Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genetic genealogist specialising in ancestry from Ireland
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…
You know I love a bit fresh research to round off the year. Having talked about famous Noels and Christmas traditions in the past, this time I thought I’d look at people whose surname was Christmas. It’s not a very common name. The 1911 census finds just 14 people, mostly one family in Co. Louth,…
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…
Readers of my blog will know that I’m very interested in Irish Quakers and I wrote my MA dissertation on them. They were a distinct community in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with their own rules, schools, businesses and religious life. Quite fascinating. I presented a webinar on this research yesterday for Legacy…
When you work in a rapidly developing field like genetic genealogy, books go out of date. This book was originally published in 2019 and I read & reviewed it then. A new edition has been published this year and it is substantially meatier than its progenitor. The same group of authors worked on the revised…
A couple of years ago, I struck genealogical gold. We all have touchstones: things we would ideally like in our family history. Some people want royalty, but I’m a bit weird. I wanted bigamy. My great-grandfather’s first cousin, Richard Kent, was a bigamist. I wrote about it for Family Tree Magazine, in my first published…
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…
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…
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…
I am a big fan of Turkish Delight and was gifted a box of Hadji Bey at Christmas by my aunt. This brand has a long association with Cork city although the present company is no longer controlled by the original family. The box comes complete with a reproduced article from the Guardian in 1964,…