CASE STUDY
John and Kate’s Ancestral Trip to Ireland
Trudy’s genealogy research uncovered John’s ancestor’s homeplace and led to pouring pints in their local and a fresh lead with links to a local postman.
John and his wife Kate, from California, experienced an emotional but successful trip to Ireland in search of John’s Irish roots. After years of his own research, John got in touch with Trudy, with a thirty-page document full of his family records, and she set about finding the local history of his family.
Where the story begins
This is where the story of ancestry really begins, building connections and pinpointing locations. John’s family had left County Laois in Ireland’s midlands for the US, and Trudy set about finding out what they had left behind, and why.
Trudy traced his family to the picturesque village of Ballinakill, a very prominent town in Laois (Queens County, at the time), where she found Headen’s pub nearby, a place John’s ancestors enjoyed a pint or two, decades before him. John, Kate and their friends Mike and Karen came to Ireland for this trip of a lifetime. Trudy hadn’t disclosed until they arrived, that she’d found John’s ancestral homeplace – it was a profoundly emotional moment when he knew he was going to the place where his story began.
A beautiful tribute
The farmhouse is a shell of a building on the land of the new owner Sile. After crossing two fields John finally set his eyes on the building where his family first lived. Watching people realise their family history is a very humbling experience, it’s why Trudy does what she does.
It was a very proud and emotional day for John and Kate – the visit included a trip to Headen’s pub where firm friendships were made, and John pulled a few pints of Guinness in the very place his ancestors once partied. As a final surprise for John, Trudy produced an old photo of the local postman in Ballinakill who passed away in 1969 – the resemblance is uncanny, and the start of perhaps another branch of the family tree. Since their visit, Síle has built her garden wall and named her new house after John’s family.
