Heritage Week Events with Fiona Fitzsimons
06 July 2018Love and death, and everything in between. Whitechurch Library; Tallaght Library; Balbriggan Library; Blanchardstown Library. As most people leave a light “paper trail”, the moment of marriage or death may provide family history sleuths with their only evidence of their ancestors’ existence. What can these records tell us? Behind the facts...
News Digest: July 2018
06 July 2018Explore one of the world’s biggest record collections: The British Library has one of the largest sound collections in the world, with over seven million recordings. What do they choose to conserve? How do they do it? Watch journalist Mark Ellen go behind the scenes of the British sound archive,...
Behind the Scenes: DNA Test Revealed Some Surprising Relatives…
01 June 2018Getting to talk to the public is one of the pleasures of working at the Irish Family History Centre (CHQ Building, Dublin City, Ireland). And though we, the staff, are there to help customers with their genealogy, some of the things we hear from customers can genuinely take us aback. One...
News Digest: May 2018
18 May 2018Sole Survivors: The Rarest Books in the World ‘Sole Survivors: The Rarest Books in the World’ is an exhibition of exceptionally rare books. They exist in only one copy in the world: at the Marsh’s Library in Dublin. Unchanged for three centuries, this perfectly preserved library of the early Enlightenment,...
Behind the Scenes: Online Consultations Start at the Irish Family History Centre.
18 May 2018A momentous … indeed, groundbreaking … day took place on 18 April 2018. The Irish Family History Centre (CHQ Building, Dublin) had the pleasure of our very first online genealogy consultation. And I had the honour of doing it. The client was a young man from Hastings-on-Hudson in New York...
Meitheal 2018
27 April 2018In rural Ireland, a ‘meitheal’ was a band of reapers or a working party. Neighbours would gather together to support one another and work collectively to bring in crops. ____ The Irish Family History Centre joined more than 360 Irish businesses from across the island of Ireland in the CityWest...
Finding Your Irish Ancestor in the British Military Records: A Case Study
26 April 2018By Dario [Transition Year Student on work experience at the Irish Family History Centre] Many Irish people joined the British Army. Whether it was to fight for the burgeoning empire during the 1700s (often simply to have a career and earn some money) or to serve during WW1 (maybe with the promise...
The Preacher and the Prelate
13 April 2018A new title from Merrion Press – The Preacher and the Prelate: The Achill Mission Colony and the Battle for Souls in Famine Ireland, by Patricia Byrne – tells the extraordinary story of an audacious fight for souls on famine-ravaged Achill Island during the nineteenth century. This is the extraordinary story of an audacious...
Finding Your “Known” using “Unknown”. A Lesson from Henry Shackleton’s Children
13 April 2018When doing family history, one wants – and often needs – the civil birth registration records for all the children of a given marriage. If all goes according to plan, one can find a birth record for the searched-for person, which then also provides (or confirms) information on the parents’...
Online Consultations now available on the IFHC Website
13 April 2018As promised we’re delighted to announce that you can now book an Online Consultation, via Skype or Google Hangouts, with one of our Expert Genealogists! Their knowledge, and decades of experience, will make them invaluable to furthering your research. Online Consultations can be pre-booked (48 hours in advance) as 60 minute...
St. Patrick’s Festival: Time-Travelling Treasure Hunt!
31 March 2018This St. Patrick’s Festival the Irish Family History Centre held a treasure hunt for the smaller detectives in the family. Participants could choose from two levels of clue-finding challenges, ranging from finding sea monsters in our time lines, to more complex puzzles that involved delving into the records to find...
Visit of President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins
31 March 2018Having celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day with our Family History Treasure Hunt the team did not have to wait too long for some further excitement. On the 21st March we were honoured by a visit from President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina. From Left: Fiona Fitzsimmons, Sabina Higgins, Michael D....
