Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genetic genealogist specialising in ancestry from Ireland
Following their recent announcement that they were now accepting people who have achieved or are for studying for a Masters in History of the Family from the University of Limerick, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve joined the Register of Qualified Genealogists. I’d been aware of the RQG for a while and wrote to them…
I am very excited to share the news that my first article in Family Tree Magazine is published in the current edition (May 2023). The article concerns my great-grandfather’s first cousin, Richard Kent. In attempting to trace his family, he disappeared from the records, and then I found multiple candidates for him in different record sets. Were…
The New Pocket Guide to Irish Genealogy by Brian Mitchell is neither that new nor does it fit in your pocket, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. This is the 4th edition (2020) of a guide first produced 30 years ago by the renowned Derry-based Irish genealogist, Brian Mitchell. I already have…
I’ve been using newspapers a lot recently to look for death notices and obituaries. There are two main types of notice to look for: This is an example of the former. It’s my 3x great-grandmother, Mary Lawless, née Swan, who died on the leap day in 1936. I wrote about her previously here. This is typical…
This year for Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d take a look at how often Irish people were called Valentine in February. St Valentine was a 3rd century CE Roman martyred clergyman who is also the patron saint of beekeepers and asthma. I didn’t know illnesses could have saints, but there you go! He has an…
So it’s October already. Halloween is coming. In Irish, October is mí Dheireadh Fómhair, which literally means the end of autumn. However, there’s still a lot of leaves on the ground, and being a genealogist, leaves make me think of trees, and well, you get the picture. In between working on other people’s family history, I…
I’ve launched a YouTube channel. The plan is to have videos on Irish genealogy and DNA testing. I have a few taster videos up already but more will come over the weeks and months. If you have any ideas for content, please do leave a comment. If you enjoy, please do like, share and subscribe!
I’m giving a talk next Saturday, 9th July for the Irish Genealogical Research Society on Irish Quakers. It’s free and online. You can register here. Some of you will know that I wrote my MA dissertation on Irish Quakers, who are a fascinating and quite distinct community. I’ll sharing some historical insights, talking about their…
Many of you will be aware that I gave a workshop at the recent RootsTech. It was attended by people from all over the world. Unfortunately, it was beset with technical issues. The recording is now online here, but I didn’t get time to answer all the questions during the session. Fortunately, we were able…
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…