About Us and A Letter from Ireland.
Welcome to A Letter from Ireland.
Let me guess - you’ve been interested in tracing your Irish Heritage and Family History for some time now.
Maybe you've already travelled to Ireland? Perhaps you wonder if you will ever get here?
What you DO know is that your ancestors left Ireland for a better life - bringing with them their values and beliefs, many of which were passed to you and your own family.
Since 2013, we've shared our weekly "Letter from Ireland" and it has attracted over Two Million people of Irish descent around the world. They find that our Letters, Blog posts, Videos, books and Podcasts help them to understand what life was like for their Irish Ancestors.
For some, this information provides a rich backdrop to help with research on Ancestry Record sites. For others, the Letter connects them with their Irish roots in a very real and visceral way.
Here are just some reasons why some of our readers keep coming back to "A Letter from Ireland" for more:
“Trace your surname, discover where your ancestors may have lived and step into this fascinating and beautiful land that we love”. Sandy Laferriere.
“If you have Irish blood running through your veins, or even if you are just interested in Ireland, this site is essential.” Patty McCoy.
“You and Carina are melding a very important aspect of Irish history and heritage to our personal genealogical endeavors. Thanks for bringing it all to life for us!” Jack Healy.
Now, I think it’s time to introduce ourselves! We are Mike and Carina Collins - a husband and wife team based in County Cork, Ireland.
Our Irish Heritage adventure started when we noticed many people asking questions on Facebook about Irish surnames and the homelands of their Irish Ancestors.
We started to answer with our local knowledge - and those answers took the form of a weekly email called “A Letter from Ireland”.
In each Letter, we share stories of counties, surnames and heroic Irish individuals who made new lives for themselves across the world - often in the harshest of circumstances. Sound like any of your Irish ancestors?
Today, we travel around Ireland - gathering stories and sharing them with you through our weekly letters, blog posts, videos and podcasts.
Would you like to see the Letter and Podcast survive and thrive for the future - and receive some personal benefits along the way?
Recent Posts
Were you, or a member of your family, born on the 4th of July? We asked our Facebook readers and 6 of you said YES! So, today, we’re going to look at Georges family name – and the Irish family names of our 6 Yankee Doodle Dandy readers. One of the most interesting things about…
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We’re “doing” the Ring of Kerry on the Wild Atlantic Way at the moment – travelling from Kenmare to Sneem to Caherdaniel to Waterville to Ballinskelligs to Valentia to Cahirciveen to Glenbeigh to Killorglin (phew!). As we drive around the Ring of Kerry we come across so many tour buses (it’s that time of year!).…
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Meitheamh – pronounced “meh-hev” – is the Irish word for June, and therefore more or less means mid-summer. The growth in the fields is at its green height – grass seems to be shooting up an inch a day up to this point. In the old Celtic Calendar there were four minor festivals through the…
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The River Bandon gets it’s name from the Celtic goddess for water – Bann – and rises near the town of Drimoleague. Through the many aerial shots used in the programme we see all the towns, bridges and castles along the way. And we meet many of the local characters. During its first few miles…
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Many Irish families seem to feature multiple instances of the same forenames e.g you might find dozens of Johns, Marys or Richards – but very few Joans, Timothys or Michaels. This cumulative effect is often down to “Irish naming patterns” – but sometimes families have a special place for some given names. Last week, I…
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