Randy Majors "Ancestor Search" Yields Surprising Results

Randy Majors created an online tool called "Ancestor Search" for genealogists and it is one of the BEST search engines that I regularly use and one that often yields surprising results. 

Today, while using "Ancestor Search", I found another Broderick family history researcher (at Irelandxo) AND an obituary for my 3rd great-grandfather Michael Broderick (1801-1889) for the very first time.

Those two findings inspired this blog post in the hope that this method can help others locate their ancestors as well.

Finding Our Broderick Ancestors in Co. Clare, Ireland

This blog post is the second of several that I hope will assist me in locating the townlands and parishes of my ancestors in Ireland. My brother, sister and I will be visiting Ireland and staying in Co. Clare in 2019.

My 3rd great grandparents Michael and Margaret (McNally) Broderick emigrated from county Clare, Ireland in 1843 with my 2nd great grandfather Martin Broderick (born 1831).

Broderick

Martin Broderick (1839-1915) was a Fenian raid veteran and resident of Essex County for 72 years.

He was born in County Clare, Ireland and he crossed the Atlantic with his parents when he was twelve years old. The family originally settled in Sandwich West.

He sailed the lakes as a sailor before marrying Mary Hussey in 1865. They were married for fifty years. The story has it that she crossed the Atlantic leaving her home in Galway, Ireland to fulfill a vow made several years after young Broderick left the Emerald Isle.

Mary and Martin had nine children: four girls and five sons.

Most of what I have come to know about the Broderick family is in large part due to the generosity of Patrick Broderick's (1871-1943) son Francis "Bernard" Broderick (1916 – 1992). 

An oral history was recorded in Scarborough, Ontario and his photographs were passed on to me through Christian brothers at Lasalle manor: Brother Francis and Brother Walter Farrell, FSC Archivist.