Our Irish ancestors were tough. Especially those that survived the Great Hunger of 1845 to 1849.
Rather than be weakened by their experiences, many Irish people lived long and prosperous lives. Our members have been sharing stories of their Irish centenarian ancestors, that were born during or before the famine.
From County Monaghan, Joseph emigrated to New York in the 1860s. He was 103 at the time of his first plane flight.
Fluent in Irish and English, Mary was the last survivor of The Great Hunger when she died in Castlebar, aged 108.
Could a person's life span 3 centuries? John was featured by Ripley's Believe It Or Not as having accomplished this feat.
Do you know the details of your Irish ancestors who were born before the Great Hunger? Adding their story to the Chronicles of their parish of origin enables us to reconstruct a picture of that place, in a time before extreme hardship resulted in around half of the Irish population dying or emigrating.
We hope you have found the information we have shared helpful. While you are here, we have a small favour to ask. Ireland Reaching Out is a non-profit organisation that relies on public funding and donations to ensure a completely free family history advisory service to anyone of Irish heritage who needs help connecting with their Irish place of origin. If you would like to support our mission, please click on the donate button and make a contribution. Any amount, big or small, is appreciated and makes a difference.