​We’ve talked about the importance of capturing traditions and memories related to the Holidays with our families. Did they celebrate with presents, a particular food, or the gathering of extended family? Do some of your siblings remember the holidays differently than you? Let’s look at ways we can capture and use this information in our family history stories.

​I hope you had a great St. Patrick’s Day! It’s fun to celebrate our family heritage. While everyone seems to be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, it would be fun to discover other ethnic holidays that are not as widely known. There seems to be a celebration for every day on the calendar from the traditional and religious holidays to peanut butter day to world sleep day (which is also on March 17th.) I wonder what our ancestors would think about all the crazy ways we celebrate random days? Regardless, enjoy your celebration. And for those who can’t resist doing a little more research, check out these sites:
 
My Heritage is offering free access to all their Irish records from March 14 to March 19th.
Discover your Irish heritage (myheritage.com)
 
Ireland records | findmypast.com I haven’t heard if they will offer any St. Patrick’s Day specials on Find My Past but this page will give you an idea of the Irish records they have on their site.
 
Birth Death Marriage Genealogy Records Ireland - Irish Family History Foundation (rootsireland.ie) This is a subscription service which seems well organized by county and type of records.
 
Welcome to Irish Genealogy - Irish Genealogy  This site is from the Irish government and is free to use to do your Irish research.
 
Enjoy the day. Happy Researching!

Looking back at sites I’ve used for research in the past, I thought about USGenWeb Project. This site is a collection of states and their counties and maintained by volunteers. Each state and county vary in content. Let’s look.

​A discussion about birthday cakes and family celebrations led me to research when did people begin celebrating birthdays with a special cake? Are there other celebrations that we assume people have always held? Did our ancestors celebrate the same way? How could that inform our family story? Let’s look.