Everyone has an interest - some more than others - to learn their roots. And there is only one way to do it. That is to "talk to people, read and study and to do research," the chief of the O'Brien clan said Friday.
Sir Conor O'Brien, who is also known, among other hereditary titles, as the Right Honorable Lord Inchiquin, 10th Baronet of Lemeneah and Prince of Thomond, made the comment during a visit to the Family History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. Thomond is Anglicized translation of the Gaelic name for north Munster, a province in the southwest corner of Ireland.)"I am the direct descendant of Brian Boru, who is probably the last best known high king of Ireland and the man who came closer to unifying Ireland than anyone else," Conor O'Brien said.
Boru was born in 941 and killed in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf.
Boru "instigated the surname system. It was he who said my descendants will be called O'Brien. As a result of his edict, the surname system came into being," O'Brien said.
The distinguished visitor, who heads the 400,000-member worldwide O'Brien clan, was accompanied to the Utah capital by Justin O'Brien, San Carlos, Calif. And Conor O'Brien, who lives in Dromoland, County Clare, Ireland, will travel on to New York before returning to Ireland.
In Utah the two visitors met with Sean O'Brien Lynch and his wife, Caroline, of Bountiful; and Garry Bryant, a Deseret News photographer, genealogist and third great-grandson of Wm. John O'Bryan of Dublin, Ireland. O'Bryan immigrated from Dublin to Canada and his son, William, moved to Central City, Colo., around 1860 at the end of the Irish potato famine where he changed the spelling of his name to Bryant.
Conor O'Brien, who toured the Family History Library and Temple Square, said the purpose of his visit to the United States was to encourage the O'Brien sept (clan) of North America to continue establishing clan branches.
He said an estimated 70 million people of Irish extraction live throughout the world, with about 44 million of those in North America. The rest are divided, O'Brien said, among Ireland, Canada, Australia, France and England.
The Irish visitor discussed, among other things, the importance of family closeness and meeting together as often as possible. And he lauded the LDS Church's efforts in gathering genealogical records in Ireland and other parts of the world.
He said the library is "probably the best research institution for family history in the world. It is known throughout Ireland and Europe. It has been proved many times," he said, that a lot of information would be lost were it not for the church's record-gathering efforts.
O'Brien, a member of The Church of Ireland, said he would "certainly be delighted" in doing what he can to assist the LDS Church department in gathering records. He said he is not aware of the extent to which it has gathered records in Ireland.
He said large numbers of Irish-Americans visit Ireland each year in search of information on their families. As they learn about the Family History Department, more will probably want to do research in Salt Lake City, he said.
Why is a gathering of clans important?
"It gives even more a sense of belonging and coming together . . . ," he said.
Lynch said the O'Brien Sept of North America, a nonprofit corporation, was formed last year in Utah. It was organized, he said, to stimulate fellowshipping and opportunities for the exchange of genealogical information.
Whenever one goes to do research they quite often meet relatives, and O'Brien is no exception.
While being conducted on a tour of the Family History Library, O'Brien was introduced for the first time to Alan Mann, a cousin who is manager of the automated resource center in the library. Mann is the second great-grandson of Henrietta O'Brien, daughter of the 13th Baron Inchiquin.