Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genetic genealogist specialising in ancestry from Ireland
Ever since the Virtual Treasury of Ireland project launched, genealogists around Ireland and the disapora have been hoping that secret caches of 19th century census material would come to light. Initially, they said “don’t be ridiculous” but slowly, the tune started to change. At present, the Virtual Treasury has recovered over 157,000 names from these…
I spent the last few days in lovely Kilrush, Co. Clare for their first genealogy conference. The theme was from the Great Famine to the 1926 census. Friday night featured a talk from Zoe Reid, Keeper of Manuscripts in the National Archives, followed by a talk from Catriona Crowe, who led the project to put…
I’ve been a member of the Irish Genealogical Research Society for 14 years and spent a large subset of that time on the Ireland Branch committee and the Council which runs the organisation, only stepping back when I began my Masters. As a then young genealogist, who still had another full time job, I benefitted…
Earlier this week, I posted on my socials about the older National Archives genealogy site being offline. Courtesty of the WayBack Machine, which has many captures, you can still navigate parts of that site. This was subsequently confirmed with the following notice on their main “search the collections” page. I’m pleased to hear they are…
It’s here 100 years to the day at 00:01 on 18th April 2026, the National Archives has gifted genealogists and historians with the long-awaited public release of the Irish Free State’s 1926 census. The link to search is here. It’s free to access and you don’t need to register an account. What’s on it? This…
As I posted earlier this week, we got the annual update to Irishgenealogy.ie with 1925 births, 1950 marriages and 1975 deaths. Annoyingly, the press release mentioned that the site had deaths from 1864 onwards, yet contradicts itself by stating further down that they only have deaths from 1871. At some point last autumn, even the…
Last week I posted on social media with my annual plea for releasing the Irishgenealogy.ie update. It seems they were listening to me! The site now contains All of these records are available for free!
Earlier this year, I reported that the Valuations Office had moved. It’s now reopened in its new home at the Registry of Deeds on Henrietta St (Eircode: D01 EK82). I had reason to visit today, so here’s the lowdown. Though the building is much more beautiful, it is now in a less convenient location. It’s…
I’ve blogged before about the importance of the Valuations Office for genealogical research in land records. Read my post last year on it here. Hot on the heels of the GRO move (mentioned in my last newsletter), Tailte Éireann has announced the Valuations Office is moving to the Registry of Deeds building on Henrietta St…
Last week I joined the crew & passengers of the MV Sylvia Earle aboard their Luck of the Irish cruise around Ireland, which is run by Aurora Expeditions. I felt like I was following in the footsteps of my seafaring Joyce ancestors! Although the voyage started in Dublin, I actually took the train across Ireland…