Donegal Genealogy Tours
My Ireland Heritage find your Ancestors and exact house location from the 1700’s to the late 1800’s, and all available records in Ireland. We are an Irish family business dedicated to assisting you in your Irish Genealogy research for your roots and records of your family history of past generations in Donegal, as well as providing you with a once in a lifetime Irish Genealogy tour experience to visit your families original family house and Walk in the Footsteps of your Irish Ancestors.
Sean and the Team at My Ireland Heritage are a Government certified & approved Genealogy & Touring Company, and will personally guide you on the journey into your Irish ancestry to any County in Ireland.
Many companies are genealogy research only, many companies are touring companies only, we at My Ireland Family Heritage are proud to be able to encompass your research and tour together enabling us to work with you throughout the process to customize your tour with you and for you. To achieve a full genealogy tour experience consider adding one of our one-day historical tours.
Our Tours
Our Ancestral Townland Experience Tours
County Donegal is Ireland’s most northerly county, a place of rugged coastline, remote glens and a strong Irish-speaking Gaeltacht tradition that has held on more firmly here than almost anywhere else in the country. For many emigrant families, Donegal’s isolation and poor land meant emigration came early and often, whether to Scotland for seasonal farm work or further afield to North America and beyond. Its parish records reflect small, tightly knit rural communities where the same handful of surnames can appear across an entire parish.
That tight-knit pattern makes it especially important to confirm we have the right family rather than a namesake in a neighbouring townland, something we do by cross-referencing gravestones, neighbouring holdings and family memory alongside whatever official records survive. Donegal’s remoteness also means some of its older graveyards and church sites are less accessible than in other counties, and knowing the terrain in advance saves real time and difficulty on the day.
A Donegal tour brings you along dramatic coastal roads, past Slieve League’s cliffs and into the glens, ending at the townland your family left behind, a landscape so striking it’s easy to understand why so many Donegal descendants feel a pull to see it in person, whatever generation removed they are.
- Donegal has 8 Baronies
- Donegal has 53 Civil Parishes
- Donegal has 146 Elector Divisions
- Donegal has 1711 Townlands
- Donegal has 1726 sub townlands
Slieve League, is a mountain on the Atlantic coast of County Donegal, Ireland. At 601 metres (1,972 ft). Although less famous than the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Slieve League’s cliffs reach almost three times higher. It is the third largest Cliffs in Europe.
County Donegal is part of the Border Region of the Republic of Ireland and is in the province of Ulster. Lifford serves as the county town. The population of the county is 158,755 according to the 2016 census. It has also been known as County Tyrconnell (Tír Chonaill), after the historic territory of the same name.
County Donegal is one of the most beautiful counties of Ireland. Its name comes from the Irish Dun na Gall or Fort of the foreigner.
Family Dynasties 1500-1600 AD
- Irish – O’Doherty, MacMoanagle ,O ‘Boyle
- Norman- None
- Scottish -MacSweeney
- Viking – None
County Donegal – Things to do and may be possible to include within your Ancestral Townland Experience Tour
- Wild Atlantic Way
- Donegal Castle
- Lough Eske
- Abbey of the Four Masters
- Errigal and Muckish mountain
- Glenveagh National park
- Doagh Famine Village
- Slieve League
Frequently Asked Questions
My Donegal ancestors may have spoken Irish, does that affect the records?
It can. Some Donegal parish records and local naming conventions reflect the Irish language, and we take this into account when matching anglicised surnames used abroad to their original forms.
Is it difficult to reach rural graveyards in Donegal?
Some are more remote than in other counties, but we plan routes and access in advance so your tour runs smoothly regardless of terrain.
Did many Donegal families emigrate to Scotland rather than America?
Yes, seasonal and permanent migration to Scotland was very common from Donegal, alongside emigration to North America, and we factor this into the research where relevant.
