In this special Irish family history episode we take two letters from our Green Room members. We chat about the approach they should take to uncover more about their respective Irish ancestral homelands.

The first letter comes from one of our members in Australia and shares the story of her Irish Irish ancestors. She wonders how to go about discovering the actual origin for these ancestors in Ireland. Mike shares his approach - and comes up with a target destination!

In the second letter we chat about how people often jump back to the Irish records too soon - and often jump to incorrect conclusions. Mike takes a letter from a member from the USA. They are sure that their ancestor originated in County Cork - but Mike points out that some of the evidence just does not stack up. He shows how it is worthwhile going back to basics to find the real origin for your Irish ancestry.

We also have Irish songs of emigration to provide some (additional) entertainment along the way.

• "Shores of Botany Bay" performed by The Irish Rovers.
• "Thousands are Sailing" performed by The Pogues.
• "Galway Bay" performed by Bing Crosby.

Thank you for listening to the Letter from Ireland show. To support the podcast, get lots of member-only features and follow Mike and Carina behind the scenes as they travel around Ireland go to ALetterfromIreland.com/plus .

In this special episode we choose one of our Green Room members (see more about the Green Room here) and accompany them on a genealogical trip back to County Cork.

Cathy Abraham lives in Boston, USA and her great-grandparents arrived there in the 1870s from County Cork. They were Timothy O'Callaghan and Ellen Richardson. The story went that Timothy was a poor farm-hand on Ellen's parents farm just outside Cork City. They eloped to America as Ellen's parents did not approve of a match between them.

Cathy was keen to dig a little more in this story as well as finding and visiting the places associated with the Richardson and O'Callaghan families back in Ireland.

So, we decided to get involved! We commissioned Pam Holland (one of our Green Room genealogists) to research the couple and their families - and then produce a report.

And she found out some really interesting facts!

So, join us as we accompany Cathy to some of the places mentioned in that report in County Cork - we think you'll enjoy coming along for the ride!

Thank you for listening to the Letter from Ireland show. To support the podcast, get lots of member-only features and follow Mike and Carina behind the scenes as they travel around Ireland go to ALetterfromIreland.com/plus .

In this episode we look at a very difficult time in Ireland - one that triggered a time of death across the population of the island as well as emigration for many generations afterwards. I'm talking, of course, about "An Gorta Mór" - also known as "The Great Hunger" or "The Great Famine" of the mid 1800s.

The first letter looks at a particular landless class in Ireland - who formed a sizeable percentage of our population - but who were, more or less, wiped out during the Famine.

I wrote the second letter when I came across an account from 1847 which profiled particular families in a townland in West Cork. That account was all about my own O'Regan ancestors of that townland. It certainly stopped me in my tracks!

We also have Irish songs of emigration (and one on optimism for the future) to help us focus on this time.

• "Spancil Hill" performed by The Wolfe Tones.
• "The Emigrants Farewell" performed by Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh.
• "The West's Awake" performed by Lumiere and Damien Dempsey.

Thank you for listening to the Letter from Ireland show. To support the podcast, get lots of member-only features and follow Mike and Carina behind the scenes as they travel around Ireland go to ALetterfromIreland.com/plus .