In the next edition of Irish Lives Remembered, Fiona Fitzsimons talks to Liz Rushen, Australian social and cultural historian, about her research on Irish women immigrants to Australia before the Famine. Dr. Rushen talks about sources, communicating research through story-telling, and why social history is of greater explanatory importance. ...
Dr. Maurice Gleeson talks about teaching the Genetic Genealogy track, at this year’s British Institute, in Salt Lake City, September 2017 in an interview with Fiona Fitzsimons. Read the full interview here. Fiona: Maurice, this coming September at the British Institute, you will teach the track on genetic genealogy. Can...
If you can trace your Irish ancestry back to the late 18th Century you are doing well. But one visitor to the IFHC traced theirs back to the mid-17th Century. How? Through the Presbyterian emigrant records. Presbyterians started migrating to America from Northern Ireland and Scotland in 1650. The reason...
On Tuesday 25th April EPIC at CHQ hosted a graduation ceremony for the classes that completed Fingal County Libraries, Beginners’ Class in Irish Genealogy / Family History. The classes were held October 2016 to April 2017, and taught by Fiona Fitzsimons of the Irish Family History Centre. The students that...
Eneclann and Ancestor Network have been awarded the tender to support the genealogy advisory service with the National Library of Ireland in 2017. This is the 6th year these leading Irish genealogy firms are partnering with the NLI to provide this unique genealogy service. Visiting researchers to the NLI can...
On Friday 28th April Fiona Fitzsimons presented An Taoiseach Enda Kenny with his family history. Enda Kenny is presented with his Family History by Fiona Fitzsimons accompanied by Nevill Isdell The Taoiseach has drawn inspiration from his family history in speeches, and has used the metaphor of his grandfather, James McGinley,...
It may seem obvious, but in order to trace your family history you must have an idea of a relative’s first name. However, there are occasions when people visiting the Irish Family History Centre (Dublin) only have a pet name for their relative – a name that only the family...
The 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses include a question about the ability of respondents in a household to speak the Irish language, an Ghaeilge. The Irish language had declined dramatically over the previous 300 years as a result of English rule. The Great Famine of the 1840s was another nail...
Joe Biden shares why coming home to Ireland meant so much to him https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/genealogy/joe-biden-shares-why-coming-home-to-ireland-meant-so-much-to-him Irish Family History Research Experts Fiona Fitzsimons and Helen Moss were delighted to have been chosen to research Vice President Joe Biden’s Irish Family History in time for his trip over to Ireland to visit with his family’s ancestral home. Read the full...
Irish Family History Centre researcher, Carmel Gilbride recently worked on the family history of one of Ireland’s best loved radio and TV presenters, Mike Murphy. Mike wanted to explore his family history, and approached us, via the Irish Family History Centre, to research both lines of his family. Mike arrived...
Confirming a Family Tale of Eviction There are numerous tales of evictions in Ireland during the nineteenth century. Some families were evicted for not paying their dues, while others were removed to make way for the landlord’s own family. One Australian family, whose ancestors were Minogues from Ballyshrule (County Galway)...
When you start your genealogy journey you are warned about name variations. But it is only when you start researching that you realise how complex it can get. A cousin of mine in New York asked me to trace his grandmother in Ireland. He knew her name was Bridget, but...