Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genetic genealogist specialising in ancestry from Ireland
The Presidents’ Letters by Flor MacCarthy is a work of history, social history, a history of letter writing in Ireland and an all-round excellent read. It’s a book you dip into rather than read straight through. The premise is simple, she found that no one had ever collated a book of letters written to or…
This week’s review is one you may not have heard of it. Joseph Byrne’s Dictionary of Irish Local History is not a new publication – it came out in 2004. This is a fantastic reference book. It may not be something you pick up every day, but when you do, you find the rabbit hole…
Nathan Dylan Goodwin is a well-established author in the wide field of genealogy crime novels. I’ll cover some of his other novels at a later date. The Chester Creek Murders was a new departure for him as it forayed into the investigative genetic genealogy field combined with policing, as a US police detective hires a…
I had watched Julia Creet’s documentary Datamining the Deceased: Ancestry & the business of family last year and found it interesting. Her book The Genealogical Sublime expands the topic into chapters focusing on (amongst others) Ancestry, the Mormons, genetic genealogy, and the debate around ethnicity and what that means for minority groups like Native Americans.…
Today is the start of a new series on my blog where I review new and old books of relevance for Irish genealogy. No one has asked me to do this nor have I received any payment or free books for this content. If that changes, I will mention it in future reviews. Chris Paton’s…
A new initiative born from Twitter sees family historians talking about their genealogy origin story using the hashtag #MyGenealogyStory. Here’s mine. I was a child who was interested in the past. I loved history at school. I researched some of my recent ancestors named when choosing my confirmation name. At 12, we were given a…
I was delighted to be able to graduate in person from the University of Limerick yesterday with an MA in History of the Family. It’s been a fascinating year of study – hard work but worthwhile. It’s really added to my knowledge of Irish history and genealogy. Covid meant that this was our only time…
It may be Nollaig na mBán in Ireland today but it’s genealogy Christmas in England and Wales. The 1921 census has been exclusively released on Findmypast*. It was taken in June of that year. This census was the first after World War I and saw some slight changes to format notably: For those of us…
Following two separate conversations this week, I present a bit of fun.
Despite climate change’s best efforts, the evenings are beginning to draw in.Many people will not be aware that Hallowe’en has its origins in Ireland. It’s changed quite a bit since I was a child in the 1980s but some facets still remain the same. Back then, we dressed up and went to our neighbours’ doors…