Ireland XO assists those of Irish heritage around the world to take what information they have about their forebearers and assist them trace from where in Ireland their people came.. When they visit Ireland, our volunteers, if possible, meet and show them the house their people came from, the land they farmed before they left, visit graveyards, and introduce living relatives if they can be found. It is an entirely free service, but we do accept donations to support the charity’s general expenses.
The programme is based on a simple idea; reverse genealogy. Instead of waiting for people of Irish descent to trace their roots, Ireland XO volunteers worldwide are networking with people of Irish descent in their local areas, helping to build bridges between the present and the past by connecting people with the home parishes of their ancestors.
Our programme works two ways; Returning Irish have life changing moments finding where their people came from, and meeting distance relatives, and our volunteers enjoy meeting people from all over the world and showing off their local communities and extending the “Ceid Mile Failte” – the hundred thousand welcomes that Irish people -Americans or whoever have life volunteers greatly enjoying meeting people from all over the world and enjoy sharing the emotional moments of returning Irish seeing where their people came from in Ireland.
Read some of our success stories HERE.We offer four key services, FREE to all members
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A message board, run by a team of international volunteers many of whom are expert genealogists. They will help members with their genealogical queries and assist them with any family history query.
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A meet and greet service, visiting diaspora can request to meet with a local person that lives in the same area their ancestor once did. The volunteers will meet with them, chat about the area, and answer any questions they have. They may even find living relatives that they can connect with.
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A free ancestor database that all members can search and add to providing a space to record the stories of our ancestors
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A newsletter programme that provides content written by expert academics, genealogists, historians, and librarians
Thank you for providing this website. It is THE only place where a kind person responded to one of my posts with the absolutely crucial piece of information I needed in order to search further. I have been looking for that tidbit of info for 14 years!!! So, Ireland XO is definitely making a difference in Irish genealogy research efforts.