Family History Society AGM

Durng the Chairman’s address, John Moore thanked all the guest speakers who have honoured us with their exhilarating and informative talks this year. Reference was also made to the upcoming honour given to the Society in hosting this year’s North of Ireland Family History Society Annual General Meeting on Saturday 22nd May in Dunluce Parish Centre (preceded by a tour of Old Bushmills Distillery).

John concluded his report by thanking all the members of the Committee for their continued support. Diana Kirkpatrick delivered the Treasurer’s report thanking Assistant Treasurer, Kathleen McCracken, for her support and Cyndy Cotton for her help in the sale of the Londonderry Sentinel and Coleraine Chronicle CDs. Randal Gill, President of the North of Ireland Family History Society then took the chair to conduct the election of Officers.

Guest speaker was Brian Mitchell from the Derry Genealogy Centre.Brian talked about the Irish Diaspora and the emigration routes they would have taken from the 9 Ulster counties and pointed out the Ancestorsonboard and Ancestry.com sites as useful sources of information. During the years 1892 and 1924 he also pointed out that over 20,000,000 immigrants passed through Ellis Island.

Brian described the Scots-Irish identity in terms of the Ulster American Symposium as “brewed in Scotland, bottled in Ireland and uncorked in North America”. Derry is keen to promote this Diaspora in the bid for UK City of Culture 2013. Brian also referred to the former U S President Ulysses S. Grant’s visit to the Province (during the late 19th Century) which included a civic reception at his maternal Simpson homestead near Ballygawley and visits to Derry, Coleraine, Ballymena and Belfast. We would like to extend our thanks to Brian for a very interesting, informative and illuminating talk.