If you’d like to consume your hobby in a new format, have you considered documentaries? I’ve got two to recommend. First up, Found is a feature-length documentary about three Chinese-American adoptees (Sadie, Chloe & Lily) who discover they are related to each other through 23andMe DNA tests and then, supported by their families, decide to embark on a process of investigating their origins in China with the help of a Chinese genealogist. It’s an engaging piece of film making, following each of the three girls (all teenagers), which culminates in them taking a trip to China together. It’s a ..read more

This is my final blog post following my trip to Rootstech 2024 which was held in Salt Lake City in Utah. FamilySearch Library, Salt Lake City, Utah If you’re not aware, then this building is the something akin to Mecca for genealogists. The LDS Church considers genealogy a part of their religion and so they collect and make available records for this purpose. This led them to Ireland in the 1950s when they microfilmed (amongst other things and times) the Roman Catholic parish registers in conjunction with the National Library. They also did the initial microfilming of the 1901 and 1911 censuse ..read more

For St. Patrick’s Day 2024, I’m taking a look at a new collection on Ancestry of Guinness records. Guinness, in case you didn’t know, is one of Ireland’s most famous exports. The Guinness Store House is a top tourist attraction in Dublin. I actually don’t much like the black stuff, but I do recognise the cultural & historical importance of it and the family behind it. Far more interesting than the stout is the enormous contribution of Guinness family to Ireland. They were made peers in 1919 (the earldom of Iveagh). They were involved in brewing, banking and politics. The late music impresa ..read more

As I write this, I’m still in a snowy Salt Lake City. It’s the day after Rootstech 2024. This was my first visit to the world’s largest genealogy conference, but definitely not the last. Utah State Capitol building For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, Rootstech is part trade show (a full Expo Hall of stands for every sort of genealogical product, organisation, software and some quite random stuff), part intense genealogy school (workshops, lectures, mini-sessions on methodology, genealogy, country-specific records and of course DNA). Some classes are recorded, most are not, but t ..read more

I’m giving a talk in Howth library on Monday 19th February. There’s a few places left ..read more

If you’ve lived in Ireland in the past 25 years, you can hardly be unaware of various historical scandals that rocked the country. These included, but were not limited to, industrial school abuse, Magdalene laundries, Mother and Baby homes and illegal adoptions. A couple of years ago, I helped a man called Denis O Sullivan, who was one of those in the latter category. He had wonderful parents and knew he was adopted from an early age. After his mother died in 2013, he began think about searching for his birth mother, but without any paperwork, it was a challenge. He took DNA tests knowing that ..read more

I’m delighted to be presenting two workshops for Wicklow Libraries in the next couple of weeks. Both sessions will be aimed at beginners. I’ll be showing you how to start researching your family tree and showcase the resources available in all the Wicklow branch libraries. We’ll talk about the census, births, deaths and marriage records, and church records, and what subscription sites like Findmypast.ie can bring to the mix. On Thursday, 25th January, I’ll be in Wicklow town library at 7pm. This is a free event but booking is required by contacting Wicklow Town Library 0404 67025 or email Wick ..read more

Genealogy social media has been awash in the past couple of weeks about Ancestry.com’s newly launched Pro Tools. Initially, it seemed only to be available in the USA but I was able to buy it a couple of days ago. It was a few different prices but now seems to be fixed. Here’s my review. Cost: $10 plus taxes (which came out at €11.50 for me) per month. So that’s a pretty hefty cost if you want it permanently. It renews automatically each month unless you cancel, though when I click to cancel it, it appears to want to cancel my whole subscription, so this needs refinement. What do you get: I’ll ..read more

If you’re looking for a unique present this Christmas, why not buy a gift voucher for family history research! I’m taking bookings for 2024 ..read more

As many people will be aware, a lot of genealogy happens on the internet these days. As professionals, we depend on certain websites being available to do our work. Irishgenealogy.ie is one of those sites. It’s a state-run free website which hosts civil and religious records. When it launched in 2016, I called it a gamechanger. It literally changed how effective I could be as a genealogist. It’s been offline since last Wednesday afternoon. There’s a problem with the captcha. It’s run by the Dept of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media, headed up by Minister Catherine Martin. I ..read more