Some Genealogy Advice: Use your Legs; Share your Tree with Close Family
24 November 2017With genealogy, it’s important to realise that only a small percentage of records are online, despite the large volume of records that have been digitised in the last ten years. Some databases have a “Browse image only” facility where indexing of the images has not yet been completed: these will...
Searching Irish Military Records
10 November 2017When researching your Irish genealogy, an ancestor’s military service can reveal valuable information about your family tree. Records of their contribution to the country can offer unique insights into the lives they led and help you uncover more of your family’s story. Keep reading for an overview of the different...
How 19th Century Emigrants Carried their Money
10 November 2017When emigrants left their homeland, they most often left for their new home with little more than what they could carry. Among their possessions they would carry whatever money they had. However, as a very illuminating article from the Drogheda Conservative newspaper of 14 February 1891 shows, migrants from different...
Behind the Scenes: Sometimes We Find Nothing – But Not Because Nothing Can Be Found
10 November 2017Thankfully it does not occur too often, but every once in a while, we genealogists at the Irish Family History Centre (Dublin) just cannot find anything new for a client who comes to visit us. And there can be many reasons for this. This story is one of those reasons....
Fiona Fitzsimons re-elected to the APG Board
10 November 2017The IFHC’s own Fiona Fitzsimons has been re-elected to the APG Board this month, for her third consecutive term. In September, she received a certificate of appreciation for her advocacy to grow and strengthen the APG in Ireland. Fiona’s core interests are in outreach and education, and she has been busy...
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...
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....
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...
