguided on skis and will cross the Ross Ice Shelf, each member hauling expedition supplies in sledges weighing about 150 kgs. The team will then ascend the seldom-crossed Bearmore Glacier, while collecting blue ice samples for scientific analysis en route. After, they will reach the Polar plateau where they must trek 400 miles to reach the South Pole.

Before the South Pole expedition, the team has been conducting a rigorous training program for four years. This has included intensive ice training in places such as Norway, Baffin Island, Greenland, Scotland and Austria. The Austrian trip has focused on hauling sledges in the Alps. The training in Greenland was for 17 days and was conducted in Milne Land to recreate some of the conditions the team will face in Antarctica. The training has included experimenting with diet as they each must consume 5,500 calories per day to make up for the 6,000 calories they will burn up each day.

While training, the team takes time to read Ernest Shackleton’s The Heart of the Antarctic in order to better understand what was involved and to get a feel on a daily basis of the extraordinary courage the original explorers exhibited.

The expedition begins on 29 October 2008 and the team members will provide commentary on their progress which will be recorded on www.shackletoncentenary.org.


Shackleton Centenary Adventurers

Henry Worsley MBE Team Leader Henry Worsley has been in the British Army for 25 years, and is distantly related to Frank Worsley, Shackleton's skipper on the Endurance. He has wide expedition experience, and has completed the Haute Route and Yukon Arctic Ultra. This journey will satisfy an obsession with Shackleton and fulfill a lifelong ambition to follow the route of one of his polar expeditions.

Will Gow Will Gow works in the City. He has raised over £100,000 for charity by completing the Himalayan 100-mile stage race, and is related to Shackleton by marriage. The Centenary Expedition combines his desire to travel in the last great wilderness and reunite Shackleton's descendents at the Pole.

Henry Adams is a shipping lawyer and the great-grandson of Jameson Boyd Adams. He has trekked extensively throughout South America and Africa and is a passionate kitesurfer and sailor. Since boyhood he has dreamed of reliving his great-grandfather's Polar experience.

Patrick Bergel works in advertising. He is the great-grandson of Shackleton. Patrick will support the fundraising effort and intends to meet the ice team at the Furthest Southerly Point reached in 1909, from there to complete the last 97 miles to the Pole.

Tim Fright works in Westminster. He is the great-great-nephew of Frank Wild, the only explorer to accompany Shackleton on all his missions. Tim counts skydiving and marathon running amongst his hobbies, and will also complete the final 97 miles from the Furthest Point.

David Cornell is the great grandson of Jameson Boyd Adams. David was an officer in the British Army before entering the City, and spent several years in Norway leading arctic warfare exercises. The expedition will give him the opportunity to trace a link to his own ancestor's efforts, bringing to life the heroic journey in order to connect the past to the present.

AskAboutIreland new research facilities

Ask About Ireland, http://www.askaboutireland.ie/show_homepage.do, is an initiative of An Chomhairle Leabharlanna, funded by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, through the Information Society Fund and The Heritage Council. It is a website to assist in finding answers about Ireland, particularly the Irish countryside and Irish heritage. Visitors to the site will find unique access to new information, rare images, and documents from Irish public libraries, museums and archives.

They have introduced some exciting tools for genealogists and family historians doing research on Ireland. These include in the Heritage and History segment. Each of the following is quite interesting and should be explored:

• Architecture
• Big Houses of Ireland
• Built Heritage, 1700 – Today
• Families in History
• Heritage Towns
• Monuments & Built Heritage
• Pages in History
• Poor Law Union

There are also additional facilities on the website which are briefly described here.

Griffith’s Valuation Place Name Search


http://griffiths.askaboutireland.ie/gv4/gv_place_search_form.php

This facility not only allows researchers to locate 'occupants' to see who lived in the locality and were recorded in the Griffith’s Valuation of the 1850d, but also to see a Griffith's Valuation map of the locality. Additionally, for some locations, there is also a facility to see a modern (Google Maps) map. This is an amazing facility and all free of charge.

Irish Times Digital Archive

Ask About Ireland Irish Times Digital Archive provides online access free of charge for internet users within public libraries and schools in Ireland through www.askaboutireland.ie. Every effort has been and is continuing to be made to ensure the highest possible quality of the digital archive images and accuracy of the search. However, please note that due to the condition of the original material in some cases and the technological processes involved, it has not been possible to produce perfect results in every single case.

This service can only be accessed within a public library or school in Ireland, but again, an excellent facility.

Federation Of Genealogical Societies 2008 Conference

John Hamrock of Ancestor.ie will be attending the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference entitled, “Footprints of Family History”, which will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from Wednesday, September 3rd through Saturday, September 6th, 2008.

This promises to be an exciting event particularly in helping those in their genealogical professional development. It will also be a great opportunity to speak with the many US genealogy enthusiasts about the future market for genealogy information.

Genealogists and archivists from Ireland will be well represented at the conference.

• Gregory O’Connor from the National Archives of Ireland
• Eileen O’Duíll, CG, Professional Genealogist, speaking on Irish research and professional development
• Seán O’Duíll, Irish Folklorist, speaking on marriage customs in 19th Century Ireland
• John Hamrock, author of Tracing Your Roscommon Ancestors and sponsor of www.ancestor.ie
• Dr. James Ryan of Flyleaf Press who will be displaying Flyleaf’s interesting range of Irish genealogical and family history books at the TIARA exhibition at the conference
• A number of members of the Irish Family History Foundation
• Other professional and amateur genealogists from Ireland

More information about the conference can be obtained at www.fgs.org. Hopefully, we will see you there!

Tracing Your Roscommon Ancestors - Book Review

Commissioning Research (Continued)

We are please to announce that the National Archives of Ireland have added John Hamrock's contact details to its paper-based and web-based list of genealogical researchers.

The web-based list is available at:
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy/researchers.html

The physical location of the National Archives of Ireland is:
Bishop Street,
Dublin 8,
Ireland
Tel. +353 (0)1 407 2300
FAX +353 (0)1 407 2333