Expert Workshop: Shedding Light on ESB Archives
20 October 2017Friday the 13th was a lucky day for the audience attending the October expert workshop in the RIA, Dawson St. Deirdre McParland, senior archivist of the ESB, gave a spirited introduction to the resources in the ESB archives, newly accessible to researchers. It contains manuscript and printed documents, photos, and...
APG Open-Day, Limerick City
20 October 2017APG committee The second APG Open-day in 2017 was in Limerick City, this writer’s home city. Limerick Civic Trust hosted our group, who travelled by car, bus and train to attend. After a tasty lunch at the Curraghower Bar, we strolled across to the Bishop’s Palace. This 500 year...
Behind the Scenes: The Natural … and the Supernatural at the IFHC
20 October 2017I had a decidedly odd experience with a client at the Irish Family History Centre (CHQ Building, Dublin) in late August 2017. Something not of this world … but the next. I was helping a really friendly and open middle-aged US lady [I’ll call her ‘Mary’] with her family tree and...
If You Want to Get Ahead – Get a Head Stone
20 October 2017A lady from Pennsylvania, Kathy, arrived into the Irish Family History Centre (IFHC), located in the CHQ Building in Dublin, in early October. She had no idea where her family came from in Ireland but she had done some previous research and had found her family on the US censuses....
Thank you for taking part!
20 October 2017Last month we sent out a survey in our newsletter to better understand and meet your needs, and find out how we are tracking in terms of providing you real value. To all of you who completed the survey – thank you. Your feedback is really important to us, as...
Why being too precious about names may be limiting your research
06 October 2017“I get it, no really I do, I completely understand where you’re coming from, but here’s the thing…”. This sentence, or words to this effect, I’ve uttered as an opening gambit far too often when helping people tracing their ancestors. As someone “blessed” with a somewhat unusual spelling variant of...
Fiona Goes West
06 October 2017Fiona Fitzsimons, our co-founder and Director, gives us a quick update on what she’s been up to (on both sides of the Atlantic) in the last month. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me, during which I’ve spent most of my time in America, doing some incredible things,...
Behind the Scenes: It Took Two Genealogists to Crack the Case of a Missing Grandfather
06 October 2017A late middle-age daughter, Susan, and her elderly, but sharp as a tack, father, both from Dublin, came in to the Irish Family History Centre (Dublin) in April on the hunt for her dad’s father (her grandfather), who they thought was an only child, as well as her grandfather’s parents....
Smoking Guns and the Myths of Military History
04 October 2017Lar Joye’s well-attended talk on Weapons in Irish History at the Members Room in the Royal Irish Academy kicked off with a bang, and a screening of the famous Omaha Beach Scene from Stephen Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. Bullets whizzed, their impact almost tangible. But Mr. Joye, curator of the...
A Lucky Dip?
22 September 2017If I had a few spare hours in the National Archives I know how I would spend my time – looking at the ‘M’ series indexes. The ‘M’ refers to ‘Miscellaneous’ and the title is apt as there is a wealth of diverse material. There are many rentals and estate...
Finding a Wandering Family: Using the ‘More Search Options’ Census Button
22 September 2017A gentleman arrived in the Irish Family History Centre (CHQ Building, Dublin) to look up his wife’s Dublin-based family. He had very little information with him, so most of the detail he gave me was coming from memory. We found the marriage of the wife’s ancestors but had difficulty finding...
Behind the Scenes: Scots Irish Deer-skin Trader Married Two Native Americans, but his Family were from County Armagh
22 September 2017We meet many interesting people in the Irish Family History Centre (CHQ Building, Dublin) and some with very interesting ancestors. A gentleman visited us in early September 2017 whose ancestor, George Galphin/Galpin, had been part of the (mostly Presbyterian) Scots Irish who had emigrated to South Carolina during the 1700s....
