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Genealogy Workshop set for March 23rd at the Graves County Public Library

As part of the celebration of our 65th anniversary the Jackson Purchase Historical Society has expanded its programs and is offering a half-day genealogy workshop in cooperation with the Ulster Historical Foundation on March 23, 2003 in the Community Room of the Graves County Public Library, 601 North Seventeenth Street, Mayfield, Kentucky. The workshop will begin at 1:00pm and conclude shortly after 5:00pm.

The workshop is part of annual tour of North America conducted by the Ulster Historical Foundation and we are proud that we are able to partner with them this year to bring the program to the Jackson Purchase. The workshop will be taught by Fintan Mullan and Jillian Hunt, both of whom are experienced genealogists, historians, and archivists. The workshop will focus on Irish church records, which are a foundational source for Irish genealogy. The workshop will allow ample time for questions by those attending and the ability to follow-up on particular areas.

There is a registration fee to cover the costs of the program and preregistration by March 10 is required so that enough materials can be available on the day of the workshop. Registration for members of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society will be $15 in advance; for nonmembers it will be $25. Individuals can join the Society for 2023 and register for a total cost of $30. We will attempt to accommodate those who register after the deadline, if space and materials are available. There will be an extra $10 charge for late registration. A registration form can be printed or email billmulligan@murray-ky.net for a registration form.

The JPHS has always focused on the broadest definition of the history of the Jackson Purchase region throughout its years of service to the area. Genealogy is an important ally of history and the two are essential to fully understand any area’s historical development. While many people associate Irish immigration into the United States with the Great Famine (An Gorta Mor) of the 1840s, in fact Irish migration begins early in the colonial period. That migration is largely from the north of Ireland, the historical province of Ulster. Hence the designations Ulster Scots or Scots Irish for those early migrants. Many of whom traced their family roots to Scotland before they had emigrated from Scotland to Ireland.

This group was an important part of the population of the American colonies and increased dramatically after the founding of Pennsylvania in 1681. Penn’s promise of cheap land and religious freedom attracted many from the north of Ireland whose access to land was limited and whose Presbyterianism or other non-church of England religious persuasion put them in the status of second-class citizens at best. In Pennsylvania many moved west where land was even cheaper or beyond the established boundaries of settlement where land could be taken up for free. When they approached the mountains, they began to shift south down the face of the Appalachian Mountains into Maryland western Virginia, and western North Carolina. Late in the 18th century they began moving across the mountains into Kentucky and Tennessee. The iconic Kentucky frontiersman Daniel Boone was from a family that had followed this pattern as was the equally iconic David Crockett of Tennessee. So, this workshop takes us back to the very roots of a large part of our region’s population.