Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genetic genealogist specialising in ancestry from Ireland
The Valuations Office is a working arm of Taillte Eireann, which is the national property authority. This post was originally written before the winter 2025 move to the Registry of Deeds premises. See here for an update on visit planning. What is the Valuations Office? Taillte Éireann is the umbrella organisation which manages property in…
Within the Roman Catholic Church, couples needed a dispensation to marry if they were related to each within a certain degree. The rules were laid down by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. If a couple shared great-great grandparents or closer, then they needed a dispensation. Depending on how close, this might be granted at…
Many of us have taken a DNA test to advance our family history research. Some people have been able to go further and test parents too. But have you considered testing your parents’ cousins? This was something I did right from the start, as my budget allowed. My mother’s lovely cousin, sadly no longer with…
Friday 20th September is Culture Night! Culture Night started in 2006 in Dublin but has since grown to a nationwide and international event. The idea is that museums, galleries and other buildings open for the evening and let people visit, often for free. There’s always a great buzz in the city on the evening. Check…
I’ve a nice quick read for you. The Last Close Call by Laura Griffin is a crime thriller involving investigative genetic genealogy to find the bad guy. This one has a romance angle so if that’s not your thing, fair warning! It also features sexual assault but not in any great detail. It doesn’t go…
James Joyce is one of Ireland’s most famous authors. On 16th June each year, we celebrate Bloomsday with a festival of Joycean events. It commemorates the date he met his later wife, Nora Barnacle in 1904 in the fictional Dublin of Ulysses. Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882 and died in Zurich in 1941,…
I’ve posted a new video on my YouTube channel explaining how to add and remove site members to your MyHeritage tree.
If you’d like to consume your hobby in a new format, have you considered documentaries? I’ve got two to recommend. First up, Found is a feature-length documentary about three Chinese-American adoptees (Sadie, Chloe & Lily) who discover they are related to each other through 23andMe DNA tests and then, supported by their families, decide to…
This is my final blog post following my trip to Rootstech 2024 which was held in Salt Lake City in Utah. If you’re not aware, then this building is the something akin to Mecca for genealogists. The LDS Church considers genealogy a part of their religion and so they collect and make available records for…
For St. Patrick’s Day 2024, I’m taking a look at a new collection on Ancestry of Guinness records. Guinness, in case you didn’t know, is one of Ireland’s most famous exports. The Guinness Store House is a top tourist attraction in Dublin. I actually don’t much like the black stuff, but I do recognise the…