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What Did Two Irish Immigrants Endure to Build a Better Life in America?
This Irish immigrant story follows William and Ellen Dowling from Listowel, County Kerry to Brooklyn, New York in 1857. As teenagers traveling in steerage, they carried something that…
4 min read
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Why My Genealogy Research Breakthrough Hasn’t Happened Yet
This week’s #52Ancestors theme is “A Breakthrough Moment,” but here’s my confession: I haven’t had a major genealogy research breakthrough in months. Despite attending genealogy conferences last year,…
4 min read
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The World Around Them: My 2x Great Grandparents from Litmanova
Between 1883 and 1900, the world around Constantinus Hurkala and Anastasia Hlinka transformed completely. Born in Litmanova, Slovakia in 1860, they knew only mountain meadows, subsistence farming, and…
4 min read
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Ellen McAuliffe’s Irish Family Lost in Time — and Rediscovered?
My great-great-grandmother Ellen McAuliffe lived a brief but consequential life. Born around 1844, probably in Ireland, she arrived in New York in 1857 and died in Brooklyn in…
4 min read
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When Survival Required Remarriage: Anastasia Bosak’s Difficult Choice
In 1874, Anastasia Bosak faced an impossible choice in Austrian Galicia: remarry quickly or face destitution. Her first husband Stephanus Dubnianski had died, leaving her with young Jacobus…
4 min read
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When Genealogy Stops Being Solitary: The Ellen McAuliffe Story
This post explores genealogical collaboration between the author in Cincinnati and a DNA cousin in Brisbane, Australia. Together, they’re researching whether Ellen McAuliffe (Brooklyn, 1857) and Margaret McAuliffe…
4 min read
