Getting Help

Barry McCain, administrator of the UHG, www.ulsterheritage.com, has been consulting with Dr. William Roulston, Head of Research at the Ulster Historical Society, in regards to how adequate our data is to proceed in researching my line of McCowns in Fermanagh. Dr. Roulston is very interested in seeing how much can be done using DNA with high quality matches and then traditional primary source material. This would be sort of a test case. Mary Becker, administrator of the Oriel Septs of Ireland Group, suggested contacting Dr. Roulston because of some help he provided to her in researching a family from Ulster. It turned out that in her project, it was necessary for him to use records in Scotland. Mary said that the effort paid off.

With both Barry and Mary having had acquaintance with Dr. Roulston and his work and sharing that information with me, there is an outside chance that a seemingly impossible mission could come to fruition. On the surface, it looks like trying to connect unidentified ancestors in Fermanagh with unidentified ancestors in South Carolina, I know,lots of luck! It does seem like trying to connect a suspension bridge between a couple of unsupported sky hooks.