A journey into my past

Back in the late 1980s I became interested in my family history, in particular that of my father's family, the Burkes of Kilmacow. After nearly thirty years I can't remember what sparked my interest.It may have been an interest in history as it was fascinating to find relatives who had been involved in all the events I studied in school, everything from the Great Famine to World War 1. It may have been the appeal of the exotic in that 9 my grandfather's family emigrated to the US and the thought that I had all these relatives living over there that I had never met. The visit every now and then of some of these distant cousins (always referred to as "Yanks") may also have been a factor. In any case I researched the family and wrote a handwritten (pre-laptop days!) account of the family. I was helped by many people on both sides of the Atlantic but was hindered by my age (no car!) and the difficulty in accessing many of the records (no online access in those days). One happy outcome of the project was that I spent a summer in Chicago in 1992 on a student work visa and was guest of honour at the Burke Family Picnic!

In recent years there has been a huge upsurge in interest in family history in Ireland which has coincided with online access to the Irish census records of 1901 and 1911. With my curiosity aroused again I began to read all my old notes and decided to kickstart the project again. The plan now is to pull all the material together over the next two years and then publish a booklet. Maybe even launch it in Chicago! There are many grandchildren of the 13 Burkes still alive so I want to collect all the stories, photos and memories before it's too late. I'd also love to hear the stories of relatives in the US who visited Ireland. What was it like to visit the land of your ancestors?

Over the coming months I'll be posting on this blog updates on my research. If anyone has any material of interest I'd love to hear from you. My email is mike@viva.ie