The Ellis Island Medals of Honor are presented to Americans of diverse origins for their outstanding contributions to their own ethnic groups and to American society. Honorees typically include U.S. Presidents, Nobel Prize winners, leaders of industry, and gifted artists, performers, and athletes. Each receives a specially crafted Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have unanimously passed resolutions sanctioning the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations and the Ellis Island Medals of Honor. This recognition inspires us to work anew for a better world through the advancement, protection, and encouragement of all of America’s ethnic groups, religions, and races.

To Learn More, check out the website and video at:

http://neco.org/index.php

In the May-June 2008 issue of Dublin’s “Ireland of the Welcomes” magazine, there is a several-page photo-article by a native of NYC, James B. HAYES, former publisher of “Fortune” magazine, now living and writing in Colorado Springs, in which he reminisces about a particular trip to Ireland many years earlier in which he was struck by the remarkable thoughtfulness of one gentleman, in particular – Mr. MURRAY, proprietor of Murray & Son Ltd. Drapery, Charleville, Co. Cork.*

Jim HAYES recalls: “My first impression of Ireland was dark and jumpy and grainy. It came in the form of primitive 8mm film shown by a proud Irish father in a darkened living room on the upper east side of Manhattan. Silent home movies showing jerky figures cutting peat in the bogs of western Ireland, kissing the Blarney Stone, or pulling their strange looking rowboats onto the beach. God only knows where the films came from but my father subjected his family to these viewings once or twice a year six decades ago. It was all quite puzzling! ‘Why are they digging up that stuff in those fields?’ I asked. ‘That’s how they heat their homes,’ he explained. That made absolutely no sense to this city boy. I knew that to heat your home you simply turned on the radiator, listened to the pipes clang for a few minutes and finally heat arrived …. For the next four decades additional impressions were largely second-hand tales told by friends returning from visits to Ireland, literary portrayals or backdrops to movies. Most of the returning travellers rhapsodised about their time in Ireland. A few, shocked by the humble condition of their family’s origins, preferred not to talk much about it.

My own own travels took me all over North America, most of Europe and Asia, but I never had occasion, nor a burning desire to visit my father’s roots in Ireland. He made his first visit as an adult in his 60th year and continued thereafter every year until his death at 85. He talked endlessly and happily about days at Dunraven Arms, in Adare, and walks along the river Maigue, (his father was born in Bruree in 1851, so his roots were Limerick).

Shortly after his death in 1985 and partially motivated by respect for him and the remarkable life he led, I decided it was time for a first-hand look at Ireland and the opportunity to form my own opinion of this island nation. I would be in London on business during the autumn of that year and planned to tack on a couple of weeks to tour Wales, then on to Ireland by way of the Holyhead-Dun Laoghaire ferry … I was prepared and excited about what I was to see and the chance to connect with this side of my family’s ancestry. My time in Ireland would be spent tracing many of my father’s footsteps with visits to the spots he had spoken of so favourably for so many years – Dublin, of course, and the counties Limerick, Clare, Kerry and Cork. After several disappointing, lacklustre and overcast days in Dublin, we set out on the drive across the heart of Ireland. Destination Kenmare. Matters failed to improve – roads in poor condition, unkempt cattle in the fields, tinkers parked along the roadside and no sunshine anywhere. I began to fear I would be one of those American visitors who chose not to talk much about their time in Ireland. But a stop at the Rock of Cashel (Tipperary) impressed and reaffirmed the remarkable history of this ancient nation …

Now, Mr. MURRAY, in Charleville, Co. Cork, was a gracious man who remembered fondly the DAVEY family and asked that his best regards be transported back across the Atlantic. After inquiring about my itinerary and praising the day’s destination of Kenmare, he proceeded to sell me every sweaters anywhere close to my size, as well as sufficient Waterford Crystal to meet my personal use and gift-giving needs for decades. He made the experience so pleasant that I happily gobbled up a significant percentage of his in-store inventory. ‘The roads to Kenmare are not well marked,’ he said. ‘It is getting late in the day, and will soon be dark so I wrote out directions for you.’ Indeed, while his clerk was tidying up our transaction he spent the time carefully writing out in great detail and with a fine hand, the most precise driving instructions from his store in Charleville to the B&B in Kenmare. He wrote of the churches I would pass, described roadside statues, intersections, farm houses, sharp bends in the road, hills and valleys. It was beautifully written. They were perfect directions and greatly simplified an otherwise confusing drive in the dark … Things were definitely looking up for his first-time visitor.

The next morning in Kenmare was one of those vividly sparkling days with sunshine glistening on the bay and the Caha Mountains. My surroundings were dazzling. It was as if my person and my mood had been magically levitated into a completely new and different world. And I loved it! That was the moment when my romance, my addiction to Ireland began. Mr. MURRAY was the tipping point ….

I have honestly lost track of the number of return trips to Ireland since that day. Certainly upwards of twenty-five … A 2005 trip with three generations of the HAYES family was a magical time for all of us, complete with a visit to see the now 92-year-old (and still working) Mr. MURRAY. His description of the drive to Kenmare so many years earlier was a generous act of friendship and thoughtfulness that abruptly opened my eyes to the real charm and essence of Ireland — The people.”

– Excerpts, “Mr. Murray’s Consideration, a gift of friendship.” *Mr. MURRAY is a relative and family friend of a colleague of Mr. HAYES, Mike DAVEY at “Sports Illustrated.” The original shop (M. J. Murray Drapery and Boot Warehouse) had been damaged by a bomb during the Troubles but rebuilt.

Talk to Living Family Members BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

I cannot stress this point enough. Regrettably, I waited just a bit too long to start this venture. Several family members who had a great grip of the family history in their heads, have recently passed away. I recommend using a camcorder to document a casual and informal conversation with your living relatives. Trust me, you will forget most of what the tell you because of information overload. And notes don’t work too well either. I often question what I wrote down as being an accurate representation of what was said.

Get a PAID Ancestry.com membership.

Ancestry.com has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in finding, licensing, scanning, indexing and making searchable more than 24,000 different collections — ranging from records to photos to biographies to yearbooks to historical maps.

The result is that Ancestry has the web’s largest collection of family history records, including the only complete U.S. Census Collection (1790-1930), the largest online collection of U.S. Military records and the largest online collection of immigration records. The are also adding new discoveries every week in the U.S. alone, and are actively expanding their international collections as well. All this in a very friendly user interface, making it my preferred online family tree website.

You don’t need a paid membership to have a family tree at Ancestry.com, but you do, if you want to use the research tools. My family tree at Ancestry is publicly available and will help other relatives find me. If someone searches for one of my relatives’ names and date of birth, Ancestry.com will tell that person that in addition to the census, death and military records it found, there is someone (Me) who already has that person in their family tree. Because of Ancestry, I have email relations with new found relatives from New Jersey to Ireland.

At Ancestry.com, I’ve been using:

• Census Records Census records are taken every ten years (CAVEAT ALERT: The 1890 Census was wiped out by a fire). This is my first step in trying to track members. If I can get a feeling of where they were in 10 year increments, it helps me understand the entire branch of the family. Each of the various years collected offer different information, but generally I can find:
  • Birthplace of heads of household, their children and parents
  • Identify family relationships
  • Find ancestor as a child to identify his parents.
  • Year of immigration, naturalization status, and birthplace of parents giving another avenue of research.
  • Veteran status to request pension records which can give birth and death dates, proof of marriage and children’s births, and much more.
  • Sometimes learn an ancestor’s actual address, not just the city and state.
• World War I and World War II Draft Cards
  • Provides name, DOB, next of kin, employer and address info.
• Social Security Death Records
  • Provides date of death, location where the person dies and social security number. That this info to the local municipality and obtain the official death record.
• Other Online Family Trees
   
  • This is the most exciting find. If you find someone who has already done the work for you, you can add that info to your own tree. I’ve done this many times. I also reach out to the people and tell them about myself in hopes of developing some type of relationship (usually by email).

Birth, Marriage and Death Records

Armed with a year of birth or death, a trip to the Clerks’ Office of the municipality where the relative died can help you obtain a birth or death certificate. Birth and death certificates will often provide you with:

• Date of birth and/or date of death
• Mother’s maiden name
• Father’s name
• Husband or wife’s name
• Death Certificate only: Location where buried.

There is usually a small charge for each certificate, but the information you obtain is usually well worth it. Most states have a mechanism that allows you to mail in your requests, but there is usually a slightly higher fee for that and you don’t get to do the research which itself can provide valuable information. If you have relatives who were born, married or died in New York City, they have a Vital Records Research Room that is loaded with microfilms containing indexes and certificates of your relatives. Westchester County, New York, also has something similar, but they do not have birth or death records. But they do have wills, probate papers, marriages and grave site indexes. In addition to individual municipalities, here is a list of links of places I go to obtain records:

• City of New York Municipal Archives
• State of New York Vital Records Info
• Westchester County Archives
• Westchester Historical Society
• Massachusetts Vital Records
• Rhode Island Vital Records
• New Hampshire Vital Records
• Scotland Vital Records
• Scotland Vital Records Index
• General Records Office for Wales an the United Kingdom
• General Register Office of Ireland

I currently have in excess of fifty official documents covering almost every branch of our family tree.

Cemeteries

I visit the cemeteries of known family members. You can often get a bunch of useful information off the tombstones. Sometimes you hit the jackpot when family members of multiple generations are buried in the same place. If you can obtain the death certificates, they will tell you where the person is buried. Some cemeteries have well organized records that will also provide a wealth of information. Some cemeteries will charge a research fee for information, most do not.

DNA Testing

I just ordered my DNA testing kit from Ancestry.com, so I will let you know how this works. But I have heard nothing but great things about it, so I’m giving it a shot.

You can learn more about DNA testing by reading:

http://hayesfamily.us/?p=57

A WORD OF WARNING!

Do not embark on an ancestry hunt unless you are willing to discover hidden family secrets and skeletons in the closet. They exist in EVERY family. Some will remain hidden, others will not. I have already come across a few. Thankfully, nothing really troublesome.

Happy Hunting!

If you are a paid Ancestry.com Member, you’ll save 50% on testing now through September 30th, 2008. To learn more, click here.

I ordered two test kits. The first is the Advanced Paternal Lineage Test. The Paternal Lineage Test can help me connect with living relatives and possibly add them to my family tree. The second is the Maternal Lineage Test where I can learn about my mother’s ancient ancestors as they migrated across the world thousands of years ago. The maternal test can also help me disprove family links if they exist.You can learn more about the DNA testing process by going to:

To learn more about DNA testing:

• DNA Basics
• Paternal Lineage Test
• Maternal Lineage test

Enjoy!

Phil Hayes
Monroe, CT