This Irish Genealogy site offers the Irish descendant (from New York, Canada, UK, Australia...) the chance to trace their Irish family tree and search for their surname origins and the records of their Irish ancestor's birth, marriage or death.

Kyle J. Betit is a professional genealogist, lecturer and author residing in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kyle specializes in Irish and immigration research. Kyle Betit is Research Director of ProGenealogists, Inc., in Salt Lake City and the author of the Irish Genealogy Pages at http://ireland.progenealogists.com
 

Question and Answer: DNA Test?
© Kyle J. Betit, 2007

Question: Do you think it is worth the money to order a DNA test? … I haven't been able to find where my ancestor came from in Ireland. Joseph Harney was born about May 12, 1853, somewhere in Ireland. He had a sister Kate, born about 1851. She married John Gillin about 1876 in Cleveland Ohio … Joseph Harney died in Cleveland on 5 December 1910.

Answer: DNA studies provide exciting opportunities for furthering genealogical research. I think we can all help by submitting test results to surname projects, and in the case of  Ireland there is also the Ireland Heritage Y-DNA Project by Family Tree DNA:  http://www.familytreedna.com/public/IrelandHeritage/ .

However, I don't see any current surname project for the Harney surname, and I'm not sure how helpful DNA would be at this point for your specific goal of finding out where Joseph Harney originated in Ireland. I think that records research may still be your best bet for answering that question.

You can see the distribution of the Harney surname in 19th century Ireland on the Irish  Times Irish Ancestors web site at: http://www.ireland.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?Surname=Harney&fuseaction=Go.

It's not a particularly common surname, and it was highly concentrated in certain  counties (particularly Tipperary, Waterford, and Roscommon).

I think that it is particularly important that you obtain the death records of Joseph  Harney and his sister. You can see a list of links to vital records available online on  the ProGenealogists Genealogy Sleuth Page at: http://www.progenealogists.com/genealogysleuthb.htm . There is one whole page devoted to Ohio: http://www.progenealogists.com/genealogyohio.htm . One of the death records may identify their parents' names, which will be very helpful for finding the right Harney family in Ireland.

It is helpful that you have an exact birth date for Joseph Harney, but that information  must be treated very carefully. Very often the birth date provided in American records  for an Irish immigrant is wrong. The day and month of the year may be correct, and the  year off, for example. More reliable information is the names of Joseph's parents.

Data from records for County Roscommon, among some other 11 counties, has been placed in the Central Signposting Index (of Irish Genealogy Limited) at  http://www.irishgenealogy.ie . You could check this index for a possible matching birth of Joseph Harney.