Foreword
Recently, I interviewed an Irish economist who was explaining the phenomenal impact of the Irish in Britain. From Lennon/McCartney to Wayne Rooney and even Tony Blair, the Irish strain has always produced second and third generation performers. In London, some of the major landmark buildings are being snapped up by men who started life making tea on building sites off Regent Street. So, is this reverse-colonization or just the natural upshot of an emigration-prone nation?
Ryan Tubridy
Dublin, 2007

Part 1
Tracing back to Ireland: first steps
Unless your family has never left Ireland, the very first step in researching your Irish family history is to trace back to your migrant ancestor. Although there are many reasons why the Irish have spread so widely across the world, the Great Famine of the 1840s accounts for over 2 million people alone — and you may very well find that one of these migrants was your ancestor. For those who already know where their Irish ancestor lived, this section will be useful for trracing down other brances to find relatives living all around the world.