In Our McKelvey Ancestors, one of Our Irish Ancestors Trilogy, family historian Joyce V. Kelly, Ph.

D. documents: (1) her search for the townland in County Donegal where her ancestors lived before immigrating to Quebec in 1834; (2) life in rural Quebec, Canada, where the extended McKelvey family maintained their Irish identify for 50 years; and (3) her McKelvey grandfather's early 20th century life in Truckee, a small town in Northern California’s “Wild West” known then for saloons, gambling casinos, and bootlegging during Prohibition.

The author illustrates the Family History with stories and a social history, describing the environment in which ancestors lived in Ireland, rural Quebec, and later, Northern California. Examples show readers how to use civil and church records, genealogical websites, DNA match results, and help from other genealogists to build a family tree.

When the author could not identify her McKelvey ancestors' townland in County Donegal, she turned to FAN analysis. This technique uses locations of geographic clusters of ancestors’ friends, associates, and neighbors (FANs) to identify ancestors’ possible early Irish townlands.

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