Deborah Sullivan Gellerson, with DNA genealogy results in hand, stands in May 2014 in the driveway to the home of her third cousin Kevin Coyne, a Joyce family member who lives near the Maamturk Mountains in Maam, County Galway, Ireland.

Deborah SullivanGellerson stands in the kitchen of her third cousin Kevin Coyne in Maam, County Galway, Ireland. He’s a Joyce family member she confirmed with DNA testing through the Maine Gaeltecht DNA Project of the Maine Irish Heritage Center.

DNA testing proved that Gellerson of Gray is a member of the Joyce family, which is so prevalent in County Galway, Ireland, that a large region is called Joyce Country.

An early 1900s photo of Martin Joyce, maternal grandfather of Gellerson, who used DNA testing to confirm her family connection to relatives still living in an area known as Joyce Country, County Galway, Ireland.

The stone farmhouse in Tiernakill, Ireland, where Martin Joyce, Gellerson’s maternal grandfather, was born in 1894, shortly before his family emigrated to the United States and settled in Portland.

Ruth Joyce Sullivan, late mother of Gellerson, who was able to find distant relatives in Ireland through DNA testing.

A rocky stream flows through the rolling hills of Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, where many Irish immigrants who settled in Portland were born.

Sheep grazing in Connemara, a region of County Galway, Ireland.

The Maamturk Mountains in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. Many Irish immigrants who settled in Portland came from this region in western Ireland.