New guide to Irish Family Tree Research

I recently wrote a supplement for the magazine Tracing Your Ancestors that deals with my strategic approach to Irish genealogical research. The guide is entitled "Irish Research - a practical guide" and is available either as a hard copy print edition or as a pdf edition with hyperlinks to specific websites. You can purchase the guide online via Your Genealogy History Store.

The new guide to Irish genealogical research

There has been a huge effort to digitise Irish records in recent years which has enabled Irish genealogical research to be conducted from the comfort of your own home in front of your computer. Many of these resources have been made freely available by the Irish government via its website www.IrishGenealogy.ie, including all civil registration birth marriage and death records from 1845 up to the present day (with a 100 year restriction for births, 75 years for marriages and 50 years for deaths). In addition, the majority of all available church records are now available via two websites - www.IrishGenealogy.ie and www.RootsIreland.ie (subscription-based). This makes Irish research a lot more feasible than previously.

The contents of the guide

The guide includes a section on how to strategically approach Irish records. It helps you identify which record sets are worth consulting for each time period (from the 1900s back into the 1700s). This saves you time by directing you to the correct records for research.

The guide covers the main record sets but also the less common ones that can be particularly useful in certain circumstances. Many record sets are still being built, notably gravestone records and newspaper collections. These are invaluable sources of genealogical information.

The section on DNA discusses how best to use this additional tool to break through Brick Walls in your research.

The guide costs US$8.50 for the pdf edition and US$9.95 for the print edition and is available from Your Genealogy History Store.

Maurice Gleeson

July 2018