I haven't done much research since the holidays, so haven't had much to share here for a bit. With St. Patrick's Day upon us, I thought I'd do a quick look to see just how Irish I am. To date, none of my research on my paternal side has countered the belief that I am 100% Irish on that side. I believe I've identified all eight of my great great grandparents and all eight were born in Ireland.
On my maternal side, I have to go back an extra generation to my 3x great grandparents to find all the countries of origin. On that side, thanks to the research done by my uncle, we know that thirteen of my sixteen great great great grandparents were born in Ireland. I have two 3x great grandparents who were born in Germany and one who was born in Quebec, Canada. My French Canadian great great great grandfather Joseph Belduke married Mary Kiely who was born in Ireland. This makes my great great grandmother Emily Belduke half Irish and half French Canadian. (Getting all of the Quebecois back to France goes much further back than the rest of my ancestors as my uncle has manged to trace the Beldukes back to the early 17th Century. My 8x great grandfather Louis Bolduc was the first born on the North American continent in 1669!)
Add up the number of Irish (and half-Irish) great great grandparents on both sides of the family, and the total is 14.5 of 16. That makes me 90.63% Irish, 6.25% German, and 3.13% French Canadian. There's a scene in the movie "Stripes" where Bill Murray's character says "We're Americans... You know what that means? Do
ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent
country in the world. ...
We're mutts." And it's pretty much true -- Americans can trace their ancestry back to every corner of the world. So I have to admit, I'm pretty amazed that after having ancestors living in the United States for at least 100 years, that I am still overwhelmingly Irish American.
Between what my uncle has uncovered on my maternal side and what I have uncovered on my paternal side, I am able to trace my family back to seven of the 32 counties of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) -- Galway, Sligo, Cork, Tipperary, Tyrone, Down, and Roscommon. Those counties cover the North, West, and South points of the island and three of the four provinces. I still need to know where the Mullanes and Mannings originated and I'm not sure if my uncle has figured out where the Kennys are from (I don't have it in my records!)
