In the In 1995, my wife, Jacque's brother John died suddenly at 56 years old. He was her last living relative on her parental side "Goulding". This left her devastated. I had some knowledge of genealogy from doing my family tree, so we began to research her Goulding family. In 1996, we went to Ireland to trace her parental side of the family. By 1997, she had met the O'Donnell side of her family and had hundreds of new relatives; all are on her grandmother's side.

We have been going back to Ireland every year. All the people we have met treat us as family ever since the first day we set foot in Ireland. The first thing they said to us was "Welcome Home!" Which was a great surprise to us, but a wonderful feeling to have folks welcome us home.

The most common question we are asked is "What is it like over there?" My answer is always. "It is like it was in the states back in the 50's. People do not lock their houses and you do not hear of the meanness going on there. People speak to you on the street and there is not any tearing down of character to make a point.

We would like to share with you our beautiful and peaceful Ireland before 2004 when we decided to move to Ireland and make it our home. For two people in their late sixties, it was a bold and brave move. However, we had no fear because we had been vacationing in Portumna for 10 years and we knew what to expect.