Many of us have taken a DNA test to advance our family history research. Some people have been able to go further and test parents too. But have you considered testing your parents’ cousins? This was something I did right from the start, as my budget allowed. My mother’s lovely cousin, sadly no longer with ..read more

I’m really thrilled to announce that I’ll be back at Rootstech in March 2025 to deliver three in-person talks on Irish subjects including the Virtual Treasury and Obituaries & Death notices. More details in due course! Registration opens on 25th September. Hopefully I’ll get some time at the FamilySearch library too ..read more

Researchers for 20th century Ireland may be familiar with the Schools’ Collection, which can be viewed on Duchas.ie. This project was run by the Irish Folklore Commission in primary schools between 1937-1939. It had a much higher uptake in rural and suburban areas than in the cities. Children were asked to collect a story from ..read more

Friday 20th September is Culture Night! Culture Night started in 2006 in Dublin but has since grown to a nationwide and international event. The idea is that museums, galleries and other buildings open for the evening and let people visit, often for free. There’s always a great buzz in the city on the evening. Check ..read more

Delighted to see that MyHeritage is increasing its Irish record databases. They’ve uploaded the civil birth registers (1864-1921 for the whole island, and up to 1958 for what is now the Republic of Ireland). Yes, these indexes are already on Ancestry, Findmypast & Irishgenealogy.ie but it’s good to see MH adding to the Irish collection ..read more

It’s the time of year when people start thinking about evening courses. My beginner level course in Irish genealogy is back for a 14th year. It starts on Monday 16th September at Malahide Community School in north Co. Dublin and is now enrolling students. This course is subsidised by the Department of Education so costs ..read more

Delighted to say I will be speaking at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGC for short) conference in October. This year’s online conference is on the theme of Teaghlach Gaelach: A Celebration of Irish Family History. Full details are here. The line-up looks super ..read more

The moment I saw that Robert Estes had written a new book on Family Tree DNA, I knew I wanted to read it. So I was particularly delighted that Genealogical gave me a review copy for free. Roberta Estes is a well-known DNA blogger. I’ve actually met her briefly a couple of times but I’ve been a subscriber to her newsletter for many years. She’s a great communicator and educator so she was a super choice to write this text book. Family Tree DNA is your one-stop shop for DNA tests. As the only provider of mitochondrial tests, the biggest source of Y tests and one of the earliest databases of aut ..read more

I’ve a nice quick read for you. The Last Close Call by Laura Griffin is a crime thriller involving investigative genetic genealogy to find the bad guy. This one has a romance angle so if that’s not your thing, fair warning! It also features sexual assault but not in any great detail. It doesn’t go into much detail on the DNA matching and sticks more closely to the detectives chasing the criminal down. It has a couple of side-plots but won’t tax you too much. I enjoyed it as an easy diverting read ..read more

James Joyce is one of Ireland’s most famous authors. On 16th June each year, we celebrate Bloomsday with a festival of Joycean events. It commemorates the date he met his later wife, Nora Barnacle in 1904 in the fictional Dublin of Ulysses. Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882 and died in Zurich in 1941, having lived away from Ireland for much of his adult life. Because of this, he appears in remarkably few of our standard Irish records, but I thought we’d take a look anyway. James Joyce was born on 2nd February 1882 at 41 Brighton Square West in Rathgar, a southside inner suburb of Dublin. His pa ..read more