As part of the celebration of its 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 in the Community Room of the Graves County Public Library, 601 North Seventeenth Street, Mayfield.
The workshop will begin at 1:00 p.m. and conclude shortly after 5:00 p.m.
The workshop is part of an annual tour of North America conducted by the Ulster Historical Foundation to offer workshops on Irish genealogy and the Jackson Purchase Historical Society is 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 specific topics.
Fintan Mullan is the executive director of the Ulster Historical Foundation. Working with technology partners, Mullan was a pioneer in the creation of online resources for Irish research and has maintained the Foundation’s prominence in digital database developments for Irish genealogy. As executive director of the Ulster Historical Foundation he has managed the production of over 100 publications, including the popular Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors and has lectured extensively on Irish history and genealogy in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
Gillian Hunt is research officer with the Ulster Historical Foundation and is responsible for the management of the Foundation’s many genealogical activities. As well as managing the genealogy side of the Foundation’s work, Hunt carries out research for clients and is a hugely experienced user of the General Register Office and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland where she sits on PRONI’s Stakeholder Forum.
She regularly teaches courses in Northern Ireland and gives talks on family history in the rest of Ireland, the UK, U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
There is a registration fee to cover the costs of the program and preregistration by March 14 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. To obtain a registration form go to http://jacksonpurchasehistory.org/2023/02/14/genealogy-workshop-set-for-march-23rd-at-the-graves-county-public-library/ or email billmulligan@murray-ky.net.
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 was 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 and 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. Their westward movement continued for generations. 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.
In 1958, a group of historians met in Murray, Kentucky led by faculty from Murray State University and University of Tennessee-Martin and formed the Jackson Purchase Historical Society to promote interest, study, and preservation of the regional history of the territory encompassed in the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, known as the Jackson Purchase. The society holds a number of meetings each year with a speaker on Jackson Purchase history and publishes an award-winning journal on local history. Members include a wide range of people who simply share a love of history and a love of the Jackson Purchase area. All are welcome to join.
Articles are welcome for the 2023 Journal and can be sent to the editor, Jim Humphreys, at jhumphreys@murraystate.edu. The editor would also welcome inquiries about topics, books for review, or offers to review a book. Copies of the Journal are available from the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, P.O. Box 531, Murray, KY 42071. The cost is $15.90 including postage and sales tax. Anyone interested in Jackson Purchase history is welcome to join the JPHS. Information about membership and future programs is available on the society’s website: http://jacksonpurchasehistory.org/. Free electronic access to back issues of the Journal through 2016 is available through the Murray State University libraries is at https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/jphs/.