Top 10 Research Tips of 2017
21 December 2017As we’re winding up the year, we thought it would be a good idea to have a look back over our top 10 tips from this year. Happy Researching… 10 – Context is Key 9 – Townlands and Placenames 8 – Why being too precious about names may be...
Always look twice!
08 December 2017One category of marriage records found in Catholic registers, are marriage dispensations. In Ireland the most common impediment to marriage was consanguinity, marriage between cousins. Consanguinity was calculated in degrees, estimated as the number of generations from the bride and groom to a common ancestor. Unfortunately, in Ireland Dioceses never...
In praise of the Petty Sessions registers
24 November 2017The Petty Sessions court registers records available on findmypast.ie are a great resource for genealogical research and those interested in the social history of Ireland. Petty Sessions dealt with trying lesser offences both civil and criminal, licence applications, etc. The Sessions were presided over by Justices of the Peace, later...
Road Blocks in Identifying a Birth
10 November 2017Even when we are quite confident of our information on the person sought, as to their year of birth and likely registration district, there can be still be roadblocks in identifying a birth. For many years I have searched unsuccessfully, for the birth Margaret Kelly in Dublin in 1902. Yes,...
New Records Released
20 October 2017Today is a red-letter day! A substantial census substitute for 19th Century Ireland is now published online for the first time. Between 1830 and 1850, government officials enumerated records for the population of Pobble O’Keefe [sic], a district synonymous with the former Gaelic Lordship of the O’Keefe Clan situated along...
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...
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...
Are you looking in the right place? By Carmel Gilbride
08 September 2017Family history searches involve the who, the when, the where and the why of our ancestor’s lives. In assisting people with their searches, we tease out the names and approximate years for the events in their lives, be it births, marriages or deaths. In order to successfully find the family...
Context is key
24 August 2017One of the most pleasing aspects of the surge of interest in family history and genealogy is that is has put historical research and learning to the forefront of the minds of people who otherwise might have said they had no interest in history. One of the greatest challenges facing...
Read documents carefully to extract all internal evidence and compare all your sources
11 August 2017Vital records are set out to a standard template, devised by bureaucrats. Even so, every civil record is an original document, and can sometimes contain surprising non-standardised details. Recently I called up the death record of a young married woman. At first glance, the death seemed straight-forward enough. Mary Christina...
The importance of Wills in building your family history
27 July 2017It always worth considering if your ancestor left a will. Often people assume that their forebears were not in a position to make a will as they owned too little to pass on but wills were not just for the well off, and there are instances where the amount of...
Searching Births on irishgenealogy.ie
14 July 2017Have you noticed in online civil indexes of registered births ( up to 1915) that your searches for a given name will return children born to either a father or mother of that name? In addition to children registered with that surname, it will also return births of children born...
