Here are the discounted sale prices for the various DNA tests and upgrades that you can order from the FTDNA stand at the Back to Our Past event in Belfast this weekend (Feb 14-15, ICC, Waterfront Hall). The Family Finder test is now only £40 ($49) - this is a great first test for anyone starting off with DNA testing. It will connect you with cousins (thousands of them) with whom you share a common ancestor some time since the 1700s. And the Y-DNA-37 test is only £80 ($99). This helps you track back along your direct male line and will take you back before the 1700s and well into the deep ..read more

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running its annual Summer School from Monday 22nd August to Friday 26th August. The line-up of speakers at this years event includes myself, Martin McDowell, Anne Johnston, and EJ Blom. Details are below. Bookings are now open through https://www.nifhs.org/courses/  One of the differences this year is that our classes are being recorded and will be made available to participants for 28 days to allow people to view classes they missed or rewatch. Monday 22nd August to Friday 26th August  via Zoom with 2 classes ..read more

Burke's Landed Gentry (BLG) can be an invaluable resource for Irish research. A complete list of the various publications by Burke's Peerage can be found on their website here. BLG is just one of many publications by Burke's. There are two separate strands of BLG: 1) BLG of Great Britain & Ireland (19 editions); and 2) BLG of Ireland (5 editions). Below is a list of the various editions and links to any editions that are available to read for free online (at least for me, based in the UK). If you find any additional links to editions marked "not available", please leave a co ..read more

A big thank you to Linda Horton for this guest post about the value of sponsoring Free DNA Tests for people from the "home countries" and how this can help you in your own genealogical research. Linda offered Free DNA Tests for several of her ancestral surnames and as a result made major breakthroughs in her own research. Below she discusses four Case Studies, each using a different approach and methodology. These examples may help you in your own research. Read on ...  Y-DNA test sponsorship as a way to find cousins in other countries By Linda Horton Genetic genealogy hobbyi ..read more

Unfortunately the GGI2020 conference in Dublin has been cancelled due to the ongoing problems with COVID. The conference was due to run on Oct 17-18, 2020 but due to COVID restrictions, this is no longer possible. However, the past 6 months has seen an explosion in online webinars and conferences and the word ZOOM has now acquired an entirely different additional meaning. Moves are afoot to try to have GGI2021 as a virtual conference some time next year. Further details will be released in due course. In the meantime, you can enjoy presentations from previous years of GGI. You will find detail ..read more

A great time was had by all at GGI2020 Belfast (Feb 14-15). It's always great to see old friends and make new ones and this year's event certainly did not disappoint on that score - the good food and superior company at dinner each night is always a high point of the event. This was the third time that Genetic Genealogy Ireland (GGI) was run in Belfast (as part of the Back to Our Past event). And no sooner was it all over than everyone jumped on a plane to RootsTech! So now that all that is over, here is a brief recap of the Belfast weekend in photos. Back to Our Past runs in ..read more

Here is the full schedule for the DNA Lectures for Belfast (14-15 Feb 2020). And below you will find descriptions of each talk. Use this page to choose which lectures you want to attend. And bookmark it in your calendar or web browser for easy reference at the conference itself. Friday 14th Feb 2020 10.30   DNA for Beginners (Andy Hochreiter, ISOGG USA) Genetic genealogy has emerged as an important tool for genealogists and family historians. This presentation introduces the concept of using DNA as an adjunct tool to discover family history. The types of DNA and ..read more

In this guest post from Martin McDowell of the North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS), he explains how FamilyTreeDNA has the largest "local DNA database" in the North of Ireland (compared to the other direct-to-consumer companies). This is of huge importance if you are researching your North of Ireland ancestry - in short, you must add your DNA to the FTDNA database and join the North of Ireland DNA Project ... Maurice Gleeson Feb 2020 Are you fishing in the right pool? We all know how important finding a DNA match is. What we might not all know is that different companies have more ..read more

Andrew Kane, NIFHS Talk Title: The Beauty of DNA - local Success Stories Biographical Background Andrew is an active member of the North of Ireland Family History Society, representing the Causeway Coast and Glens Branch on the Council of that Society. He is also a member of several other local history groups in the Coleraine area where his family have lived for at least 12 generations. He has published a well-received book on the history of the Town of Coleraine and is currently working on a sequel. He now works as a Research Consultant for the Ulster Historical Foundation in Belfas ..read more

Martin Hayden Title of Talk – The Power of X to unlock Family Mysteries Background - I'm Irish from south Co Kildare on the border of Kildare, Laois and Carlow. I went to university in England when I was 19 and have lived there since. My recorded ancestry back to the end of the 1700s is Irish and very concentrated across Kildare, Laois, Carlow, Wicklow and Kilkenny. Member International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) The Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) The Irish Railway Record Society (IRRS) Day Job – I work as a Principal Analyst and Modeller f ..read more