In less than a week we are heading to Ireland for the first time ever.  My great grandmother Sarah Jane Hudson, known as "Sadie" was my most recent Irish ancestor to arrive around 1900, take 5 years off her age and marry my great grandfather Cal.  Her brother, Richard Duncan Hudson pictured above came first and settled in St. Louis, Missouri where Sadie later followed. 

We start in Dublin, then pass through Gorey and Enniscorthy where Sadie was born and raised.
After that, we stop in Kilkenny and then head down to Dingle for a couple of nights.  En route, is the next Irish great-great grandmother I hope to visit, Mary Hayes who was born on St. Patrick's Day 1865 in Kilmallock (outside of Limerick) and came over alone around 1880 at the age of 15!

My other Irish ancestors are from Fermanagh and County Tyrone arriving in the famine years of the early 1840's. All are on my mother's side and we don't know any "family" still in Ireland and have never been there so it is a new experience.  I am excited to see Ireland and explore a new place that was once "home"!