Waterford 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 Waterford, 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 Waterford is home to Ireland’s oldest city, founded by Vikings over a thousand years ago, and its long maritime tradition shaped both the city’s families and the fishing and farming communities along its coast. Waterford’s port also made it a significant point of departure for emigrants from the surrounding region, so a family’s final Irish record may reflect Waterford even where their true roots lie further inland or in a neighbouring county.
Waterford’s rural parishes, particularly in the west of the county and through the Comeragh Mountains, held small farming communities whose records benefit from careful local interpretation, since civil parish boundaries here, as elsewhere, don’t always match the church a family actually attended. We work through whatever records survive, confirming the true congregation and graveyard your family used, before identifying the specific townland.
A Waterford tour can combine the historic city, famed for its glass-making tradition, with the quieter countryside toward the Comeragh Mountains or the coast, arriving at your family’s own townland. Waterford’s blend of maritime history and rural farming heritage gives visiting descendants a genuinely rounded sense of what daily life looked like for their ancestors here.
- Waterford has 7 baronies
- Waterford has 72 Civil Parishes
- Waterford has 130 Electoral Divisions
- Waterford has 1629 Townlands
- Waterford has 23 Sub Townlands
County Waterford’s name is a derivation from the Old Norse Vedrafjörður being formerly a Viking port. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Munster. There is an Irish-speaking area, Gaeltacht na nDéise in the south-west of the county. The population of the county at large, including the city, is 113,795 according to the 2011 census.
County Waterford has two mountain ranges, the Knockmealdown Mountains and the Comeragh Mountains. The highest point in the county is Knockmealdown, at 794m. It also has many rivers, including Ireland’s third longest river, the River Suir (184 km); and Ireland’s fourth longest river, the Munster Blackwater (168 km). These two rivers and the River Nore are commonly called the sister rivers.
The Irish Celtic Tribes By Ptolemy 1st Century 500BC-500AD
- County Waterford – The Brigantes
Family Dynasties 1500-1600 AD
- Irish – McGrath
- Norman – Power, Redmond, Rochford
- Scottish – None
- Viking – None
County Waterford – Things to do and may be possible to include within your Ancestral Townland Experience Tour
- Waterford Crystal
- Irelands Ancient East
- Waterford Treasures Medieval Museum
- Bishop’s Palace
- Reginald’s Tower
- The Viking Triangle
- Comeragh Mountain Drive
- Certificate of Excellence
- Christ Church Cathedral
- Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity
- St. Saviour’s Dominican Priory
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Waterford really Ireland's oldest city?
Yes, Waterford was founded by Vikings in the 9th century, making it Ireland’s oldest city.
Did emigrants from other counties sometimes leave through Waterford's port?
Yes, Waterford served as a departure point for emigrants from a wider surrounding region, so we always check whether a family’s Waterford connection is their true home or their point of departure.
Can a Waterford tour include both the city and the Comeragh Mountains countryside?
Yes, many itineraries combine the historic city with a visit to a family’s rural townland, depending on where your ancestors actually lived.
