O'Donnell familly in the Caribbean

My great Grandmother Anna O'Donnel was an Irish immigrant whose parents moved to Haiti, the name of her father was William O'donnel who was married to Felonise Decamps; during the Haitian revolution she was orphaned and moved to the Dominican Republic where she married Felipe Vinals, the son of a Catalan family in the northern part of Dominican Republic....and thats where I came from.

I always wondered why they came to the Caribbean and If I  still have some distant cousins back in Ireland :) since its been a couple of centuries since that happened I don't think I can find any records of that, in any case .... I'm planning to visit with my daughter next year, I know it will be a memorable trip <3

Hello Delmi,

Thank you for writing on the Community Forum and I am happy you are planning to come here with your daughter soon! 😄

I am delighted that you are interested in learning more about your ancestors who came from Ireland.
It looks like you've already done some research, but if you want to try looking for more information there are some resources on the Tourism Ireland website that may be of help.
The best start is with a good paper trail of birth, marriage, and death certificates back as far as possible. 📜

Furthermore, before 1864 records were kept in the form of church and parish records; while some of these have regrettably been lost over the years, all the surviving records have been sorted into county based genealogical centers.

In 1864 civil registration was introduced in Ireland, which is when we started seeing the formal registration of births, marriages, adoptions and deaths. These records have been kept at the General Register Office of Ireland (GRO), through the Irish Genealogy website, to this day.

The Surname Website by John Grenham could possibly help you find some more information and Find My Past has a lovely website that may be of help too.

As for your trip next year with your daughter, have you already thought about an itinerary and what you'd like to do while on the island?
If you need some advice and inspiration, you can reply to this thread with your questions.

In the meantime, have a great day! ☘️