Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genetic genealogist specialising in ancestry from Ireland
I was over in the Representative Church Body Library* last week in Churchtown. This is the main library for the Anglican church in Ireland and it’s where we go to look at original Church of Ireland parish records for the 26 counties in the Republic. Surviving digitised records for Dublin are online at Irishgenealogy.ie and…
I specifically want to address three myths about genealogy: two are specific to Ireland and one is more general. The first is the very persistent myth is that “all the Irish records were destroyed in a fire”. Like many good myths, there’s an element of truth in it. There was a fire and records were…
One of the areas that Rootstech could improve on is more books. I love buying books about my work and I’m always trying to build my reference library further. This year saw the release of a new book written by Michael S. Ramage & Catherine Becker Wiest Desmarais (amongst others) and published by the National…
As an Irish genealogist, I spend a lot of time explaining context. This comes in many forms. In reports, I have paragraphs to help clients understand different sources like Griffith’s Valuation or the Tithe Applotment books. I contextualise census material by explaining that the building a family lived in housed other families in a number…
Well, last week was a whirlwind. I flew to Salt Lake City on Tuesday, arriving mid-evening. Wednesday saw me catching up with various friends new & old, doing a tech-check and attending the speakers dinner, followed by fun with DNA friends. Far too much fun for photos but you know who you are! Thursday we…
As a young genealogist, Megan Smolenyak was one of the first “famous” genealogists I ever heard of. She was involved with the discovery of former US President Barack Obama’s Irish ancestry (now commemorated in that most Irish of ways by a motorway service station!) and the discovery of the real identity of Annie Moore, the…
Hot on the heels of the changes to the National Archives website, the other main state portal for genealogical research has had a refresh. ETA: 27/2 – several of the issues that I noted below are now fixed! Hence, I’ve removed or edited my comments. Last week, I was in touch with IrishGenealogy to ask…
Secondly, it’s almost time for Rootstech again: the biggest genealogical conference in the world. It takes place in Salt Lake City on 6-8 March and has both in-person and online content available. I’m delighted to be attending for the second time. If you’re not already booked to attend either in-person or virutally, there’s still time. Here’s a…
T-minus 41 days to 18 April 2026. On that day, professionals, family historians, hobbyists and regular historians will be sitting at their desks hitting refresh while we await the first Irish census release in more than 50 years (if we count the microfilm release of the previous two in the 1960s!) The Dept of Culture,…
Sometimes it’s a risk to watch a show that features a topic you know a lot about. You might find yourself nodding along but you also can be quickly shouting at the screen “that would never happen”. Police procedurals sometimes commit the crime of saying things like “we checked the 1991 census and here are…