Using DNA to expand your tree
06 March 2020I have taken a few DNA tests over the last number of years. One reason being that I lost my mother as a child and my father in my 20s and, coupled with not having any siblings, DNA tests have help me to reconstruct the family trees of my parents. I check my...
POSTCARD FROM IRELAND: Malahide Castle – Gardens, Ghosts, and a Walk Through Time
06 March 2020Welcome to our latest ‘Postcard from Ireland’ where the Irish Family History Centre try and give you a flavour of some museums/exhibitions and attractions in Dublin and further afield in Ireland. Our intern Alana, heads to Malahide to enjoy the Castle and local sights. *** One of the best...
Feisty Nichola Ann Cooke: emigration to Melbourne in the 1830s, not for the faint-hearted
06 March 2020Elizabeth Rushen will be giving a talk at the Irish Family History Centre when she visits Dublin this June. Dr Liz Rushen is a Melbourne-based historian who has written extensively on nineteenth-century migration to Australia. *** Feisty Nichola Ann Cooke: emigration to Melbourne in the 1830s, not for the faint-hearted* When...
News cuttings: Plaque Reveal at Fagan’s Castle (Fingal Independent)
06 March 2020Eamon Madden of Feltrim Hill, sent us in this news-clipping from the Fingal Independent. The occasion was excavations on Fagan’s Castle and Feltrim House in north co. Dublin. Feltrim House was the ancestral seat of the Fagan family, merchant-princes of Dublin in the 1600s. In 2015 Genealogist Fiona Fitzsimons made headlines when...
Always worth a look.
21 February 2020With the free and indexed historic Irish civil birth records now available online at Irish Genealogy (www.irishgenealogy.ie), there has been a tendency to go there as the first port of call for events after 1864 – they are quicker to search than parish records and the information and penmanship, in the main, is...
Youth Connect in Kerry
21 February 2020In January we were delighted to run more Irish Family History Centre workshops, and had the pleasure of being hosted by the fantastic team at Kerry County Museum in Tralee. Earlier in the academic year we teamed up with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, SIPTU...
Tips For Researching Electoral Registers in Ireland
07 February 2020When tracing your Irish ancestry, one source category that should be on your radar is electoral rolls. Unlike other record types, these archives reveal details about a person’s movements throughout their life. Additionally, electoral documents contain other useful information unavailable elsewhere. For example, they may include an individual’s occupation and...
Genealogy and Geology Combine again in Patrick Roycrofts paper on Donegalite
07 February 2020Figure 1 The “donegalite” specimen from the National Museum of Ireland – Natural History showing the original label from ‘C.R.C. Tichborne’ and a modern museum label for this mineral specimen. Photo: Patrick Roycroft. Dr Patrick Roycroft is both a genealogist at the Irish Family History Centre (CHQ Building, Dublin) and...
Herstory: Ireland’s EPIC Women
07 February 2020It has been an exciting week for our friends and partners EPIC the Irish Emigration Museum as in cooperation with RTÉ, Herstory Ireland, Underground Films and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, ‘Herstory: Ireland’s EPIC Women’ TV series was launched. The aim of the series is to bring the stories of...
The History of Churching of Women
24 January 2020By Fiona Fitzsimons Perhaps you’re familiar with a few of the common documents used for ancestry research, like marriage, baptism, burial, and electoral registers. But sometimes, hidden at the end of a register, you may find an unexpected piece of social history. One example of a source that may provide...
The O’Donnells of Tyrconnell: A Hidden Legacy
22 January 2020The O’Donnells of Tyrconnel – A Hidden Legacy, by Francis O’Donnell, was published in 2019 and is now available to Irish Audiences. The book brings out new information on the lineages descending from the last Gaelic rulers of Tír Chonaill. The O’Donnell dynasty were an ancient and powerful Irish family in early Ireland. Many will...
Intergenerational fun at the IFHC
22 January 2020We love to keep busy down at the Irish Family History Centre and as Family is our business, we thought it would be a good idea to run a few kid-friendly activities alongside our ‘grown up’ talks! Grandparents Day: Intergenerational Storytelling Tour with IFHC Wednesday 29 January 2020 3:30pm –...
