genealogydiscussion

Ancestor Network and 24-7genealogist.com will be at Booth 103 at RootsTech, Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday 2nd February to Sunday, 4th February 2012

2012-01-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

Please visit www.24-7genealogist.com whether you are a person who needs professional help in tracing your ancestors or if you are a professional family historian looking for new customers.

24-7genealogist.com

Bringing ancestor experts to you

New 24-7 Genealogy Website to Simplify Ancestor Search

2011-10-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

Press Release 08 September 2011

New 24-7 Genealogy Website to Simplify Ancestor Search

A new genealogy website - 24-7genealogist.com launched recently by leading Irish genealogical research, training and technological company - Ancestor Network Limited, is set to set to make life much easier for those researching ancestral roots.

According to Chief Executive John Hamrock, “24-7genealogist.com connects online ancestor search customers with top independent professional genealogists worldwide. It provides a new, novel and exciting platform for researchers seeking expert help, while at the same time enabling independent genealogists and local historians to attract and win new clients, without incurring advertising fees.”

24-7genealogist.com is the ideal research platform for customers and professionals alike offering several real benefits through its one-stop-shop innovation. Firstly, it saves the researcher time and money. The Customer simply describes his or her research request once online and will then be matched with Service Providers having the consummate knowledge, skills and local experience pertinent to the Customer’s specific research needs. Service Providers will then simply quote back online detailing the service and associated cost. The customer is free to select what they consider the best value for money.

Secondly, it enables the Customer to locate the best Genealogist for the job - based on genuine feedback from previous Customers. Posting a research request to the extensive 24-7genealogist.com database of Family History Research Service Providers is quick and easy. Also, Ancestor Network vets and verifies the credentials of professional Genealogists and Family Historians who work with 24-7genealogist.com. Members must provide evidence of memberships of professional and voluntary organizations, together with details of their level of higher education and relevant work experience. The Website contains 150 independent professional genealogists available online to assist the customer anytime and anywhere in the world.

Thirdly, professional Genealogists and Family History Research Service Providers can receive e-mail alerts for all potential jobs in their area of expertise, bringing more work their way, whilst matching them with a client that can exploit their specific expertise in the genealogy discipline.

Ends.

For further information please contact:

John Hamrock, Chief Executive, Ancestor Network Limited

Telephone: +353 (0)87 0505296

Email: info@24-7genealogist.com

Notes to Editor

About Ancestor Network

24-7genealogist.com was established by Ancestor Network Limited. Ancestor Network is staffed by experienced professional genealogists and customer service specialists. You can find out more about Ancestor Network on www.ancestor.ie

Certificate of Irish Heritage – Applications Go-Live

2011-10-04T09:01:00.001-07:00

September 30, 2011

The application process for the Certificate of Irish Heritage went live at 11.00am Irish time on 30th September. Visit the website at www.heritagecertificate.ie for information on how to apply and to complete your own application.

First Certificate of Irish Heritage goes to fallen FDNY hero

2011-10-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

Chief of the NYC Fire Department Edward S. Kilduff, Bridget Hunter and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore display the Certificate of Irish Heritage at a recent ceremony.

On a visit to New York last week to speak at the 66th United Nations General Assembly, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore T.D., used the opportunity to present the first Certificate of Irish Heritage to the family of Joseph (Joe) Hunter, a New York fireman who lost his life in the 9/11 attacks.

The Certificate of Irish Heritage aims to recognise those of Irish lineage in an official way, giving greater expression to the sense of Irish identity felt by many around the world who might not otherwise be able to do so.

Joe Hunter was born in New York in 1970, the son of Bridget [who hails from Co. Galway] and Joseph Hunter. At 18 he joined the South Hempstead Fire Department as a volunteer, and in 1996 he was accepted into the New York Fire Department (FDNY) as a member of Squad 288 in Maspeth, Queens.

The ceremony at the firehouse of Squad 288 was attended by the Hunter family, former colleagues of Joe’s, and FDNY chief Edward S. Kilduff. Presenting the certificate to Joe’s mother Bridget, the Tánaiste spoke of the longstanding bonds between Irish emigrants and the emergency responders.

“Generations of Irish have been proud and privileged to serve with New York’s finest - in the Fire Department, the NYPD, and other emergency services,” he said. “We in Ireland felt the pain and loss of all Americans in the obscenity of 9/11 but we felt a particular pain in our hearts for those brave men and women of Irish heritage who lost their lives on that day.”

After receiving the award, Mrs. Hunter said it would have been an extremely proud day for her son.

“Joseph was very proud of his Irish roots and in continuing the brave and selfless tradition of service given by the Irish to the FDNY,” she said. “He would have been very honoured to receive the first Certificate.”

The Tánaiste confirmed that applications for the new Certificate of Heritage can be submitted online from the end of this month at certificateheritage.ie. Applications are open to persons who were not born on the island of Ireland and who can provide appropriate supporting documentation connecting them to an individual Irish ancestor.

Source: http://www.irishemigrant.com/ie/go.asp?p=story&storyID=10058

Successful Students Who Completed the Weekend Irish Genealogy Course

2011-06-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

Patrick Lyons

John Kane

Derek Deegan

Alice Brady

Congratulations goes out to Patrick Lyons, John Kane, Derek Deegan, and Alice Brady who successfully completed the Weekend Irish Genealogy Course offered by Ancestor Network in conjunction with the Genealogical Society of Ireland. Photos of the students receiving their certificates on 14 June 2011 are above. The next course starts on Saturday, 2nd July, 2011. Find out more and learn how to sign up now!

John Hamrock Interview on TV3's The Morning Show on Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Visit to Ireland About Her Irish Ancestors

2011-06-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

John Hamrock televised on The Morning Show on TV3 on 18 May 2011 during HM the Queen's successful and historic trip to Ireland to talk about HM the Queen's Irish family history. In the interview John also speaks about the Weekend Irish Genealogy Courses Ancestor Network offers in conjunction with the Genealogical Society of Ireland in Dún Laoghaire.

Kate Perry - a Galway Girl?

2011-04-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

Kate Perry - a Galway Girl?

Katy Perry has Irish ancestry in Galway?

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Pop sensation Katy Perry has several second and third cousins living in Galway, according to reports.

Source: http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/0426/perryk.html, 26 April 2011

Katy Perry- A Galway girl?

A genealogy programme in the US unveiled last week that the 'California Gurls' singer has Irish ancestry dating back to the 18th century.

The Santa Barbara native, who is married to 'Arthur' star Russell Brand, apparently has roots in Germany and Ireland, with many of her second and third cousins living in Co. Galway.

According to The Star, Perry's great-great-grandmother left the village of Eyrecourt in Galway for the US in the 1800s

Irish Pre-Famine Census to be Digitised

2011-01-23T14:59:00.001-08:00

TRACING YOUR GALWAY ANCESTORS Book Launch

2011-01-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

TRACING YOUR GALWAY ANCESTORS

(AUTHOR: PEADAR O'DOWD)

The book will be launched by

BERNARD O'HARA

IN THE GALWAY CITY MUSEUM

Spanish Parade, Galway

on WEDNESDAY, 26TH JANUARY, 2011

AT 6PM FOR 6.30 PM.

RSVP: (tel. 01 2806231 or books@flyleaf.ie)

Flyleaf Press www.flyleaf.ie

A comprehensive guide to tracing families in the City and County of Galway. Galway county is home to a widely diverse population of peoples whose culture and history has been shaped by the barren landscapes of its Western seaboard, or the rich farmlands at its Eastern end. In the centre is the historic city of Galway, an ancient trading port and home to the 14 ‘Tribes’ whose story is central to that of the county. Many of its people have emigrated, particularly in the aftermath of the Great Famine. Its population dwindled from 441,810 in 1841 to 214,712 in 1891. Genealogical records are also diverse, varying from sparse in the Western areas to extensive for some of the inhabitants of Galway city. This book sets out the records available to the family history researcher, where they can be obtained and how to use each to best effect.

Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations NEWS ALERT – 1926 Census of Ireland

2011-01-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

Steven C Smyrl, Executive Liaison Officer of the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations

From the Irish Times, 8 January 2011

'The potential for roots tourism locked away in the 1926 census is incalculable.' Above, Minister for Culture Mary Hanafin marking the free online availability of the 1901 census.Photograph: Alan Betson

GIVEN the astounding success of the National Archives’ free online database to the 1901 and 1911 census returns, the potential for roots tourism currently locked away in the 1926 census is incalculable.

When it comes to preservation of the written record, Ireland’s reputation is poor. For a literary nation priding itself on such manuscript gems as the Book of Kells and the Annals of the Four Masters , we should be appalled that our reputation internationally is one of a nation without records. It is difficult to argue against such a view when over the centuries through ignorance and carelessness we have destroyed and discarded the sources for the history of this island. Until the Victorians sensibly provided Ireland with a Public Record Office in Dublin’s Four Courts complex in 1867 the records of parliament, government and courts were constantly in a state of flux, being brought from one temporary location to another. In this new repository records dating back as far as the 12th century were conserved and catalogued. Its holdings included parish registers, wills, census records, court files, and a whole array of records, minutes and files of government administration.
Imagine then the horror when in 1922, in an orgy of destructive violence, the combatants in the civil war brought about the virtual annihilation of the largest body of material on the history of this island ever gathered together. At this stage it hardly matters whose fault it was: the fact that it occurred at all is shame enough. In one catastrophic act of stupidity the people of Ireland were forever robbed of almost all of their national memory.

In the decades since 1922 Irish academics and genealogists have become adept at squeezing every last bit of information from the surviving records. We have learnt to recognise the value of secondary sources, of transcripts and abstracts and even surviving indexes to otherwise destroyed records. However, nothing has had a more immediate impact upon the value of Irish records than the new technologies which have been rolled out over the past decade. Sources of information once impenetrable are now easily and readily accessible. The most pertinent example of this is the online 1901 and 1911 census database created by the National Archives (the successor body to the Public Record Office of Ireland). Until these two sets of census records (which are complete, island-wide) were digitised and indexed, access was limited to knowing approximately where a family resided. Now, at the press of a button, one can establish how many butchers lived in Athlone in 1911 (18), the number of Jewish people residing in Cork city in 1901 (401) or even if anyone recorded in the 1901 census was born in Serbia (one).

It should come as no surprise to the reader to discover that the history of Irish census records is also a sad tale of incompetence. Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, it was Ireland which first compiled census returns naming individuals. This was in 1821, 20 years before England Wales and Scotland did likewise. The original census returns for 1821 to 1851 were eventually transferred to the Public Record Office where they were regularly consulted by academics and genealogists. Later, after the passing of the Old Age Pension Act in 1908, they were used to establish age for pension applicants, until their destruction in 1922. But what of the census returns compiled in 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891? In the 1880s Irish civil servants began to implement a policy of routinely destroying census records, based upon advice from the census authorities in London. After transcribing English, Welsh and Scottish data into census enumerator’s books for future preservation, the original household returns for those countries were destroyed. Unfortunately, no such policy had been followed in Ireland and the mandarins in Whitehall did not appear to know this. The fire in 1922 and this bureaucratic bungle has left Ireland with virtually no pre-1901 census records.

The 1901 and 1911 census returns were compiled under Westminster statute and no particular promise was given at the time about everlasting privacy. In the 1940s the returns were transferred to the Public Record Office as the Statistics Department had nowhere to house them. In 1961 Charles Haughey TD, parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Justice, was persuaded to sign a warrant to open the records to public scrutiny. Interestingly, this was only 50 years after the taking of the 1911 census, but there was no public outcry and the sky didn’t come crashing down!

Since the foundation of the state, all census campaigns have been conducted under the Statistics Act 1926, later replaced by the Statistics Act 1993. The earlier Act failed to make any provision for future public access to historic census data. At the time of the passing of the 1993 Act an amendment reduced the proposed embargo from 100 years to only 70, but this was later reversed.

Currently, the 1926 census is not due to be opened to public scrutiny until January 2027. But there are many, the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO) among them, who feel that while a 100-year embargo for modern census data is warranted, it is excessive in the context of the meagre data recorded in the 1926 census. In 1926 the following information was noted for each person: name, age, sex, religion, ability to read and write, occupation, marital status, place of birth, relationship to head of household and infirmities. Also, statistics were noted about duration of marriage and children born.

The census returns of 1911 and 1926 could be described as family snapshots, capturing a picture of the Irish people before and after recent dramatic events: the first World War, the 1916 Rising, partition, and the Civil War. These were exciting times in the history of this island and the data locked away in the 1926 census would help answer the many questions that still remain.

The 1926 census could easily be opened within the next year or two, and with virtually no cost to the State given that genealogy companies such as Eneclann and Ancestry.com would be queuing up to invest in such an opportunity. The Central Statistics Office is convinced that the Irish public cannot easily differentiate between a 100 year closure and a similar policy that closes data until 100 years after an individual’s birth. The obvious compromise is to redact! Recently, Fianna Fáil Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú published a Bill which aims to open the 1926 census returns to full public scrutiny. The Bill argues that there is a special case to be made for opening this census early and CIGO agrees. The strongest argument is that the 1926 census is brimming over with people born before civil registration commenced in 1864. Clearly, if the 1926 census were to be released in 2012 the authorities could disclose data for all people born before 1912. With such an amendment Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú’s Bill might have a good chance of succeeding.

The Wall Street Journal Reports Ireland to Fund Cultural Programs in U.S.

2011-01-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

By ERICA ORDEN
January 6, 2011

NEW YORK—The government of Ireland is set to fund a $5.3 million initiative to support a vast array of arts programming in the U.S. during 2011, the country's minister of culture is set to announce Friday in New York.

Encompassing 400 events in 40 states, the project, "Imagine Ireland," will finance programming related to the country at major New York cultural institutions such as the New York Public Library, the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as well as support U.S. tours by at least three of Ireland's historic theaters: the Abbey, Gate and Druid.

At the New York Public Library, for example, the project will help fund "Ireland America: The Ties That Bind," an exhibition that examines 19th- and 20th-century Irish-American performance history. Institutions including the Public Theater, P.S. 122, St. Ann's Warehouse and La MaMa, an experimental theater venue, will also present "Imagine Ireland"-backed programming.

Ireland's minister for culture, Mary Hanafin, and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn will disclose additional details of the yearlong project at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where they will be joined by actor Gabriel Byrne, cultural ambassador for Ireland.

Additional programming is planned for Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, among other U.S. locations.

Irish Independent Reports Worldwide spike in demand for Irish citizenship

2011-01-06T06:19:00.000-08:00

To learn how Ancestor Network can help you in obtaining an Irish passport, if you qualift, please click on link immediately below.

http://ancestor.ie/main/page_products__services_naturalization_service.html

Press Association

Thursday January 06 2011

More than 11,500 people proud of their heritage claimed Irish citizenship under the so-called Granny Rule last year.

Preliminary figures show thousands turned up at embassies worldwide seeking the right to call themselves Irish because of the birthplace of their grandmother or grandfather.

The rule became famous during the Jack Charlton years when he used it to secure top players for the Republic of Irelandsoccer team.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin said the figures underlined the strong demand from the 70 million-strong global Irish family to maintain their links with their homeland.

"Demand for citizenship through an Irish grandparent has spiked over the past two years with 11,500 people putting in their claim during 2010," he said.

"There has been an increased awareness of the rule since the Global Irish Economic Forum at Farmleigh with more of our citizens coming forward to claim the entitlement to call themselves Irish and to have the right to a passport.

"I am keenly aware of the demands from people with an Irish background worldwide who want to forge stronger links with the land of their grandparents, great-grandparents and even further back.

"For those not entitled to citizenship we are now finalising the details of the certificate of Irish heritage."

Mr Martin said details on the certificate will be formally announced in the near future.

He said it was clear people worldwide are proud to call themselves Irish.
"They want their links with our country recognised and I am delighted that we are in a position to do that," he continued.

"Our communities play a huge part in bringing Irish sports, arts and culture to the world, they are also key in establishing business links in key world markets that will be central to our economic recovery."

Ancestors shunned by Quakers for failing in business

2011-01-05T01:43:00.000-08:00

From the Irish Independent By Eimear Ni Bhraonain
Wednesday January 05 2011

IVAN Yates discovered recently how two of his ancestors were disowned by the Quakers for becoming insolvent in business.

He uncovered this fact while he was researching his family tree for a television documentary.

Mr Yates traced his roots and discovered that his great-grandfather John Francis Yates was the first entrepreneur in his family.

John Francis imported goods along the Slaney river -- a business that thrived until Ivan's father's time. His grandfather, also called Ivan, inherited this family business.

On his mother's side, the Davis family ran a profitable flour-milling business in Enniscorthy for many years.

His great-grandparents were Francis Davis and Anna Davis -- first cousins who later married.

Their fathers, Samuel Davis and Abraham Grubb Davis were brothers who founded the milling company 'S & AG Davis'.

Samuel was a Quaker and married in the Quaker Meeting House but Abraham was married in the Church of Ireland. Abraham was subsequently "disowned" by the Quakers. Ivan Yates made these discoveries about his family tree as part of an RTE documentary for the 'Who Do You Think You Are?' series.

During his research for this programme, Ivan learned that his great-great grandfather Abraham was not "disowned" by the Quakers for marrying outside of the religion, but for becoming insolvent in business.

Coincidentally, Abraham's father, Francis had been disowned for the same reason.
The Church of Ireland woman Abraham married was Helen Jameson -- the daughter of a "gentleman" named Andrew Jameson.

Andrew was an Enniscorthy distiller whose business was threatened by the rise of a total abstinence society in the 1840s.

This Andrew Jameson was the son of a much more famous distiller -- John Jameson -- known globally today for Jameson whiskey.

IGRS' Terrence Punch named as a Member of the Order of Canada in the 2011 New Year's honours list

2011-01-01T11:34:00.000-08:00

Steven C. Smyrl, Chairman of the Ireland Branch of the Irish Genealogical Research Society, congratulated on behalf of friends and members of the Society, Terrence Punch, for having been named as a Member of the Order of Canada in the 2011 New Year's honours list oublished on behalf of HM The Queen by the Governor General of Canada, David Johnston. As many IGRS members will know, Terrence has been a member of the IGRS for very many years, and is a regular contributor of material both to our annual journal the Irish Genealogist and to the Society's bi-annual Newsletter. In recognition of Terrence's long contribution to genealogy he
was elected to the Fellowship of the IGRS in 2009.

The accompanying citation to his Order of Canada award notes that it has been made in recognition of "his contributions to the development and popularization of genealogy in the Atlantic provinces" of Canada. You can read more about this here
http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=13995&lan=eng.

With all good wishes for 2011.

www.irsoc.org

Fionnan Sheahan of the Irish Independent reports: If you're Irish, we'll give you the certificate to prove it

2011-01-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

Irish Independent
By Fionnan Sheahan
Monday December 27 2010

FOR generations of Irish ex-pats, the song 'If You're Irish, Come Into The Parlour' promised a hearty "welcome on the mat".

Soon the diaspora will be able to apply for an official certificate to drop onto their doormat as well, recognising their Irishness.

The Government will launch a plan early next year to provide a 'Certificate of Irish Heritage' to the Irish across the world.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is currently finalising a contract with the Kerry-based financial services company, FeXco, to operate the scheme.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin said the Government hoped to have the plan ready to roll in January.

"It will enable people who have a strong Irish connection to assert their Irishness and their heritage. For many people beyond the grandparents stage there is no manifestation of the fact they are Irish," he said.

Mr Martin said there would be no cost to the taxpayer from the initiative.

"It will be self-financing. There will be a charge for the certificate but it's not to make money. It's not a revenue generating mechanism at all."

The idea came from a review of relations between Ireland and the US, carried out by the Irish Ambassador to the US Michael Collins.

The minister said the certificate was targeted at the millions of people worldwide who were aware of their Irish ancestry and felt a strong affinity for Ireland.

Scheme

But the vast majority are no longer eligible for Irish citizenship due to the passage of generations.

The certificate will have no legal standing, but still aims to recognise descendants of generations of Irish in an official way.

Up to 40 million US citizens describe themselves as Irish-American.

The scheme will target the Irish community in the US, Britain, Australia, and will be available worldwide.

The certificate concept came from a strong demand for such a scheme among members of the Irish diaspora.

When the proposal was included in the Strategic Review of Ireland-US relations, it was warmly received by the Irish-American community.

- Fionnan Sheahan

Ancestor Network Participating in FREE Genealogy Services at Carton House in Maynooth!

2010-12-30T04:11:00.000-08:00

The Genealogy Roadshow is coming to Kildare. It’s a day-long Genealogy event, filmed for RTE television, which can help you trace your family’s roots for free. The roadshow will be hosted by RTE’s Derek Mooney as we try to help ordinary people find extraordinary stories from their family history.

Do you think you’re related to someone famous? Is there a family connection to some politician, entertainer, sports personality or explorer? If so, we want to meet you!
If there’s a mystery hanging from your family tree we can help you solve it.
Was one of your relations involved in a dramatic part of local or national history? We want to find out all the details.

Our team of genealogy experts and historians, which includes professionals from Ancestor Network, John Hamrock and Aiden Feerick, are coming to Kildare and will be giving free advice and help - but time and access to the experts is limited, so come early. If you don’t want a face-to-face meeting, you’ll still be able to watch the experts and hear the advice they give to each person they speak to and hear all the tips they give out.

We’re looking for people with connections to well known figures of the past, people with a family mystery to solve or people with family connections to historical events. You tell us the story and we’ll search for the evidence.

Maybe you believe there’s a connection to one of Kildare’s famous sons like Arthur Guinness or Ernest Shackleton? Maybe you’re the great, great, grand nephew of Wolfe Tone? Are you a relative to the first man ever to hoist the new Sam Maguire Cup in 1928, Bill Gannon? We want to hear all about it!

So if you have letters, photographs, birth certificates, heirlooms or any other piece of information that might help, then bring them along to Carton House on ‘Sunday January 16th’ for a fun, free day out and let us help you get on the right track.

Venue:
Carton House
Maynooth
Co. Kildare

Time: 11:00am – 5.00pm (Sunday January 16th 2011)

The programme is being produced by Big Mountain Productions. Please contact us if you have any queries – info@bigmountainproductions.com

2010-12-20T12:21:00.001-08:00

Start Your Family Tree Week
26 December – 1 January

• Ireland’s first ‘Start Your Family Tree Week’ launches
• ‘Start Your Family Tree Week’ runs from 26th December – 1st January
• 69% don’t know the names of all their great-grandparents
• 94% would like to find out more about their family history
• Michael Collins, Oscar Wilde and Grace O’Malley are the people that we’d most like to discover we’re related to

Christmas is traditionally the time when families gather together to celebrate – in fact research reveals that 96% of Irish people plan to meet up with family this Christmas*.

But how much do we really know about our families?

In a recent poll, Eneclann, Ireland’s leading Irish historical researcher and publisher, revealed that while 89% of Irish people are able to name all of their first cousins and grandparents, only 31% are able to name all of their great-grandparents*.

This Stephen’s Day sees the launch of Ireland’s first ‘Start your Family Tree Week’, an opportunity to find out more about your Irish family history. The initiative, which is supported by Eneclann, the Genealogical Society of Ireland and the Irish Family History Society, aims to encourage people to find out more about their family history, and to hand down the stories and memories to the next generation.

‘Start Your Family Tree Week’ aims to encourage people to find out more about their families in a fun and interactive way. People can sign up for a series of seven daily emails from 26th December – 1st January. Each email is designed to help you develop your family tree further and includes advice and features from experts, links to useful websites and competitions (see below for details of prizes). People can participate by visiting www.startyourfamilytree.ie and signing up for the newsletter.

Research reveals that the top ten famous Irish individuals that people would like to discover they are related to are:

1. Michael Collins
2. Oscar Wilde
3. Grace O'Malley
4. Brian Boru
5. Daniel O'Connell
6. Mary Robinson
7. Arthur Guinness
8. James Joyce
9. William Butler Yeats
10. Charles Stewart Parnell**

Rachel Murphy of Eneclann said ‘Christmas is the perfect time to start exploring your family history; with many of your relatives all gathered together in the same place, it’s a perfect opportunity to share family stories, and ask questions about what life was like in the past. As a people with a strong oral tradition, you’d expect we would still be passing the stories down the generations but our survey shows that an overwhelming 92% of people regret not having asked relatives more about their lives*.’

John Grenham, one of Ireland’s leading genealogists and the author of Tracing your Irish Ancestors, said:
‘For whatever reason, the week after Christmas always sees a big surge of interest in family history. ‘Start Your Family Tree Week’ is a great way of giving people the tools to turn that interest into real research, and produce their very own Who Do You Think You Are? It deserves every success.’

Steven Smyrl, a professional genealogist and chairman of the Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) said:
‘We used to think it was only the Americans who were interested in genealogy and their family’s past, but in the past decade the Irish have become just as interested, if not more so. The proliferation of online sources for Irish genealogy now means that research has never been easier. Certainly, for the IGRS the internet is providing us with new opportunities to encourage genealogical research. Events such as ‘Start Your Family Tree Week’ can only boost this interest further.’

John Heueston, of the Irish Family History Society said:
‘The Irish Family History Society commend the initiative of Eneclann in launching ‘Start your Family Tree Week’ which is a great idea in getting people started on researching their ancestors. We wish them every success with this project.’

Michael Merrigan, General Secretary of the Genealogical Society of Ireland said:
‘An awareness, appreciation and knowledge of our genealogical heritage opens up a world of exciting possibilities, not least, discovering who our ancestors were and learning about their lives and times, but also introducing ourselves to the localities in which our ancestors lived and raised their families.

John Hamrock at Ancestor Network said:
'As Christmas time brings families together, it is the ideal time to speak to older family members and begin recording your family history if you have not already done so already. We offer a genealogy course starting in January 2011 which is ideal for those family members looking to undertake the research and who want to find out the best ways of conducting that research and recording the history for posterity.'

Family history is essentially about connectivity - both with the past and, what is wonderfully exciting, also with newly discovered relatives throughout the world. To say that family history is a voyage of discovery is very true, but it is also an extremely enjoyable educational leisure pursuit that is available to all irrespective of prior learning, age or socio-economic circumstances. It's your journey - it's up to you to take the first step.’
-Ends-

Note to editors
*Research conducted by Eneclann in December 2010 via an online survey of 129 Irish people
**Research conducted by Eneclann in December 2010 via an online survey of 167 Irish people

Featured Experts:
• Fiona Fitzsimons, Eneclann
• John Grenham M.A., M.A.P.G.I., F.I.G.R.S.
• Eileen O'Duill, CG, M.A.P.G.I.
• Gerry Kennedy M.A., M.A.P.G.I
• Rachel Murphy M.A.
(more information at: http://www.startyourfamilytree.ie/featured-experts.html)

Competition Prizes include:

• A two night stay for two people sharing in their choice of Blue Book country house or historic hotel
• 5 hours’ Irish family history research by Irish genealogy experts, Eneclann
• 4 subscriptions to Irish Roots, the Irish genealogy magazine
• 5 subscriptions to Ireland of the Welcomes, the Irish magazine
• 5 reproduction historical maps of the Irish county of your choice from Kennys.ie
• 5 prizes of a printed and bound hardback book of your family history research from MyBook.ie
• 7 subscriptions to the Irish Ancestors website
• 7 memberships of the Irish Family History Society
• 7 memberships of the Genealogical Society of Ireland
• 7 memberships of the Irish Genealogical Research Society
• 7 one-day subscriptions to the Irish Times Online Newspaper Archive

Anyone with British roots might be interested in the British Start Your Family Tree week, organised by findmypast.co.uk. For more information, go to www.findmypast.co.uk

For further information, please contact:
Rachel Murphy
Eneclann
086 826 5004
rachel.murphy@eneclann.ie

About Eneclann
Eneclann is an award-wining Trinity College Campus Company based in Dublin and founded in 1998. It operates in 3 key areas: genealogical & historical research, archives & records management and digitisation & publications.
Eneclann's genealogy team have researched over 10,000 family histories for clients and have worked on Who Do You Think You Are? (Ireland, UK, Canada & Australian series), Ancestors During the Famine (RTÉ), and NBC's Faces of America. They also traced President Barack Obama's family tree back to the late 1600s in Ireland. They have worked for over 10,000 research clients.
About the Genealogical Society of Ireland
Founded in 1990, the Genealogical Society of Ireland (GSI) and its archive - An Daonchartlann - are located at the Carlisle Pier, Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. It is the only such facility in the Republic.

The Society is a registered charity and is incorporated. It is a nominating body for Seanad Éireann and has a Grant of Arms from the Chief Herald of Ireland. The Society campaigns for the legislative protection of our genealogical heritage resources Ireland and has acted as advisor on a number of pieces of key legislation such as the Genealogy & Heraldry Bill, 2006, the National Cultural Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2008 and the Statistics (Heritage Amendment) Bill, 2010.

The Society publishes an Annual Journal, monthly newsletter and occasional volumes of memorial inscriptions. It has its own Archive & Research Centre and organises group projects. The Society holds two Open Meetings each month - lectures and discussion groups.

About the Irish Family History Society
The Irish Family History Society is an Irish based Society founded here some 26 years ago. It is a non-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers.
It has a worldwide membership; holds lectures in Dublin; issues newsletters and an annual Journal; offers assistance through advice and information to members researching their family history.
About the Irish Genealogical Research Society
The Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) was established in 1936 to encourage and promote the study of Irish genealogy throughout Ireland and Britain and to build up a library of books and manuscripts of genealogical value to compensate for the destruction of the Irish public records in 1922. Worldwide, this library is the largest and most important collection of Irish genealogical material held in private hands. Since 1937 we have published an annual journal, The Irish Genealogist, and twice yearly we circulate our newsletter. The IGRS is widely recognised for making a unique scholarly contribution to the field of Irish genealogical studies over the past 75 years. It is a constituent member of the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO) to which almost all organisations involved in Irish genealogy belong.

The ‘Ireland Branch’ of the Society holds a number of events each year. Its Spring Lecture is held on an evening each March in the National Library of Ireland, centrally located in Dublin’s Kildare Street; the April and May lectures take place at the Gilbert Library, on Pearse Street. In April is the Annual General Meeting and lecture, in May is a full day of lectures and seminars and each June the Society invites the Irish Family History Society (IFHS) to join with it for the annual Summer Outing (a full day’s coach trip outside of Dublin). In turn, in August/September the invitation is returned when the IFHS invites the IGRS to join it for its Autumn Outing in the greater Dublin area. Finally, the IGRS annual (evening) Autumn Lecture takes place each October also at the National Library.

Irish Genealogy Course Launch in January 2011 - Register Today!

2010-12-17T08:56:00.000-08:00

Irish Genealogy Course Launch in January 2011
Register Today!

Would you like to start the New Year by engaging in a practical course on how to trace your Irish ancestors? A weekend course in genealogy will be offered at the Genealogical Society of Ireland’s Library and Archive, ‘An Doanchartlann’, Carlisle Pier, Dún Laoghaire, starting from Saturday, 22 January 2011. Class duration is 2.5 hours and each programme will run for eight weeks.

The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to the theory and practice of genealogy and family history research. Genealogy and family history research can be done as a one off project or as a lifetime hobby.

Topics to be covered include principles of genealogy, internet research, and how to draw up a family tree. Key records such as church parish records, civil registrations (births, marriages, and deaths), census returns, and land records will be explored in detail. Other sources discussed will include grave records and inscriptions, newspapers, wills, trade directories, and new developments in DNA testing.

Class size will be restricted to six students which will allow for individualised training and guidance on how to conduct and write your own family history. Students are encouraged to bring their own laptop. The GSI Library and Archive facility provides broadband internet access allowing students to conduct family history research online as part of the training programme.

Course cost: €300 which includes one year’s free student membership of the Genealogical Society of Ireland

The course will be taught by John Hamrock of Ancestor Network Limited. John is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. He holds a Certificate and a Diploma in Genealogy from UCD (first class honours) and is the author of Tracing Your Roscommon Ancestors.

For more information or to obtain an enrolment form, please contact John Hamrock at 087 0505296 or at john.hamrock@ancestor.ie. Also, find out more at www.ancestor.ie.

Vikings brought Amerindian to Iceland 1,000 years ago: study

2010-12-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

AFP

Sunday, 21 November 2010

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/vikings-brought-amerindian-to-iceland-1000-years-ago-study-2140130.html

The first Native American to arrive in Europe may have been a woman brought to Iceland by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago, a study by Spanish and Icelandic researchers suggests.

The findings boost widely-accepted theories, based on Icelandic medieval texts and a reputed Viking settlement in Newfoundland in Canada, that the Vikings reached the American continent several centuries before Christopher Columbus travelled to the "New World."

Spain's CSIC scientific research institute said genetic analysis of around 80 people from a total of four families in Iceland showed they possess a type of DNA normally only found in Native Americans or East Asians.

"It was thought at first that (the DNA) came from recently established Asian families in Iceland," CSIC researcher Carles Lalueza-Fox was quoted as saying in a statement by the institute.

"But when family genealogy was studied, it was discovered that the four families were descended from ancestors who lived between 1710 and 1740 from the same region of southern Iceland."

The lineage found, named C1e, is also mitochondrial, which means that the genes were introduced into Iceland by a woman.

"As the island was virtually isolated from the 10th century, the most likely hypothesis is that these genes corresponded to an Amerindian woman who was brought from America by the Vikings around the year 1000," said Lalueza-Fox.

The researchers used data from the Rejkjavik-based genomics company deCODE Genetics.
He said the research team hopes to find more instances of the same Native American DNA in Iceland's population, starting in the same region in the south of the country near the massive Vatnajokull glacier.

The report, by scientists from the CSIC and the University of Iceland, was also published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
The journal said 75 to 80 percent of contemporary Icelanders can trace their lineage to Scandinavia and the rest to Scotland and Ireland.

But the C1e lineage is "one of a handful that was involved in the settlement of the Americas around 14,000 years ago.

"Contrary to an initial assumption that this lineage was a recent arrival (in Iceland), preliminary genealogical analyses revealed that the C1 lineage was present in the Icelandic mitochondrial DNA pool at least 300 years ago.

"This raised the intriguing possibility that the Icelandic C1 lineage could be traced to Viking voyages to the Americas that commenced in the 10th century," said the journal.

Green Shoots / Irish Roots; Eneclann's Digitisation Business Expansion Plans

2010-12-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

Eneclann, a leading provider of online genealogical data, will be raising funds from a Business Expansion Scheme {"BES") which focuses on a key component of Ireland's future economic recovery, HERITAGE. This Heritage is shared by the Irish Diaspora of 90 million people who claim Irish descent and represents a proven global economic success story. Eneclann will use the funds attracted through the BES to increase the pace of digitisation of Irish records, thereby increasing the digital assets of the company. They also plan to introduce a course on digitisation, drawing on their expertise to help other organisations in Ireland.

Eneclann believes that a well placed investment in the creation of digital assets, with a non-depreciable value and capability of generating continuous cash flow, would leave the company in a very strong position as the market continues to develop over the coming years.

Eneclann has 12 years of successful trading activity and an annual turnover of over euro 1 million + over the past six years. It is an accredited Trinity College Dublin campus company and has established partnerships with the National Archives of Ireland, National Archives UK (Kew), and Enterprise Ireland.

To find out more, please visit www.eneclann.ie or email info@eneclann.ie.

Northerm Ireland Wills Online

2010-12-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

November 30, 2010

Northern Ireland Wills Online

From Dick Eastman's http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/11/northern-ireland-wills-online.html#more

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has indexed and digitized early wills from the three District Probate Registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry between the years 1858 and 1900.

Speaking on 30 November 2010 about the Wills application, Culture Minister Nelson McCausland said: “One of PRONI’s key goals is to digitise key cultural resources and make them easily available to a worldwide audience. This free of charge application will therefore be of enormous assistance to anyone trying to trace their genealogical roots and will be of particular help to those wanting to begin their research from the comfort of their own home.

“In recent years there has been a huge increase in people researching their family history and trends have shown that a large number of these people are from outside the UK. I am sure this new application will be of particular interest to this international audience.”

Wills are one of the most used archival sources by both family historians and solicitors. The images have been linked to an existing searchable index which allows researchers to view details such as name, dates and the abstracts taken from the original entries.

Future digitisation plans include the addition of further pre-1858 will indexes to the PRONI Name Search facility. These indexes from Northern Ireland dioceses, will list the names of people who had wills probated as early as the seventeenth century – pushing the possibility of family and local history research further back in time.

Looking ahead to next year’s opening of the new PRONI headquarters, the Minister added: “I recently had the privilege to visit the stunning new PRONI headquarters at Titanic Quarter. This much needed £30million investment in our cultural infrastructure was provided by the Northern Ireland Executive. The new state-of-the-art facility will open to the public early next year and will protect Northern Ireland’s irreplaceable archives in a safe and secure environment.”

The wills are online at http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/will_calendars.htm

David McWilliams: Harnessing diaspora will help us rebuild economy

2010-11-16T13:08:00.000-08:00

By David McWilliams, Irish Independent
Wednesday October 27 2010

A couple of days after the Global Irish Economic Forum at Farmleigh last year, I received a call from Galway-based technology entrepreneur Mike Feerick. This man had an extraordinary idea. Instead of waiting, he said, for Irish Americans and the like to come back to Ireland to trace their roots, how about we go the other way?

How about we organise and enable, using the latest online communications and database tools and resources, local Irish communities at a townland, village and parish level to find out who was born in their area, where they went, and trace them and their descendants worldwide?

That way, he suggested, we could systematically reunify our entire diaspora, creating "virtual communities", expanding each local parish beyond its own physical boundaries and allowing them reach out across the world?

As soon as I heard and understood this idea, it wasn't hard to see the common sense and power of deploying local, rather than national, resources to galvanise the global Irish tribe.

So began the development of a simple idea -- something we could call 'micro-diaspora'. The idea we had was rather than build a top-down structure with experts, we should provide the platform for ordinary people to do it for themselves.
In a sense we are inverting the pyramid. Rather than working from the apex, for example networking the top 500 important Irish Americans, we are doing the opposite -- operating around the base of the diaspora pyramid.

When you think about it, the Irish diaspora may be 60 to 70 million worldwide but it can be broken down to perhaps no more than 3,000 Irish parishes north and south.
What if each village in Ireland could harness the economic power of its diaspora? What if, as a nation, we mobilised each parish in Ireland to actively research its genealogical past and identify those people who are of its own flesh and blood and reach out and engage their interest? This local-based approach is what, in another context, made the GAA one of the strongest organisations in the country. It is local pride that motivates people to get together to work in national competitions like the Tidy Towns.

After Farmleigh, the penny dropped for me. This is where the real strength lies in Ireland. Why not use this energy and local enthusiasm to build a vast network of local communities reaching out to their diaspora, to their ancestors' kin?
Together with Mike Feerick and his international advisory board, we have worked on developing this concept over the past year.

Our efforts thus far culminate in the launch of the 'Ireland Reaching Out' South-East Galway Diaspora Pilot Project tomorrow night in Loughrea, Co Galway. What started as a few phone calls and a notion over a pint is now sponsored and supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Heritage Council and Galway County Council, the GAA and a number of Irish-American funders.

More than 30 parishes, including the towns of Loughrea, Gort and Portumna and all neighbouring parishes, are being targeted for the launch, although the project will start only in those parishes that make clear they wish to be part of this initiative.
We have developed the technology to enable every parish in Ireland to participate in this initiative and over the next nine months we are going to fine-tune it, to see where we can improve it and what the pitfalls are by using the east Galway district as our pilot project. Once the glitches and problems are ironed out, it will be available to everyone. The company is set up as a charity, so that we can all benefit equally.

Over the next nine months, the project has three main aims. First, to identify and engage 44,000 people outside the country who have direct links with the parishes in the Loughrea electoral area. We will do this using oral records, online genealogy and the latest technology to assemble all these data. The figure of 44,000 is the same number of people who live in the area today. So we want to trace one member of the Tribe for every one of us living in the area.

Second, the pilot project will attempt to attract 25 or 30 of these people home to their parish or townland of origin in June next year. The proposed 'Week of Welcomes' is similar to Israeli programmes that invite young Americans of Jewish heritage to come to Israel to learn more about who they are and how the state of Israel can be part of their lives.

Many years ago, I lived in Israel for a short while and was always amazed at how the Israelis used their Jewish diaspora. They seemed to have a forensic knowledge of who was who and where everyone was. They told me that these records were assembled by people like retired teachers, policemen and local enthusiasts. Ireland has the same resource here in every village and town just waiting to be tapped.

For the Week of Welcomes, these returning members of the local diaspora, many newly identified, will attend several days of lectures in the local school on Irish history, literature and so on, visit a local GAA match and attend a local Comhaltas session. Obviously, each parish will have its own particular programme.

The third goal is to identify, among the 44,000, approximately 500 enterprising members of the Tribe who can be buyers, advisers, investors and influencers for the benefit of not just the locality but the Irish nation as a whole.

The project's real power is the sheer practicality and scalability of it all. Through the Ireland Reaching Out pilot project funding and the guidance of the promoters, parishes across Ireland will have the online tools to create their own databases of contacts and organise the international 'Reach Out'.

It will then be down to local voluntary effort for each to make the best of the opportunity given. More than any element of the project, the secret to success will be how the local parishes respond and engage not just in the research of historical records, but in how the programme is carried on through the Week of Welcomes and beyond.

The 'meet and greet' element of welcoming the Irish diaspora has been a key missing ingredient in making sure people of Irish heritage return. Now this element can be introduced in a most profound way, opening up an Irish phenomenon that could perhaps even change Ireland as we know it.

In the past we didn't have the technology to do this; now we have.

Last week on the train coming back from Galway, looking out at the fields and rivers, I thought about how many stories each of these fields hides when we consider that five million people born in this country emigrated -- and most were born in smallholdings in these exact fields.

Now we can trace these people to precisely the fields they left. We can do this now. Can you imagine an Irish American getting an invitation to come back and see, not just Ireland, not just the county her great grandfather left, but the very fields that her ancestors farmed?

Today we have the means to do it. Micro-diaspora is the opportunity. So let's go to work.

For more info email info@irelandxo.com The launch of the 'Ireland Reaching Out' South-East Galway Diaspora Pilot Project, Loughrea Hotel & Spa, October 28 at 7.30pm.

- David McWilliams
Irish Independent

John Grenham awarded Fellowship from the Genealogical Society of Ireland

2010-11-09T01:14:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The Irish Times - Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Genealogical society fellowship for author

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Culture, last night.

TIM O'BRIEN
WRITER, GENEALOGIST and teacher John Grenham was last night honoured with a Fellowship of the Genealogical Society of Ireland.

The fellowship, described as a special award to mark the 20th anniversary of the society, was presented to Grenham by Minister for Tourism Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin at a ceremony in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

Grenham is widely known for his journalism, teaching and consultancy but also for his books, particularly Tracing Your Irish Ancestors, which has become the indispensable reference for those researching their family history.

Grenham also contributes the “Irish Roots” column to this newspaper and the Irish Ancestors page at irishtimes.com. Irish Ancestors aims to be the first online stopping-off point for those interested in researching their Irish ancestors. Michael Merrigan general secretary of the Genealogical Society of Ireland paid tribute to Grenham saying he had done much to popularise genealogy. He said the society had been set up to make records available and to demystify the research process so that everyone could use facilities such as the National Archive and the National Library, regardless of the level of their formal eduction or personal resources.

He said Grenham had done much to help achieve those goals. “His books include ‘how-to-do’ sections, details on where the resources are, reference numbers and text references. I would say his work is essential for anyone starting to search their family history,” he said.

Irish Minister of Culture to Prioritise Archives

2010-10-07T05:28:00.000-07:00

Source: The Irish Times - Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Minister to prioritise archives

ALISON HEALY

MINISTER FOR Culture Mary Hanafin has acknowledged criticism of the lack of
foresight of successive governments in providing proper accommodation for
the National Archives.

She said she would prioritise spending in this area in the coming years. “I
accept that there is a major responsibility on Government to preserve all of
those documents and to do it properly.

“I can assure you that I will put it as one of my top priorities . . . that
we not only improve the current conditions but try to move to a situation
where we can have much more accessible accommodation and also much more
top-quality accommodation.”

She was speaking at the launch last night of a special volume of the Irish
Archives journal, which marks the 40th anniversary of the Irish Society for
Archives.

A journal article, by former Dublin diocesan archivist David Sheehy,
criticises the Government’s prevarication for nearly two decades in
providing adequate accommodation for the archives.

The great Irish painting that turned up on eBay

2010-10-02T01:39:00.001-07:00

The Irish Times - Saturday, October 2, 2010

The great Irish painting that turned up on eBay

Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/1002/1224280192787.html

Niamh O’Sullivan is professor of visual culture at the National College of Art Design

Lost for almost a century, John Mulvany’s ‘ The Battle of Aughrim ’ re-emerged on the online auction site, put up for sale by a dealer who believed it to be an American battle scene. For NIAMH O’SULLIVAN , who had spent years searching for the painting, it was a heart-stopping moment

IN IT WAS A 21ST-CENTURY moment when a once-celebrated painting that had been missing for almost 100 years turned up – and not in an attic, under generations of dust, but on eBay.

The Battle of Aughrim was last seen in Denver, in the US, in 1914. In 2003 I travelled there, to try to track it down, but to no avail. Earlier this year I saw the painting on eBay, for sale as an American military painting. I knew immediately what it was. Seeing something flash before you that you have been searching for over seven years is a heart-stopping moment.

Many years ago, in a dark recess of the Battle of Aughrim Interpretative Centre, in Co Galway, I had come across a black-and-white photogravure entitled The Cavalry Fight at Urachree, 12 July 1691. When I saw the painting on eBay I knew immediately that it was the original and that I had struck gold.

I contacted Anne Weber, the great-grandniece of the artist, with whom I had been working on the Mulvany project for some time. She jumped on a plane to the dealer in San Francisco. When she saw the painting she was quite overcome: here was the painting that was closest to her great-granduncle’s heart, and it was spectacular.
One hundred and thirty five years later the painting was on its return journey, this time from California to the Gorry Gallery, on Molesworth Street, around the corner from where it was first exhibited in Dublin, on Grafton Street, in 1885.

That year, when the Fenian and Irish National Land League founder Michael Davitt saw the barely-dry Battle of Aughrim he declared: “If I were a wealthy man it should never leave Ireland.” But the painting was promised, and its artist, John Mulvany (c1839-1906), took it to the US, where it was last recorded in 1914. The rediscovery of the painting marks an exciting moment in Irish art history.

There is a common assumption that Irish artists of the late 19th century transcended the harsh realities of political and economic life either by emigrating and assimilating or by staying put but avoiding subjects that might mirror or create discontent. Mulvany’s The Battle of Aughrim , however, places visual art at the centre of an emergent nationalism traditionally perceived as the preserve of poets and playwrights, journalists and politicians.

Mulvany chose a propitious moment for the action of the painting, the momentary victory by Jacobite forces over the Williamite army at Urraghry on July 12th, 1691, before their subsequent calamitous defeat on the Hill of Aughrim, in Co Galway. By showing the weakest link in the Jacobite position Mulvany illustrates the bravery of the Irish as they took on the superior forces of William. But when the Jacobite commander Lieut Gen St Ruth was decapitated by a cannonball, near victory became a rout. In a striking prefiguration, the painting depicts a Williamite soldier, in the centre of the picture, staggering backwards as his head is severed from his neck.
The myth of Aughrim is largely built on the randomness of the defeat – the decapitation of St Ruth – as one stray cannonball consigns Ireland to another 200 years of subjugation. As if to emphasise this, the decapitation of the British soldier in the painting signals, in its one-on-one combat, the valour of the Irish by comparison with the contingency of the British victory. From near triumph to resounding defeat, the story of Aughrim was subsequently reclaimed in Irish cultural memory as an enduring symbol of entitlement, a site for future resurgence.

According to the Gaelic American of March 6th, 1909, Mulvany was “of an imaginative and inquiring mind, his teacher’s favourite . . . They both loved Ireland and hated the Sassenach.” As a Famine child Mulvany emigrated from Moynalty, in Co Meath, to the US, where, according to the Nation of January 15th, 1887, “he became an infant phenomenon as a colourist . . . and was soon earning thousands of dollars a month”. Notwithstanding the hyperbole of late-19th-century art criticism, the reviews of his work bordered on the ecstatic.

When the Irish-American Club in Chicago wanted Irish pictures, it consulted Mulvany. He explained that the wealthy Irish had little time for national art, that nationalists could not afford to buy art and that painters could not live by ideals alone. Following the remarkable success of his epochal Custer’s Last Rally (1881) – the first major painting of another celebrated defeat – Mulvany was at the peak of his artistic powers, and pledged himself to the cause of his homeland.
But why did he select Aughrim as his plumb line to the past? In the late 19th century radical nationalism was focused not only on peasant proprietorship but also on political independence. Such boldness required representation on a large scale: galvanising, iconic images that had the power to incite action. Mulvany began Aughrim only 15 years after the 1867 insurrection and six years after the formation of the Irish National Land League, and the bicentenary of the battle was less than 10 years away.

This was no incidental exercise in nostalgia, then, but a purposeful, positioning image, designed to press powerful memories into a contemporary political use. If out of violence and trauma comes renewed resolve, The Battle of Aughrim may be seen as an exemplification of Ireland’s glorious past and a call to arms in the present. And by creating Aughrim for the diaspora, Mulvany was able to reach international audiences.
Aughrim was one of the bloodiest battles fought in Ireland, with 7,000 slain out of the 40,000 engaged in the confrontation. Following the defeat, Galway and Limerick fell fast. For these reasons Aughrim rather than the Boyne can be considered the decisive battle of the Williamite wars in Ireland.

In its subsequent mythic versions the battle functioned much as the loss of Meagher’s Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg, or Pickett’s men charging to their deaths at Gettysburg, celebrated defeats resounding to the credit to the losers. Indeed, the characterisation of Aughrim as the Gettysburg of Ireland would have not displeased the Irish-American Mulvany, himself a Civil War artist and an ardent Irish nationalist. Inevitably, it was also likened to Ireland’s Little Big Horn.

MULVANY WENT OVER the battleground meticulously. He went to London to research the uniforms and arms but had difficulty gaining access to the Tower of London, as his republican views and associates were known. The early 1880s in London were characterised by violence, instigated by the dynamiting campaign funded by Clan na Gael in the US. That January there was an explosion at London Bridge. Mulvany, a member of Clan na Gael, fled to Paris with the painting; he believed that, if he had not, he would have spent the rest of his life in an English prison. In Paris the famous Goupil engraved it, and Mulvany then took the painting back to Ireland.
In Dublin the Freeman’s Journal of July 11th, 1885, announced that “no one but an artist of genius could possibly have produced such a masterly and realistic picture . . . The work may be said to be of the school of De Neuville – the manipulation is broad, rapid, and consequently singularly effective, the drawing is perfect, and the colour masterly.” Contemporary reviewers also compared Mulvany to Landseer and Vernet. Stylistically, the composition of Aughrim is circular, cyclonic and sweeping: full of verve, dynamism and energy.

But Mulvany’s associations with Clan na Gael began to catch up with him. Chicago was a major centre of the organisation. Alexander Sullivan, its leading light, had forged connections between Irish nationalism and the shady side of machine politics, turning on ward “healers”, thugs and liquor dealers. In 1885 there was a move to curb Sullivan. Dr Patrick Henry Cronin, a prominent member of Clan na Gael, initially friends with Sullivan, became his enemy when Cronin accused Sullivan of embezzlement. Anticipating his assassination, Cronin entrusted Thomas Tuite, a friend of Mulvany, with his “evidence” to implicate Sullivan. And, sure enough, in 1889 Cronin’s death followed suit.

Although The Battle of Aughrim had been rapturously received, there was a sudden froideur. As a supporter of Cronin, Mulvany was to be taught a lesson, and the sale of the painting fell through. And the postscript is indeed macabre. The trials that followed Cronin’s murder were inconclusive.

Everyone knew who committed the murder, but convictions proved impossible. Around 1901 Mulvany began work on The Anarchists, a painting that showed a group of men cutting a pack of cards to see who would commit murder. As if life imitated art, Mulvany was soon found dead, face down in the Hudson River, his own death as enigmatic as the fate of his painting.
Missing for a century

It’s a mystery how a painting that measures 198cm by 89cm could vanish for so long, but The Battle of Aughrim had been missing since 1914. Then, earlier this year, a San Francisco dealer put it up on eBay.

Although its painter, John Mulvany, is relatively well known, the painting’s subject had been mistaken as an American military scene. Put up for sale twice, with the price varying between $50,000 and $100,000, it was stumbled upon by Prof Niamh O’Sullivan.

James Gorry of Dublin’s Gorry Gallery, which specialises in repatriating Irish art from abroad, stepped in, and the painting was bought in a private sale. It arrived back in Ireland a week ago and is in very good condition, although its original frame has been replaced. Once it has been reframed it will go on view at the Gorry Gallery, on Molesworth Street, Dublin 2, from December 1st to 15th.
The battle and the war: the background

In the conflict between the Protestant William of Orange and the Catholic James II the crown of England, Scotland and Ireland was at stake, as part of the wider European wars of the 17th century. James was supported by Catholic Jacobites in Ireland and France; William was supported by English, Scottish, Dutch, Danish, French Huguenots and Ulster Protestants; the Dutch Republic was at war with France; and the Stuarts were allies of the Catholic Louis XIV.

When James’s wife gave birth to a son in 1688 the prospect of an enduring Catholic Stuart dynasty impelled parliament to issue an invitation to William of Orange to take the throne with his wife, Mary, daughter of James. The Catholics of Ireland were prepared to fight for James in the hope of regaining political and religious lands and freedoms. Although there was no love between them, James looked to Ireland to regain his kingdoms. He landed in Kinsale in 1689. Louis XIV sent Lieut Gen St Ruth to Ireland with officers, troops and supplies. William needed to quell the Jacobite opposition in Ireland to secure British dominance and the Protestant Settlement, whose power was based on land ownership.

Following a series of defeats, notably at the Boyne, St Ruth managed to regroup 20,000 men on the Hill of Aughrim. On July 12th, 1691, when the Dutch commander Baron de Ginkel came through the pass at Urraghry, the Jacobites put up a valiant fight, and briefly it looked as if they might win. This moment was short-lived, but it is perpetuated for future generations in Mulvany’s The Battle of Aughrim . Like the battle, the painting itself was lost, but, true to its subject matter, has come back to enjoy an unexpected afterlife in the new century.

Ancestry.com Inc. to Acquire iArchives

2010-09-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Ancestry.com Inc. to Acquire iArchives

8:00 AM ET 9/23/10 | GlobeNewswire

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire iArchives, Inc. and its branded Web site, Footnote.com, a leading American History Web site, for approximately $27 million in a mix of Ancestry.com stock, cash and assumption of liabilities. This acquisition will provide the company with a complementary consumer brand, expanded content offerings, and enhanced digitization and image-viewing technologies.

iArchives digitizes and delivers high-quality images of American historical records of individuals involved in the Revolutionary War, Continental Congress, Civil War, and other U.S. historical events to Footnote.com subscribers interested in early American roots. iArchives has digitized more than 65 million original source documents to date through its proprietary digitization process for paper, microfilm and microfiche collections.

"Footnote.com is highly complementary to Ancestry.com's online family history offering," said Tim Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com. "By promoting Footnote to our Ancestry audience, we hope to expand its reach among researchers who care about early American records. iArchives also brings outstanding image-viewing technology and content digitization capabilities that will improve our leadership position in bringing valuable historical records to the market. We welcome the iArchives team to the Ancestry.com family."

Upon completion of the transaction, iArchives will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ancestry.com. As part of the transaction, Ancestry.com currently expects to issue approximately 1.0 million shares of common stock. The transaction is subject to various closing conditions and is expected to close early in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Ancestry.com also announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program of up to approximately $25 million of its common stock. Under the authorization, share repurchases may be made by the Company from time to time in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions depending on market conditions, share price and other factors and may include accelerated or forward or similar stock repurchases and/or Rule 10b5-1 plans. Part of the rationale for the repurchase is to offset dilution of equity resulting from the iArchives acquisition. No time limit was set for the completion of this program. The share repurchase program may be modified or discontinued at any time by the Board of Directors.

About Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with approximately 1.3 million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 19 million family trees containing over 1.9 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.

About iArchives

iArchives is a leading digitization service provider that also operates Footnote.com, a subscription Web site that features searchable original documents, providing over 35,000 paying subscribers with a view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

Ancestor Network Family History Research Services Audio Clip

2010-09-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

Irish person's genetic code sequenced for the first time

2010-09-07T07:21:00.001-07:00

Source: The Irish Times - Tuesday, September 7, 2010
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0907/1224278367050.html

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

SCIENTISTS HAVE sequenced the complete genetic code of an Irish person for the first time. The 3.1 billion sub-units of DNA that comprise the human genome were mapped by a team from the Conway Institute at University College Dublin, using advanced sequencing technology.

The landmark study, due to be published in the online journal Genome Biology, provides the first complete genetic picture of the Irish branch of the European ancestral tree.

Scientists are reading the genomes of many species to understand how life forms differ from each other, and why they become diseased. Unravelling the differences between the Irish genome and other population groups may yield vital clues as to why Irish people are more susceptible to certain diseases, such as cystic fibrosis.
The UCD team, led by professor of comparative genomics Brendan Loftus, used DNA from an anonymous Irish male with a confirmed Irish ancestry of three generations.
Prof Loftus said the choice of individual to sequence was also made on the basis of prior genetic work with this individual that “showed variation typical of the island”.

“We have a better chance of understanding disease biology and susceptibility if we can stratify different populations on the basis of their genes,” he said.

The study uncovered some three million genetic variants in the Irish genome compared to a reference genome. Though most of the variation has been seen in other population groups, some 13 per cent, corresponding to about 300,000 variations in genome steps, had not been recorded before.

The big question is how much of this variation is specific to the individual and how much is representative of an “Irish genetic signature”, said Prof Loftus.

His team has already made one important discovery, identifying a variation in the sequence that disrupts a gene associated with inflammatory bowel disease, which affects about 15,000 people in Ireland.

The first full sequence of human DNA was
published in the US in 2003, after some 13 years of research, costing $2.7 billion. The six-man UCD team took little over a year to sequence the first complete Irish human genome, at a cost of €30,000.

A book review of 'Tracing your Mayo Ancestors'

2010-09-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

Brian Smith, Tracing Your Mayo Ancestors, 2nd edition, 160 pages, Flyleaf Press, Dublin 2010, ISBN 978-0-9563624-3-8, retail price €13

A book review by John Hamrock, Ancestor Network Limited, 4 September 2010

As an avid family historian whose paternal grandfather hailed from County Mayo, and as a professional genealogist helping clients trace their Mayo roots, I highly recommend Brian Smith’s Tracing Your Mayo Ancestors. This compact and well organised guide serves as an indispensible tool for both new and experienced Mayo family history researchers.

The cover illustration appropriately depicts the poignant scene of an emigrant ship leaving the shores of Mayo for North America or Australia watched by silent onlookers. Mayo was a Connacht county badly impacted by the Great Famine of 1845-1847, its population devastated by starvation, disease and emigration. A new table introduced in this second edition shows the population decline of each barony by decade from 1841 through to 1891. In 1841 the total population of County Mayo stood at 388,887. By 1891 the population had fallen to 219,034.

Each chapter is dedicated to a particular area of research such as civil registrations, church records, census returns, wills and administrations, and land records. The introduction provides a concise, but excellent history of the county describing that Mayo families were a mixture of native peoples who arrived in the Neolithic period, Gaelic families, Cambro-Norman, English, and Scottish settlers. There is also a chapter devoted to the 1798 Rebellion in County Mayo.

The chapter on church records shows that in the 1861 Census of Ireland, 96.8% of the Mayo population was reported to be Roman Catholic and 2.6% belonging to the Church of Ireland. It provides detailed information on each parish’s extant baptism, marriage and burial records. There is also a chapter devoted to Mayo surnames, family names and histories. One useful map shows by barony the 20 most numerous surnames which occur in the Primary Valuation of Ireland, also known as Griffith’s Valuation (1855/1857).

Of particular help to less experienced researchers, this book contains numerous extracted reproductions from works such as Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, the ‘Ordnance Survey Field Name books’, the 1851 ‘Townland Index of Ireland’, maps showing the individual Baronies and Civil Parishes, birth and marriage registers, extracts from estate tenant rental ledgers, an extract from the Tithe Applotment Composition Book, evicted tenants notices, census returns, and other historical documents.

The author also provides detailed information about the available primary and secondary source material and where these source documents are located, whether online or in archives or libraries. The font size and line spacing layout makes it easy on the eyes and like the original edition, it contains a comprehensive index.

I highly recommend Tracing Your Mayo Ancestors for both amateur and professional genealogists. It is a meticulously researched and attractively presented book. The extracted document and manuscript illustrations presented throughout the book help the reader to envisage what they can expect to find through their own research. It is a reliable companion whether one is researching from home via the internet or in a library or archive. It is a must have for serious genealogists on the quest for Mayo ancestors.

Celebrity chef with a recipe for the Famine

2010-08-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

The Irish Times - Saturday, August 28, 2010

Controversial: Alexislin kitchen, which had a gala opening in 1847, served a soup whose nutritional value was criticised. Illustration courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

MAGGIE ARMSTRONG

A French cook who catered for high society in 19th-century London came to Ireland with a scheme to help feed the starving population. Britons regarded him as a saviour. But his vats of soup went down less well here, despite his efforts to put his scientific methods to good use

WHETHER IT is as a boon to our diets or just as an outlet for a bombastic personality, we think of the celebrity chef as a modern phenomenon. But the breed is not new. During the Famine a star performer set out to revolutionise catering for the destitute. A French genius named Alexis Soyer, culinary darling of London, came to Dublin in April 1847 to set up a huge soup kitchen.

Born in 1809 in Meaux-en-Brie – home of the cheese – the cook who came to Ireland’s aid had a frugal boyhood. His grocer parents thought he was best suited for the church, but at the age of 11 he left school to try his skill in the kitchens of Paris, where he moved steadily up the ranks.

When he was 21 Soyer arrived in England, where he landed a job with the Duke of Cambridge. In 1837 he became the founding chef de cuisine of the Reform Club, an elite London meeting ground for Whigs and radicals. After their long days campaigning, these male ideologues dined lavishly on Soyer’s breaded lamb cutlets and fish en papillotte .

Soyer was a walking contradiction. He straddled two worlds, one of reformist concern for the poor, the other of serving the appetites of the rich. Married to Emma Jones, an artist, widowed early and then linked romantically with a ballerina, he was a popular and charismatic dandy. He dressed flamboyantly, with crimson velvet waistcoats, diamonds, a hunter’s hat, a neckerchief and a gilt cane. A contemporary described his “voluminous lapels”, glossy boots and “gloves the colour of beurre frais ”.

He was the quintessential celebrity chef and the toast of London society. He catered for 2,000 at Queen Victoria’s coronation breakfast and made decadent suppers and 30-course banquets for dignitaries and royalty, including King Albert and the Turkish pasha.

Soyer’s shrewd self-publicity, vanity and wealth were matched by immense communitarian efforts. A chef who kept a spotless public profile – things have changed since – Soyer began in January 1837 to write letters to the influential Times newspaper.

He was concerned about Ireland’s “dreadful calamity of starvation”. It was the second failure of the potato crop, and disease – typhus, yellow fever, tuberculosis, scurvy – was spreading. After a particularly bleak winter labourers were either dying or rioting while Lord Russell’s government fruitlessly pondered what to do.

The Soup Kitchen Act of 1847 called for food to be distributed under Sir Robert Peel’s Relief Commission. But with British taxpayers unwilling to pay for Irish needs, the government was overly dependent on private benevolence. Quaker soup kitchens were rarely productive or efficient enough. But Soyer believed he had devised a palatable soup that was easy to prepare, “of trifling expense” and, if properly administered, capable of helping to arrest the crisis.

The key word was “palatable” – the poor were believed to have simpler alimentary needs than the rich – so the soup required only a leg of meat, dripping, flour, root vegetables, pearl barley and fresh herbs to revitalise. Soyer published his “receipts”, meticulously calculating the price of each ingredient and the measurement needed to minimise waste: 100 tons, he promised with bravura, could be made for just £1.

More than willing to shift responsibility elsewhere, the government sponsored Soyer to set up a soup kitchen in Dublin. In keeping with the philanthropic fashion of the time, so well parodied in Dickens’s novels, Soyer offered an advance of £30 from his own pocket. Donations then flowed from the public.

On April 5th, 1847, the gala launch took place on the esplanade of the Royal Barracks (now the National Museum at Collins Barracks) in Dublin. The soup kitchen was a temporary hall of wooden boards, its centrepiece a towering 1,100-litre steam cauldron and glaze pan fitted with wheels, surrounded by bains-marie, a monumental bread oven and coal fires, chopping tables, tubs on wheels, meat blocks, water basins and tables with spoons chained on, plus a pantry for bread and biscuits that each abject soul would get on leaving.

The press reported “a large and brilliant assemblage” invited to approve the soup and explore the kitchen. These gentry, unaffected by blights or food shortages, could marvel abstractly at the ingenuity, command and flair of Soyer, who held forth magisterially.

Then the paupers were brought in. First they lined up outside the tent in a zigzag passage designed to prevent contamination. In a dehumanising conveyor-belt system, the bell was rung and 100 paupers at a time entered, said grace, ate, cleaned their bowls and left with a biscuit. They were allowed six minutes to eat.
One spectator, Sir John Burgoyne, likened this method of eating to watching chained animals. But the experiment was declared a success. The aim was to have 1,000 diners
per hour and 5,000 per day, but soon the kitchen was serving 8,750 meals per day. A further 3,000 portions were delivered by donkey carts to remoter parish cottages. The Relief Commissioners retained use of the kitchen until harvest time, when distribution stopped.

Although the British press presented Soyer as a messianic saviour, Irish journalists reviled him. The Freeman’s Journal mentioned his “wealthy and inappropriate air of celebration” among “a public parade of wretchedness”. The angry consensus was that the British had sent, in Soyer, a propaganda emissary with the blinding razzmatazz of an entrepreneur to detract from the real crisis of impoverishment.

Furthermore, the soup wasn’t good enough. The minuscule amount of meat it contained would barely keep the starving labourer alive, while the liquid base was for many unpalatable. The archbishop of Tuam referred to it as a “worthless mass of roots and warm water” while Punch lampooned it as “economical grog” made by “a broth of a boy”.
Soyer defended his creation, saying that “the poor do not want fattening – they want feeding”. This was Soyer’s dictum: that people can nourish themselves decently and cheaply. Coinciding with the opening of his kitchen, he published The Poorman’s Regenerator , a cookery pamphlet. The other day I found a copy, a yellowed tome the size of my hand. Although sentences such as “the mendicant eats with the greatest pleasure a piece of brown bread or a potato” make it unclear who it was written for, it shows a remarkably modern, ecological slant on how to reduce food miles and eat from local sources.

In his pamphlet Soyer urges people to “use and not abuse nature’s productions” – a fastidious critic even in dire circumstances, he describes other Irish soups as burnt, tasteless and unevenly cooked – and lists the wealth of ingredients available in Ireland, including buckwheat, oats, peas, lentils, yams, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, parsnips, celery, kelp, Irish moss, dillisk, spinach and sorrel.

Soyer didn’t linger. After a magnificent farewell party on April 10th at Freemasons’ Hall on College Green, he disappeared from Ireland and travelled to the Crimean War to tackle the unsanitary conditions of hospital kitchens and malnourishment in the military. While he was there he collaborated with Florence Nightingale and wrote another cookbook.

When he returned from the war he died of apoplexy, in August 1858, aged 48, having worked himself to the end.

Soyer may have been a problematic figure when he came to Ireland in 1847. His genius lay in his economy, his resourcefulness and the productivity he achieved through scientific adaptation. Without modern marketing he couldn’t, in the style of a Jamie Oliver, teach people how to grow food or to cook. Still, he was a prodigious inventor, designing kitchens suited to everyone from soldier to gastronome, plus a “magic stove” and gadgets whose models remain, with his cookbooks, the relics of his public works – as well as patented bottled sauces that, in the spirit of a modern billionaire chef, bore his winking image on the label.

Henry's historic cottages 'gifted' to village

2010-08-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

Source: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/henrys-historic-cottages-gifted-to-village-2308961.html

By Colin Gleeson and Elaine Keogh, Irish Independent
Tuesday August 24 2010

ARISTOCRAT Lord Henry Mountcharles has donated four 18th-Century cottages that formerly housed workers of the Slane Castle estate to boost tourism in Slane village.
The single-storey stone artisan buildings, located on Chapel Street in Slane, Co Meath, were built in 1701 by the Conyngham family, who have owned the Slane estate since that time.

Lord Henry, the current head of the family, yesterday "gifted" the cottages to the local authority.

The buildings have been vacant for many years and will require refurbishment by the council, which plans to use them as a tourism and heritage centre.

Lord Henry said he wanted to see the cottages become "a heartbeat" for tourism in the area.

"Slane has such a vibrant and rich heritage going back to St Patrick," he said. "It is one of the most significant 18th-century villages in the country, and it needed a boost in terms of getting a heartbeat in the centre.

"I decided these buildings were absolutely ideal. They are in a central location and are at the starting point of the Slane heritage trail.

"I also made a commitment that we as a family will kickstart the project, in terms of what is going to happen inside the building, with a gift or a grant to the Slane Historical Society, to assist with things like audiovisual displays.

"It is really important there be community development if we're going to get ourselves out of the hole we're in.

"Tourism is one of the most important things.

"The local hotel here has closed down, and other businesses in the area have also closed down. Hopefully, the more visitors we can attract, it will work as part of a revitalisation.

"I love this area and that is why I'm doing this. I grew up here and this is where my heart lies. I have grandchildren living in the village," he added.

A spokesperson for Meath county manager Tom Dowling said he was delighted with the gift, and plans to restore the cottages are in place.

New evidence suggests 57 Irish railroad workers were murdered

2010-08-17T01:21:00.000-07:00

Historians from Immaculata University comb through the evidence at the site of an overgrown memorial to the rail workers in Malvern, Philadelphia. Picture: AP

Source: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/new-evidence-suggests-57-irish-railroad-workers-were-murdered-2299887.html

by Breda Heffernan
Irish Independent

Tuesday August 17 2010

US historians trying to uncover a mystery surrounding the mass death of 57 Irish immigrants nearly 180 years ago, have found evidence they may have been murdered.
Previously it had been thought the group -- they died within weeks of starting gruelling work on the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad in 1832 -- were cholera victims.

However, four skulls unearthed from the mass grave suggest the men suffered blows to the head and at least one may have been shot in an outpouring of anti-Irish violence.
Dr William Watson, chairman of the history department at Immaculata University and his twin brother, Frank, have spent the past eight years trying to unravel the mystery surrounding the deaths of the Irish workers at Malvern, Pennsylvania.

Dr Watson said the revelation that at least four of the men had died violent deaths proved "this was much more than a cholera epidemic".

Anti-Irish feelings ran high in 19th Century America and the men lived in a shanty near the railway tracks where they worked.

It is now believed that while many died of cholera, some were killed by vigilantes because of prejudice, tension between affluent residents and these poor transient workers, or because of a fear that the cholera would spread.

"I don't think we need to be so hesitant in coming to the conclusion now that violence was the cause of death and not cholera, although these men might have had cholera," anthropologist Janet Monge, also working on the project, said.

Examinations reveal a number of clues about the men's lifestyle.
Their bones indicate that while they had poor diets, the labourers were still muscular.

Coffin nails were also recovered from the site indicating some were given a formal burial.

However, it is understood the families in Ireland were never told what happened to their loved ones.

Using passenger records, the Watsons believe some of the group had sailed from Ireland to Philadelphia four months before their deaths and were originally from counties Donegal, Derry and Tyrone. The brothers hope to eventually recover all the remains, identify the men and bury them properly, either in the US or in Ireland.

"We see this more as a recovery mission -- get them out of this ignominious burial place," said Dr Watson.

David Wolper, producer of 'Roots' and 'The Thorn Birds,' dies at 82

2010-08-12T03:56:00.000-07:00

Aug 11 2010 06:36 PM ET

David Wolper, producer of 'Roots' and 'The Thorn Birds,' dies at 82

by Benjamin Svetkey

Categories: In Memoriam, News

David Wolper, the legendary Hollywood producer who brought Roots and The Thorn Birds to the small screen, has died at 82 of congestive heart failure and complications from Parkinson’s Disease, according to the AP. Roots was watched by 130 million people back in 1977, roughly half the population of the country at the time. Wolper also produced for the big screen, including 1971′s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and, years later, 1992′s Oscar-winning police drama LA Confidential.

Source: http://news-briefs.ew.com/2010/08/11/david-wolper-roots-producer-dies-at-82/?hpt=T2

Ancestry.com to Acquire Professional Genealogy Firm ProGenealogists, Inc.

2010-08-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

August 6, 2010

PROVO, Utah, Aug. 6, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) announced today that it has acquired leading professional genealogy research firm, ProGenealogists, Inc.

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, ProGenealogists specializes in genealogical, forensic and family history research. During its 10-year history, the firm has become a trusted name in professional genealogy, finding great success with client research and expanding both its domestic and international capabilities. As a part of Ancestry.com, ProGenealogists will continue to provide premier family history research to its existing clients while extending the Ancestry.com reach across the genealogy value chain.

"We are delighted to welcome ProGenealogists into the Ancestry.com network," said David Rinn, senior vice president of strategy and corporate development for Ancestry.com. "With this acquisition Ancestry.com can better serve subscribers who are seeking dedicated, personal support in their family history research. As a natural service extension for

Ancestry.com, we expect the addition of ProGenealogists will also enhance and expand the professional research offerings currently available through Ancestry.com Expert Connect."

"Ancestry.com is definitely in a class by itself in the genealogy industry," said Natalie Cottrill, CEO of ProGenealogists, Inc. "We are excited to become part of the Ancestry.com family and look forward to finding new ways to help more people interested in learning about their roots."

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Ancestry.com does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in connection with its second quarter earnings release on July 29, 2010.

ProGenealogists and Ancestry.com have worked together on several initiatives over the past few years including driving the research for the NBC television program, "Who Do You Think You Are?" which traced the family histories of celebrities including Sarah Jessica Parker, Lisa Kudrow, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, Emmitt Smith, Matthew Broderick and Spike Lee. Ancestry.com will continue leveraging the expertise at ProGenealogists for similar initiatives in the future.

About Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with more than one million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 18 million family trees containing over 1.8 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.

About ProGenealogists, Inc.

ProGenealogists, Inc. is a consortium of professional genealogists who specialize in genealogical, forensic, and family history research. The firm services thousands of professional, government, media, and individual clients worldwide. In addition, the firm has published numerous articles and research tools on their award winning website, www.progenealogists.com

Local man's Granddad may have saved Hitler's life

2010-08-04T03:15:00.000-07:00

Source: http://www.dublinpeople.com/content/view/3542/57/

THE long-lost memoirs of a man who served in Roger Casement’s ‘Irish

Brigade’ in Germany during the First World War have been published –

over 40 years after the first draft of the book mysteriously went missing

from the author’s deathbed.

In 2005 Kevin Keogh (51), from Ard na Greine, first stumbled on the

manuscript for the book, which was written by his grandfather Michael

Keogh.

He had been carrying out some research into his family history when he

came across photos of his grandfather on the internet, and realised soon

afterwards that the raw material of Michael Keogh’s fascinating and

unfinished book lay undiscovered but intact in the UCD archives.

UCD released the book back to the Keogh family, who enlisted the help

of author and historian Brian Maye to cross-reference all the times, dates,

places and events described in the book.

Five years and much meticulous research later, ‘With Casement’s Irish

Brigade’ was published by Choice Publishing Ltd earlier this month, with

an introduction written by Brian Maye.

The book is a fascinating account of an Irishman who led an exciting,

adventurous and at times dangerous life. He boasted the unusual honour

of fighting and being decorated by both sides in World War I. Originally

a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Michael Keogh joined the

British Army in 1914, winning the George’s Cross for bravery for his role

in the very early stages of the Great War, where he fought in such famous

campaigns as the Battle of Mons.

As a prisoner of war, Keogh joined Roger Casement’s Irish Brigade and

subsequently joined the German Army, fighting on the Western Front and

later against the Munich Soviet in 1919.

He was decorated by the Germans with the Iron Cross for gallantry.

One fascinating episode described in the book is when Michael Keogh

rescued and probably saved the life of a young German soldier who was

being savagely attacked by a gang of his peers over his controversial views.

That man was Lance Corporal Adolf Hitler.

Kevin Keogh told Northside People: “My grandfather crossed paths with

Adolf Hitler on three occasions. “The first time my grandfather took any

notice of Lance Corporal Hitler was September 1918 near Ligny on the French

border. “Hitler was in the same Bavarian 16th Infantry Regiment as my

grandfather. Hitler was being carried on a stretcher outside a field-dressing

post.

“The second time is of more historical interest. I quote my grandfather:
‘I was back in Munich in the late spring of 1919 when, after some days of

bitter fighting, the Frikorps & the regular army had overthrown the Reds.

‘I had fought my way into Munich as a captain in command of the

machine-gun company in the Frikorps Epp - led by General [later Field

Marshal] Epp.

‘A few weeks later I was the officer of the day in the Turken Strasse barracks

when I got an urgent call about eight o'clock in the evening.

‘A riot had broken out over two political agents in the gymnasium. These

"political officers" as they were called, were allowed to visit each barracks and

make speeches or approach the men for votes and support.

‘I ordered out a sergeant and six men and, with fixed bayonets, led them off on

the double.

‘There were about 200 men in the gymnasium, among them some tough

Tyrolean troops.

‘Two political agents, who had been lecturing from a table top, had been dragged

to the floor and were being beaten up. Some of the mob were trying to save them.

‘Bayonets were beginning to flash. The two on the floor were in danger of being

kicked to death.

‘I ordered the guard to fire one round over the heads of the rioters. It stopped the

commotion. We hauled out the two politicians. Both were cut, bleeding and in need

of a doctor. The crowd around muttered and growled, boiling for blood.

‘We carried them to the guardroom and called a doctor. While waiting for him I

questioned them.

‘The fellow with the moustache gave his name promptly: Adolf Hitler. It was the

Lance Corporal of Ligny. I would not have recognised him. He had been five months

in hospital, in Passewalk, Pomerania. He was thin and emaciated from his wounds.

‘Then he began to talk about his "new party". The other man with him was Zimmer.

They had come to the barracks as political agents for the new National Socialist

German Workers’ Party [NSDAP], which Hitler and six others had founded.

‘The next time I saw him, he was no longer in need of a guardroom for his safety. I

was standing on the fringe of a vast crowd. The place was Nuremberg and the year

was 1930. The month was August. Hitler was on a massive platform, furled in the

Swastika flags of his National Socialist German Workers’ Party, much better known

by its abbreviation, Nazi.

‘One month later, his party won 107 of the seats in the Reichstag. And the fate of

Germany lay in his hands.’” Upon his discharge from the German army in 1919,

Keogh came home and took part in the War of Independence, gunrunning for the IRA

from Germany.

Grandson Kevin said it was a thrilling moment for his family when they realised they

had rediscovered their grandfather’s legacy.

“We grew up hearing the stories about my grandfather, and especially about his book

which he spent 30 careful years re-drafting and editing – he never went anywhere

without it,” he stated.

Just before Michael Keogh died in 1964, his son Kevin (now aged 84 and living in Swords)

went to visit him at James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown. His father was

in a very distressed state, and claimed that a man dressed as a priest had taken his papers from

under his pillow. The war veteran died two days later, and it took 40 years for the papers

to resurface.

“The original documents were there, a lot of them in handwriting – although we had been

told the stories many times there were lots of details in the book that even my father had

never known about his father,” added Kevin Keogh.

This fascinating account of a larger-than-life Irishman is a must for anyone interested in

history, war or true-life adventure. Scriptwriters should form a queue.

l ‘With Casement’s Irish Brigade’ is available online from Choice Publishing Ltd. Drogheda,

visit www.choicepublishing.ie

Govt to offer diaspora ‘certificate of Irishness’

2010-07-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

Source: http://www.irishecho.com.au/2010/06/30/govt-to-offer-diaspora-certificate-of-irishness/4000

Posted on 30 June 2010

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Martin has revealed plans to introduce a certificate of Irishness for the diaspora.

The Irish Government has unveiled plans to launch a certificate of Irishness for those of Irish heritage who do not qualify for full citizenship.

But the move has been derided as kitsch, mawkish and embarrassing by some genealogists and commentators who see it as a cynical move to boost tourist numbers.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin, speaking at the Global Ireland Funds annual gathering in Dublin, said that the certificates would help those with Irish ancestry connect with the country.

The certificates will be issued by a third party agency acting under licence from the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is considering charging a fee for each document.

Dublin’s Irish Times quoted a department source saying that the scheme was intended to be self-financing. But he said it was not designed with the intention of raising significant amounts of revenue.

The exact size of the market for a heritage certificate is not known. But the department anticipates that many descendants of Irish emigrants would wish to buy one to display in their homes or as gifts.

But genealogists are suspicious of the scheme which they believe will devalue the process of unearthing the family tree.

“What are to be the criteria for awarding such a certificate?” genealogist Paul Gorry told the Irish Times.

“Are we going to hand them out to people who ‘believe’ they are of Irish origin? These documents will be meaningless without proof of a person’s origins.”

“Heritage and business aren’t incompatible,” added another genealogist Steven Smyrl.
“But too often we end up with leprechauns and shamrock. This will end up as a gimmick if the only intention is to get people to visit Ireland.”

Commentator Martina Devlin, writing in the Irish Independent, slammed the idea as a “demeaning device to hoodwink descendants”.

“Diplomas of Irishness – even Walt Disney couldn’t have dreamed that one up. What’s next?
Lessons in how to speak with an Irish accent, cheques made payable to the Central Bank?”

But Minister Martin said the certificate, first suggested at last year’s Global Irish Economic Forum (GIEC), would go ahead. He said the GIEC recalibrated Ireland’s view of its diaspora.
“Perhaps we in Ireland, across all sectors, tended at times to take the relationship for granted or were slow to appreciate its full potential. The energy, commitment and sense of innovation generated at last year’s Forum fundamentally changed perceptions here – a change that I believe is irreversible,” Mr Martin said.

“The Irish diaspora is not limited to Irish citizens living abroad or to those who have activated citizenship. Instead, it encompasses all those who believe they are of Irish descent and feel a sense of affinity with this country.”

by Billy Cantwell

Ancestry.com Inc. Completes Acquisition of Sweden's Genline.se

2010-07-17T04:54:00.000-07:00

4:01 PM ET 7/15/10 | GlobeNewswire

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) today announced the closing of its acquisition of Genline.se, the leading Swedish family history Web site.

Genline currently has more than 17,000 paying members with access to 26 million pages of digitized Swedish church records spanning more than 400 years from the 17th to the 20th century.

On July 15, 2010, the offer from Ancestry.com was approved by Genline Holding AB's public shareholders. Following the approval, Ancestry.com acquired all shares of Genline AB for approximately 53 million Swedish kronor in cash with an adjustment for net working capital. Based on a July 15, 2010 exchange rate of SEK 7.39 to US $1.00, the net purchase amount approximates US $7.2 million.

Brett Bouchard, Managing Director Europe for Ancestry.com Inc., comments: "The combination of the Ancestry.com family of websites and Genline.se will benefit users of all Ancestry sites by offering access to a greater amount of important historical content and broadening the active member community vital to researching family history. We are excited to welcome the employees and members of Genline into the Ancestry.com family."

About Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with more than one million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 17 million family trees containing over 1.7 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.

About Genline.se

Genline AB is the Swedish market leader in genealogy and local heritage research. Its collection of Swedish church records contains more than 26 million digitalized pages of records dating from the 1600's to the 1900s.

Genline also operates Familjeband.se, a web-based genealogy software and community for people interested in family, genealogy and local heritage, and Bygdeband, a social networking archive that enables local heritage societies to digitize their archives.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "appears," "may," "designed," "expect," "intend," "focus," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "should," "continue" or "work" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements include statements describing our subscriber base, our activities to enhance subscribers' experience, our business outlook and our opportunities and prospects for growth. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond our control and that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements.

Factors that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements, and our ability to execute on our business strategy include those listed under the caption "Risk Factors" of the Ancestry.com Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009.

We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com

SOURCE: Ancestry.com Inc.

Bowing to etiquette will help avoid a royal spat

2010-07-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

By JOHN DRENNAN
Sunday July 11 2010
Source: Sunday Independent
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bowing-to-etiquette-will-help-avoid-a-royal-spat-2254206.html

TO bow, or not to bow, is the great question that Taoiseach Brian Cowen will have to face up to, should he still be around at the top table if and when Queen Elizabeth II visits our shores.

The prospect of a state visit by Queen Elizabeth may have been universally welcomed by the major political parties. But before her Majesty has even set foot on Irish soil, the azure skies of reconciliation have been darkened by a disputation between Irish and British experts on etiquette over the most appropriate way to greet the reigning British monarch.

The etiquette war was sparked by a recent appearance by Charles Kidd the editor of Debrett's, the top British magazine on matters of etiquette taste and culture, on Morning Ireland.

Kidd noted that whilst when it came to greeting the queen "the sweeping bows of history are gone", there is still an appropriate code of behaviour when one is meeting the monarch.
Mr Kidd said that for gentlemen the most appropriate behaviour is "a bow from the neck" and that ladies should "bob or curtsey".

It is believed that excessively firm handshakes are not encouraged either whilst there was also quite the hullabaloo when the Australian PM Paul Keating put his arm around the queen.

However, those experts on heraldic and etiquette issues within Ireland's Genealogical Gazette (incorporating the Genie Gazette) were not impressed.
In an attack titled 'Clash of the Harps', they noted that whilst Mr Kidd obviously believes that "royal etiquette -- no matter how anachronistic -- travels with the monarch'', they very much doubted whether during the respective visits of the King of Thailand and the Emperor of Japan that British officials "greeted the latter with a bow from the waist and approached the former on their knees''.

"Surely, Mr Kidd is aware neither bowing nor curtseying is appropriate for citizens of a Republic like Ireland or the United States,'' thundered the magazine.

The staunch Republicans of The Gazette also tartly noted that "not content with having the citizens of our Republic bowing and curtseying, Mr Kidd advised against firm handshakes with the queen''.

Whilst The Gazette said the queen would receive "a warm Cead Mile Failte" they also expressed concern that in spite of Ireland's Declaration of the Republic in 1949 the British Royal Arms still retain the blue shield with the golden harp symbolising Ireland as part of the realm and asked if it was too much to expect the new age of friendship and mutual respect would be "reflected heraldically''.

The appropriate way of greeting royalty has already been the source of a number of controversies involving Irish figures.

It is believed that the decision of the builder Michael Bailey to kiss the Queen Mother on the cheek after his horse won at Cheltenham was seen to be excessively exuberant.

Though this was the source of some fuss in the British tabloids the Queen Mother, who had lived through the Blitz, did not appear to be too upset.

John Bruton was also roundly mocked when he claimed that a meeting with Prince Charles on Irish soil was the happiest day of his life.

It is not, alas, known if Prince Charles felt the same way.

A nervous senior source in the Department of Foreign Affairs refused to comment on whether the department was drawing up an etiquette hand-book in order to avoid a diplomatic incident.

- JOHN DRENNAN
Sunday Independent

Genealogical Society of Ireland Video on YouTube - "Meet the Directors"

2010-07-09T07:50:00.001-07:00

Video "Meet the Directors" Genealogical Society of Ireland.
The video currently resides on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR46oROT0NE

This video displays the new location of the Genealogical Society of Ireland overlooking Dun Laoghaire Harbour, Co. Dublin and presents the GSI board of directors.

Come visit the Genealogical Society of Ireland during the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures where we will be meeting and greeting the public on Saturday afternoon, 24th July and Sunday afternoon, 25th July. This will be a good opportunity to get advice from experienced genealogists on how to trace your ancestors. We, the directors of the genealogical Society of Ireland, will be distributing valuable information at these sessions.

More information on the Festival of World Cultures - held from July 23rd - 25th 2010 can be found on the link, www.festivalofworldcultures.com.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Scots breakthrough in helping families go back to their roots

2010-07-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

Scots breakthrough in helping families go back to their roots

Jasper Hamill
Share 0 comments

Source: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/scots-breakthrough-in-helping-families-go-back-to-their-roots-1.1039443

6 Jul 2010

Scottish scientists have found a way to identify a person’s family roots to within a few miles, raising the possibility that city dwellers could soon trace their descendants back to their ancestral village.

Edinburgh University experts used volunteers from small communities in the north of Scotland, Italy and Croatia to quickly scan half a million DNA letters – the chemical combinations that make up our genes – and pinpointed in some cases 100% accurately where their distant relatives lived.

Within five years they believe the technique could be developed sufficiently so that a person who lives in a city could trace their ancestors from other towns or countries.

Dr Jim Wilson, a Royal Society research fellow who led the university’s study, said: “This holds out the hope that, with more information, we might one day be able to determine the ancestry of city dwellers.

“There is a vast amount of untapped information residing in our DNA. This is not going to happen tomorrow, but within the next five years, if a database of samples from villages across Scotland is built up, we may be able to achieve this.”

His team analysed the genetics of unrelated people who had four grandparents from the same village on Scottish islands, three Italian alpine villages and two in Croatia. This resulting data was fed into a computer, which then decided which town each of the people came from based on their genetics.

It predicted the correct village of origin for 100% of the Italian sample, 96% of the Scottish sample and 89% of the Croatian sample.

The method cannot yet be applied to people who live in cities, as the industrial revolution and subsequent urbanisation mixed up the gene pool.

Wilson, who conceded that more research was needed, said that during the industrial revolution population movements were much slower.

This meant that whole families lived in small villages and towns for long stretches of time, handing down property from generation to generation and marrying people from nearby.

There could be money to be made if someone invested in creating a database

Dr Jim Wilson

Wilson added that, if extensive research on rural areas was carried out, the technique could work across the Old World, from Europe to Asia. For example, Americans could trace their roots back to the countries from which their ancestors migrated, although inter-breeding may make this very difficult.

There has been a resurgence of interest in genealogy in recent years, partly thanks to the BBC TV programme Who Do You Think You Are?, in which famous people have traced their roots.

Wilson, who believes the discovery could prove financially profitable, added: “There could be money to be made if someone invested in creating a database, although this would be a huge cost. Just doing this in Scotland would involve collecting samples from every village in Scotland, which would take a lot of time and money.”

Dr Bruce Durie, head of the genealogy department at Strathclyde University, said the discovery could be valuable to anyone wishing to trace their roots.

He said: “It is going to be incredibly useful in pinpointing people’s geographical origin, as opposed to just their ancestral origin. Like all these tests, it will be expensive until it comes down in price as more and more people will take it up.”

Durie said that such technology was at an embryonic stage and would only really

work if more people become involved in tests.

He added: “At the moment, genetic testing is at a similar stage to those first brave people who installed a telephone when there was no-one else to call. Genealogical testing is at its best when there are lots of people of the same surname or from the same place ordering tests.”

However, he also warned that Edinburgh University’s method might only work in rural areas.

“This technique works best in historically isolated populations – Italian valleys and Scottish isles for instance,” said Durie.

“These broke down during the urbanisation of the industrial revolution and the mass diasporas of the 18th and 19th Centuries.”

Danger of 'Irish history being lost' due to poor storage of archives

2010-07-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

From the Sunday Tribune, July 4, 2010

by Jennifer Bray

National Archives: deteriorating storage conditions

Ireland's national archives are in danger of being lost or destroyed amid
deteriorating storage conditions, according to senior management there.

David Craig, director of the National Archives in Dublin, said there was no
longer space to take in vital historical documents from government
departments and organisations.

Hundreds of boxes of national documents remain sealed and stored on
palettes in the old Jacob's biscuit factory in Dublin which is unsuitable in
temperature and has begun to let in rainwater.

Government departments are now being instructed not to send their documents
in to the archives, despite a rule instructing they send them in each and
every year.

"There is actually legislation in relation to the national archives which
requires that we take in these documents every year and we are being forced
to break the legislation because there is just no suitable storage for them
anymore," said Craig.

Catriona Crowe, coordinator of the 1901-1911 Census Online, speaking in her
capacity as chairperson of the Archivists' Branch of Impact, said staffing
levels were also at a crisis point in the archives.

"This is making a terrible situation worse, as when staff leave or retire
they are not being replaced. It is a desperate state of affairs for the
country's future written history and there is a real danger now more than
ever that Irish history is being lost."

There is currently a lack of funding available to allow for expansion of the
site, a new site, or the proper facilities for storage to be installed, said
Crowe. She is now seeking to have a National Archives advisory council set
up and is looking to set up a meeting with culture minister Mary Hanafin to
attempt to resolve the funding issue.

Paul Gorry, one of Ireland's top genealogists, said although the genealogy
service is the most popular service in the archives, his work was being
hampered by the storage crisis.

"A lot of the stuff onsite here, various different genealogy documents, are
not accessible because of where they are all put out in the warehouse. We
don't have the staff either to do the cataloguing so it can be hard to even
source where materials may be.

"For example, the 1926 census is something which we just can't get access
to, it is just impossible. Even as a reader here the restrictions hamper
work and they are hampering research and obviously, in the long run,
effective collection of history itself."

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell who is campaigning for the improvement of the
facility, said the situation was now at crisis point.

"You've got archives piling up on palettes in the middle of the factory and
the rain coming in on top of them. It is time the government addressed this
issue."

Certificate of Irishness open to 70 million people worldwide

2010-06-21T01:18:00.000-07:00

The Irish Times - Monday, June 21, 2010

Paul Cullen of the Irish Times reports:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0621/1224272953828.html?via=mr

PAUL CULLEN

THE GOVERNMENT has announced plans to introduce a certificate of Irish heritage for up to 70 million people of Irish descent around the world who do not qualify for citizenship.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said at the weekend he had decided to proceed with the initiative, which was first proposed at the Global Irish Economic Forum at Farmleigh last year.

The certificates will be issued by a third party agency acting under licence from the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is considering charging a fee for each document issued.

The initiative is intended to be self-financing, according to a department source. But he said it was not designed with the intention of raising significant amounts of revenue.

The price charged for the certificates has yet to be set. The tendering documents state that the level of fees shall be subject to the department’s agreement. They add: “The Department is open to considering proposals that provide for sharing a proportion of the fees received with the Department”.

The exact size of the market for a heritage certificate is not known. But it is anticipated that many descendants of Irish emigrants would wish to buy one to display in their homes or as gifts for their children.

Some speakers at last year’s forum were critical of the disconnection between Ireland and members of the diaspora, particularly those unable to qualify for citizenship by virtue of having a parent or grandparent born in Ireland. The forum also highlighted the role the emigrant network could play in helping Ireland improve its economic fortunes.

Mr Martin said the Government had taken a broad and inclusive approach to defining Ireland’s global community. “The Irish diaspora is not limited to Irish citizens living abroad or to those who have activated citizenship. Instead, it encompasses all those who believe they are of Irish descent and feel a sense of affinity with this country.”

The reach, power and influence of many members of the diaspora can provide Ireland with an important competitive edge, he pointed out.

According to the tender documents, it is not possible to determine the value of the concession: “The Irish diaspora is estimated to consist of 70 million . . . many of whom are proud of their Irish heritage”.

The process of selecting a service provider for a trial one-year period is under way, and the issuing of certificates is expected to start later this year, according to the minister.

Operators are likely to have a background in heritage or genealogy. The department is investigating the possibility that certificate-holders would benefit from discounts while visiting Ireland as tourists.

Handover and launch of Church records on www.irishgenealogy.ie, the website and search facility for Records of Birth, Marriage and Death

2010-06-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Mary Hanafin, T.D., Minister for Tourism, Culture nd Sport & The Most reverend Dr. John R.W. Neill, Archbishop of Dublin, will officiate at St. Werburgh's Church, Werburgh Street, Dublin 2, on Wednesday, 16th June 2010 at 6:00pm for the handover and launch of Church Records on www.irishgenealogy.ie the website and search facility for Records of Birth, Marriage and Death.

The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport is pleased to announce the addition of further Church Genealogy Records on this website.

Church Baptism, Marriage and Burial records from pre-1900 are due to be added for Dublin City, Carlow, Cork (City and West Cork) and Kerry.

These additional records along with the digital image of these records will be launched by Mary Hanafin, TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport and the Archbishop of Dublin, The Most Rev. Dr. John R.W. Neill. This event will take place on Wednesday 16th June @6.00pm in St. Werburghs Church (near Christchurch) Dublin 2.

Ancestry.com Inc. Appoints Josh Hanna Executive Vice President and Head of Global Marketing

2010-06-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

Source: 11:00 AM ET 6/15/10 | GlobeNewswire

Ancestry.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM), the world's largest online family history resource, today announced the appointment of Josh Hanna to Executive Vice President and Head of Global Marketing. He was previously Senior Vice President and General Manager of International, a position he held in London since July 2006. In this new role, Hanna will be based in Ancestry's San Francisco office and will be responsible for all of Ancestry.com's worldwide marketing, public relations, business development, and subscription sales activities.

"Since joining Ancestry.com, Josh has demonstrated remarkable leadership, both in launching and driving Ancestry's successful international expansion, and as a key member of our senior management team." said Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer, Ancestry.com. "His deep experience with our company, breadth of business knowledge, and love of family history make him the perfect choice for this new global marketing role. I'm incredibly excited to have him back in the U.S., working with me and the rest of our great team to execute on our long-term growth strategy."

Hanna has held multiple positions at Ancestry.com since joining the company in November 2001, including Vice President of International Business, Director of Product Management, and Business Manager. Prior to joining the Company, he held several marketing and business development roles with Netcentives, Inc. and Cyrk, Inc. Mr. Hanna holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in History from Dartmouth College.

"Ancestry.com is a phenomenal company in an exciting category, and with a great future ahead," said Hanna. "I look forward to taking on this new challenge with the company and to growing our great business around the world."

Ancestry.com also announced that Andrew Wait, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the U.S. business, has resigned from the Company in order to pursue another opportunity.

"I would like to thank Andrew Wait for his incredible contribution to our company over the past four years. I have tremendously enjoyed working with him over this very exciting time at Ancestry, and I wish him all the best in his next endeavor," said Sullivan.

About Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with more than one million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 17 million family trees containing over 1.7 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.

Ancestry.com to Acquire Sweden's Genline.se

2010-06-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

Source: 4:02 PM ET 6/14/10 | GlobeNewswire

4:00 PM ET 6/15/10
Symbol Last % Chg
ACOM
17.05 0.47%

-- Leading Swedish Family History website
-- 26 million pages of family history records, 16th-20th century

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM), the world's largest online family history resource, today announced that it has agreed to acquire the leading Swedish family history website Genline.se.

Total consideration for Genline is approximately US$6.7 million, to be paid in cash at closing. The offer has been accepted by Genline's Board of Directors but remains subject to approval of Genline Holding AB's public shareholders and other ordinary course closing conditions.

Genline expects to provide proxy materials to shareholders immediately and hold a Special Meeting of Stockholders shortly to vote on the transaction. Genline trades on the Stockholm exchange AktiTorget under the ticker symbol GENL.

Upon completion of the transaction, Genline will join Ancestry.com's family of nine web properties globally, which together serve more than 1.2 million subscribers and host over five billion historical records and 17 million family trees containing 1.7 billion profiles.

Genline currently has more than 17,000 paying members with access to 26 million pages of digitized Swedish church records spanning more than 400 years from the 16th to the 20th century.

Josh Hanna, SVP and General Manager, International, Ancestry.com Inc., comments: "The Genline.se transaction, our first international acquisition, represents an exciting opportunity for Ancestry.com to access Sweden's avid family history community and to provide Ancestry.com subscribers of Swedish heritage in the U.S. and other markets with access to important historical content.

"For Genline members, the millions of US and Canadian records with Swedish relevance will provide many new opportunities to discover North American ancestors."

Mikko Ollinen, Genline AB Managing Director, comments: "We are delighted that Ancestry.com sees the potential of Genline. Together we look forward to continuing to grow our business in Sweden and to making new and exciting historical records, both local and international, available to our members."

Ancestry.com expects to acquire all shares of Genline AB for approximately 53 million Swedish kronor with an adjustment for net working capital. Based on a June 11, 2010 exchange rate of SEK7.94 to US$1.00, the net purchase amount approximates US$6.7 million

Genline's 2009 reported revenue was $2.4 million. Ancestry.com does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in connection with its first quarter earnings release on April 29, 2010.

Take time to explore this online blast from the past

2010-06-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

From The Irish Times, Friday, June 11, 2010

We recommend the following excellent article by By KARLIN LILLINGTON

NET RESULTS: The National Archive has brought us a marvellous, virtual slice of 1901 in its online census – and there’s plenty we can learn about ourselves from it.

I LIVE in a two-up two-down house built around the turn of the last century in the north inner city. One of the features of such houses – when it has not been torn out – is a half rectangle of metal mounted into a slight indentation about six inches off the pavement next to the door.

Being a girl from Californian suburbs that came ready-made with paved streets and neat walkways, I had to be told by a neighbour that these odd bits of metal were foot scrapers to remove the dirt from the bottom of your shoes before you entered the house.

Okay, that made sense, except I could never picture why they were needed, given that many roads around here would have been cobbled and, I supposed, reasonably clean.
Thanks to a fabulous online resource – the National Archive of Ireland’s 1901 and 1911 census – I can now understand exactly why such houses have these little remnants of the past. In the fantastic photo collection included to give context for the two censuses are some striking images of Dublin’s mucky, dirt-filled streets.
Horse-drawn carts ramble up a street in the Coombe in 1913 through a sea of dirt. The road around Stephen’s Green: dirt. The upper end of what would become O’Connell Street in 1910: dirt.

The sheer grime of day-to-day life for all classes comes alive in these archived photos.

The National Archives launched the 1901 census online last week in the packed reading room of its building on Bishop Street. If the building had been struck by a meteor at the time of the launch, I’d say half of Ireland’s historians would have been wiped out in a single blow.

This was clearly an event – or rather, an Event – in the calendar of those who love history, archives and the past. The real event though, of course, is the website itself, and the fact that it is now live and – especially wonderful – available to you and me.

This is not always the case. Many national archives around the world make census information available but only to a limited audience.

A historian friend noted that this is the case with the British census, as well as census archive information in several other countries.

However thanks to this truly inspired nearly €4 million project, created with Government funding and built with the support of many museums, libraries and archives throughout the island and abroad, anyone can access this material.

It will benefit people around the world researching their Irish roots, students from the very young to those pursuing doctoral work, scholars of all sorts, writers researching books, and the person at home who wants to jump into the riches that can be found here.

There is so much to dabble in – hours and hours of exploration.

Helpfully, users are given plenty of guidance as well as context. A large section on early 20th-century Ireland breaks down into a number of chapters that give background for understanding Ireland at the time of the two census years. There is also a photographic archive which brings the period to life.

Then there is the amazing resource of the census itself.

Visitors to the site can choose to browse the census for 1901 or 1911, or can search each census for people or locations. For 1901, there are more than 4.5 million records from over 850,000 households, which completed the form on Sunday census night, March 31st, of that year.

You can locate a specific address in a specific city, town or village and see exactly who was resident on that evening in either year. You get a sense of the panoply of Irish life, from wealthy landowners out in their estates to the heaving tenements of the poor in the inner cities,where more than 100 souls might have been squeezed into a single building.

At the launch, the census return for the family of James Joyce was dissected in a fascinating way. Twelve Joyces lived in house 8.1 in Royal Terrace, Clontarf West, Dublin, according to the census.

A roster of the stairstep children born by Joyce’s mother Mary – 10 of them, nearly one a year – is listed. Only 39, she would die before long.

James Joyce (19) is listed as a student. He could speak Irish and English, the form states. The entire family, down to James’s eight-year-old sister Mabel, could read and write.

Don’t let me detain you though – I am sure you have found , or will find, someone or some place that intrigues you, somewhere in this marvellous, virtual slice of 1901.

National Archive census site: www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama

2010-05-30T07:13:00.001-07:00

BIOGRAPHY: Barak Obama: the Road from Moneygall, by Stephen McDonogh, Brandon, 300pp. €16.99

Book review by PATRICK M GEOGHEGAN

Source: The Irish Times - Saturday, May 29, 2010

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0529/1224271353723.html

AT HIS FIRST St Patrick’s Day reception at the White House, on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009, Barack Obama embraced his recently discovered Irish heritage. He revealed his pride that he had been adopted by Co Offaly, where his great-great-great- grandfather on his mother’s side had emigrated from in 1850, and he noted that he had even been invited over for a pint by a pub in Moneygall, an offer he hoped to be able to take up someday. In an unscripted aside, he joked that he had heard that “Guinness tastes very different in Ireland. It is much better. You guys are keeping the good stuff for yourself. It could start a trade war”.

The story of Obama’s Irish lineage was only revealed in 2007, during his campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for US president. When Obama heard the news his first thought was, as he later admitted, Why didn’t anyone discover this when I was running for office in Chicago? And he joked that he “used to put the apostrophe after the O, but that did not work”.

It has taken until now, however, for the full account of Obama’s Irish connections to be told in print. The book, which will be launched tonight in the Moneygall pub that invited Obama over for a pint, is more than just a study of his genealogical links with Ireland. It is also a thought-provoking study of what it means to be Irish, and how the Irish story goes beyond any simplistic identification with a single religion.

The Kearneys whom Obama is descended from were a Protestant family from Moneygall, in what was then King’s County. Another branch of the family settled in Dublin, where Obama’s great-great-great- great-granduncle John Kearney became provost of Trinity College in 1799. It is significant that the current United States ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, has visited both Kearney’s tomb and Moneygall since his arrival. Obama may not have been aware of his Irish roots until three years ago, and the connection might be considered slight enough when compared to his African and American ancestry, but it is something that he has taken an interest in, and it has become important to him.

The Kearneys of Moneygall made wigs and then shoes, and were relatively successful in the years before the Famine. That catastrophe must surely have affected the family’s fortunes, for in 1849 the patriarch, Joseph Kearney, decided to follow the example of an uncle who had emigrated to Ohio in the late 18th century and set out for the United States. The following year he sent for his family, and his son, Fulmouth Kearney, aged about 20, made the 40-day journey to New York, and from there went on to Ross County, in Ohio. This migration marked the end of Obama’s connections with Ireland, with Fulmouth the great-great-great- grandfather of the 44th president.

After the American Civil War Fulmouth moved to Indiana, where he purchased a small farm in Clinton County. There his daughter, Mary Ann, married Jacob William Dunham. It was said that she spoke with an Irish accent, that all her three sons had black hair and that each of her four daughters had red hair. One of these sons was the father of Stanley Dunham, and it was Stanley Dunham who married the woman who did so much to raise the teenage Obama, his beloved grandmother Madelyn (known as Toot). When she became terminally ill, in the final few days of the 2008 presidental campaign, Obama cancelled all his engagements and flew to Hawaii so he could be near the woman he described as his “quiet hero” and the person who gave him his strength and his discipline.

Obama’s mother was Stanley Ann Dunham – named after her father, because he had wanted a boy. While studying Russian at the University of Hawaii she met and fell in love with a young Kenyan student, Barack Obama. They quickly married, and Barack Obama jnr was born soon after, in 1961. The marriage did not last, and the elder Obama returned to Kenya. His son would have little real contact with him for the rest of his life. Obama’s autobiography, Dreams From My Father, is as much an attempt to come to terms with this abandonment by a parent as it is a reflection on the role of race and ethnicity in his own life and in US society in general.

Although Obama did not become aware of the Irish part of his diverse heritage until 2007, he did grow up with stories of other distant connections. He is, for example, a sixth cousin six times removed of Wild Bill Hickok, the legendary frontier lawman, who boasted of having killed more than 100 men. (The real figure was considerably lower.) At a speech in Springfield, Missouri, in July 2008 Obama noted that his distant cousin had fought his first quick-draw gunfight in that town, and he challenged his presidential opponent, John McCain, to a duel on taxes in the same style. Unsurprisingly, when genealogists later proved that Obama was distantly related to George W Bush and Dick Cheney, these connections were not exploited on the campaign trail.

On that first St Patrick’s Day in the White House as president, Obama accepted a bowl of shamrock from the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, and an impromptu lesson in Irish. To much applause, the first Irish leader from

Co Offaly explained to the first American president from Co Offaly – admittedly at a considerably more distant remove – that the phrase he needed to know was “Is féidir linn!” It took Obama two attempts before he delivered the line like a native son.

As we reflect on the diverse paths in Irish history, the stories of success and failure, of enterprise and emigration, and as we face the challenges of the present time, it is a lesson we could all do well to learn. Yes we can.

Patrick M Geoghegan is associate dean of research at Trinity College Dublin. He grew up in Co Offaly

'Irish Roots' Discount Card Planned; The Press Association Reports

2010-05-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

The Press Association reported on 19 May 2010 that tourists with Irish roots could be given discounts at some of the country's top visitor attractions under a proposed scheme to rally the Irish Diaspora.

People with Irish ancestry will be eligible for a Certificate of Irish Heritage under new plans being thrashed out by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Although holding the document would not entitle someone to citizenship or other legal rights, the department has proposed that successful applicants would be issued with a small credit-card style card giving knock-down rates at tourist venues.

The scheme would be overseen by the department but run by an outside company funded by fees from the applicants.

Micheal Martin, Foreign Affairs Minister, said firms were being invited to come up with ideas on how to operate the project.

Currently anyone born in Ireland born abroad with an Irish parent or grandparent can qualify for Irish citizenship.

But the department said there were many people worldwide who are of Irish descent but do not qualify for citizenship and it is envisaged the certificate would recognise those people in an official way.

Those hoping to apply will have to prove their claim to Irish ancestry, by producing documents such as a birth certificate, church records of death, marriage and baptism or land records or wills.

The programme would run on a trial basis for a year and be renewed annually thereafter up to a maximum of five years if successful. It is estimated the Diaspora consists of 70 million people across the globe.

Last September Mr Martin proposed the Global Irish Network following a three-day event at Farmleigh, bringing together some of the top minds from the Irish Diaspora to help promote Ireland overseas.

Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100519/tuk-irish-roots-discount-card-planned-e1cd776.html

New England Historic Genealogical Society Hosts Free lecture in Dublin on Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Via DNA Testing

2010-05-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

Marie Daly, Mary Ellen Grogan and Judy Lucey as well as 24 participants from the New England Historic Genealogical Society are very excited about their upcoming trip to Dublin.

LECTURE: Tracing Your Irish Ancestors via DNA Testing by Dr. Gianpiero Cavalleri

DATE and LOCATION: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 7:00pm Georgian Suite, Buswells Hotel, Molesworth Street, Dublin

Dr. Gianpiero L. Cavalleri, Director and Senior Scientist, of Italian parentage but born and raised in Ireland, is a population geneticist who trained with Prof Dan Bradley at Trinity College, Dublin before going on to work at Stanford with Prof Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Dr Peter Underhill. He is one of the founders of EthnoAncestry and is currently researching the genetics of epilepsy at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland

This lecture is free and open to everyone. Please join us.

For more information contact Judy Lucey, jlucey@nehgs.org.

The presentation is sponsored by The New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston) as part of their research trip to Dublin. Special thanks is given to the Genealogical Society of Ireland for their assistance in organizing this event.

Judy Lucey

Assistant Archivist

New England Historic Genealogical Society

101 Newbury Street

Boston, MA 02116-3007

Tel. 617-226-1223

Fax. 617-536-7307

www.NewEnglandAncestors.org

We collect, preserve, and interpret materials that document and make accessible the stories of families in America.

Irish Genealogical Research Society - Ireland Branch Open Day

2010-05-14T12:42:00.001-07:00

The IGRS Ireland Branch is hosting an Open Day on Saturday, 22nd May 2010 at Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

The exciting and educational agenda is as follows:

10:00-10:20 Registration & Coffee
Tea & Coffee available in the Library Cafe on the First Floor

10:20-10:30 Chairman's Welcome

10:30-11:10 'Griffith's Valuation and Valuation Office Records: What's There and Where Is It?'
John Grenham

11:15-11:55 'The 1641 Depositions Project and genealogy'
Prof. Jane Ohlmeyer and Dr Elaine Murphy

12:00-13:30 LUNCH (at own expense)

13:45-14:25 'Natives and Newcomers in Cromwellian Ireland'
Dr John Cunningham

14:30-15:10 'The records of Glasnevin Cemetery: A Resource for family History'
Mervyn Colville and Shane Mac Thomais

15:20-16:00 Ask the Experts! Question & Answer Session

BOOK STALL

ALL WELCOME - ADMISSION FREE

For further details please contact: Linda Clayton, Hon. Sec. IGRS (ireland Branch):
(01) 285 6360 or email: lindaclayton@iol.ie

Action on Archives Committee to find solutions to Irish Archives in Crisis

2010-04-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

Archives in Crisis, a symposium to debate the future of archives in Irish society, was held yesterday, Saturday, 10 April, 2010 from 3:00pm to 5:00pm at the Robert Emmet Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College, Dublin. The moderator was Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern History, University College Dublin. The panel speakers included Catriona Crowe, Chairperson of Archivists' Branch, IMPACT; Fintan O'Toole, Columnist and assistant editor of The Irish Times; and Eunan O'halpin, Bank of ireland Professor of Contemporary Irish History, Trinity College, Dublin. The event had been organised by Dr. Peter Crooks of the Medievil History Research Course of Trinity College who is to be congratulated on his initiative and organisation skills. The lecture theatre was filled to capacity with people standing in the back and in the aisles; probably in excess of 250 people.

The forum had been organised to debate a proposed merger of the National Archives of Ireland and the Irish Manuscripts Commission into the National Library of Ireland. A stark question was posed; what will be the state of Irish archives in 2022 on the centenary of the Public Records Office destruction in the Four Courts blaze in 1922?

Presentations discussed the cultural significance of archives in Irish society. Audience members then had an opportunity to pose questions and share views on archival policy in Ireland. The meeting concluded with Dr. Peter Crooks asking participants and interested parties to contribute ideas and committee nominations to a new Action on Archives Committee which will seek to make representations to appropriate bodies. Dr. Peter Crook's email is pcrooks@tcd.ie and his teleephone number is +353 (0)1 896 1368.

Irish genealogists were well represented at the forum. This writer observed the following genealogists in the audience and probably missed several others. From the Association of Professional Genealogists of Ireland were Paul Gorry, Maire Mac Conghail, John Grenham, and Eileen O'Duill. The board of the Genealogical Society of Ireland was represented by Michael Merrigan, Fiona Tipple, Seamus O'Reilly, and John Hamrock. John Hamrock was also representing the Irish branch of the Irish Genealogical Research Society and Ancestor Network Limited. Brian Donovan participated from Eneclann Limited.

Several interesting contributions were made from the audience including:-

-Paul Gorry cited the entreaties genealogists have made over the years to safekeep and to ensure public access to the archives in the Registry of Deeds, the General Register office, the Land Commission and the 1926 census of Ireland
- Ireland needs a national digistisation strategy modelled perhaps on the American Memory project which would need dedicated funding, but has been a success at the Library of Congress
- include the Oireachtas Library in the debate
- Brian Donovan of Eneclann made an argument to show that the Irish public archives are a key motivation for overseas visitors to come to ireland and that related businesses in Ireland generate approximately euro 1 billion annually in archival related services such as genealogy and digistisation. He also noted that the budget for the combined National Archives and National Library of ireland is euro 19 million per annum versus euro 170 in the United Kingdom
- Establish a National Action on Archives Committee for a period of one year to 18 months; Diarmaid Ferriter to serve as ad hoc be chair until the committee elects an appointed chairman; representative groups to nominate committee members

In one of the closing contributions from the audience, Michael Merrigan of the Genealogical Society of Ireland advocated that a structured approach to this issue is essential, and as far as practicable and appropriate, a planned strategy should:-

- avoid an open an needless confrontation with the Minister on this so called "budgetary measure"
- welcome the possibilities afforded by the new required legislation to achive the many goals articulated in the TCD meeting
- possibly concede 'legislative amalgamation that ensures a maintenance of seoarate functions and identities of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, National Library of Ireland, and the National Archives of Ireland
- called for a meaningful public consultation on the whole governmental proposal in advance of the production of the draft legislation.

Searching for Bridget O'Malley: An Interdisciplinary study of Inis Airc, Co Galway , 1907

2010-03-30T01:31:00.000-07:00

You are cordially invited to an event organised by the UCD Humanities Institute and the UCD School of Archaeology.

A lecture will be given by Professor Ian Kuijt ( School of Anthropology , University of Notre Dame) entitled:

Searching for Bridget O'Malley: An Interdisciplinary study of Inis Airc, Co Galway , 1907

Post-1850 coastal life, especially on remote islands such as Inis Airc, Co. Galway, illustrate changes in family structure, emigration pathways to America , and deep personal histories. Drawing upon archaeological remains, historical records, and oral accounts associated with Inis Airc from 1850 to 1960, in this presentation Dr. Kuijt develops a multi-faceted understanding of changing island life and community by tracing the life of Bridget O'Malley, an 11 year old girl who grew up on the island, and left to Boston in 1909. Her story both humanizes and helps us understand cycles of community change, the movement of people within isolated coastal communities, and demonstrates the potential for developing nuanced interpretations of changing perceptions of the social and geographic landscapes of coastal Ireland.

Date: Thursday, 1 April 2010

Time: 12 p.m.

Venue: Room H204, UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland (building number 43, grid reference F9 on the UCD campus map)

Map link: http://www.ucd.ie/maps

Professor Ian Kuijt received his B.A. in History from the University of Lethbridge , an M.A. in Archaeology from Simon Fraser University , and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University . Since 2006 he has directed the Irish Cultural Landscape Heritage Initiative, an interdisciplinary project with the University of Notre Dame, University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, which focuses on understanding social and cultural life in rural Ireland . His research has been supported by the National Endowments for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the British Academy . He regularly teaches the field class, The Archaeology of Ireland, in which Notre Dame undergraduate students travel through Ireland for 10 days to learn about the Cultural Heritage of Ireland.

All Welcome!

Archives in Crisis: A Symposium to Debate the Future of Archives in Irish Society

2010-03-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

Archives in Crisis:
A Symposium to Debate the Future of Archives in Irish Society - Saturday 10 April 2010, 15.00hrs to 17.00hrs at the Robert Emmet Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College, Dublin

Moderator: Prof. Diarmaid Ferriter
Speakers: Fintan O’Toole, Catríona Crowe and Prof. Eunan O’Halpin
In 1922 the bulk of Ireland's documentary heritage was destroyed. This symposium poses a stark question: what will be the state of Irish archives in 2022 on the centenary of the Four Courts blaze?

Presentations will discuss the cultural significance of archives in Irish society and the proposed merger of the National Archives of Ireland into the National Library. This will be followed by an open forum, during which audience members will have an opportunity to pose questions and share their views on archival policy in Ireland.

The meeting will conclude by taking nominations to a new Action on Archives committee, which will seek to make representations to appropriate bodies.

Admission Free – All Welcome

For further information, contact Dr Peter Crooks, pcrooks@tcd.ie (01 896 1368)
Organized in association with the Irish Chancery Project, Medieval History Research Centre, Trinity College, Dublin

IRISH GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY Spring Lecture

2010-02-19T15:32:00.000-08:00

IRISH GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY

IRELAND BRANCH

SPRING LECTURE

Wednesday 3rd March 2010

7. 00 pm (sharp)

The National Library,

Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Speaker: Dr Séamas Ó Maitiú

‘A Journalistic View of South Dublin

-Using Newspapers as Sources for Genealogy’

ALL WELCOME - ADMISSION FREE

Linda Clayton, Hon. Sec. IGRS (Ireland Branch):

Tel: 01- 2856360 e-mail: lindaclayton@iol.ie

Ancestor Network and EthnoAncestry Launch DNA Testing and Analysis Service

2010-01-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

One challenge conducting Irish genealogy research is the loss of records such as census returns prior to 1901, a significant proportion of church parish records and wills. The number of extant records from the eighteenth century and further back is significantly lower in Ireland compared to countries like England, Scotland and the United States. However, because of advances in DNA research, there are scientific methods which can help people of the Irish Diaspora trace their ancestral origins through DNA testing.

RTE’s programme “Blood of the Irish” showed that some of the first people to arrive in Ireland originated from the Basque region in Northern Spain. Following the programme, many people would like to trace their ancestral roots through DNA testing.

Ancestor Network has introduced a service to assist people in Irish genetic genealogy.
Ancestor Network has teamed up with EthnoAncestry which carried out the DNA research testing in RTE’s “Blood of the Irish.” EthnoAncestry, founded by Dr. James F. Wilson, leading authority on European genetic history, is an innovative company dedicated to developing genetic markers and tests to help you in your deep and recent ancestry research.

Testimonials

"This is a service set up by one of the pioneers of genetic genealogy. This is a strong foundation in scientific excellence." Professor Dan Bradley, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

"Thanks for the YSTR27 data! Have found huge number of 100% YSTR27 matches with Moore's Irish Gaelic dataset - thanks to the link on your R1b info page. This is beginning to settle an argument about the ancestry of the paternal side of the family." John Griffen, EthnoAncestry customer

What tests do you offer?
We offer tests of paternal and maternal genetic ancestry. Some products are tailored to finding out about your deep ancestry, thousands of years ago, others to help understand your genealogy, for instance by checking if two people with the same surname are a ‘genetic match’.

Types of DNA Testing

The two types of tests that were used for the research side of "Blood of the Irish."
1) Haploview: This test looks at 27 microsatellite markers on the Y chromosome to identify which historical lineage the paternal ancestor belonged to. We are able to identify more distinct lineages than any other company. Although we identify types from around the world, we have a particular focus on British and Irish ancestry.

For customers interested in the Haploview tests, we are able to identify several distinct Irish Y chromosome types, including one that is particularly common in Ulster and Donegal (see Niall of the Nine Hostages further below); two others which find their frequency maximum in Munster, around the mouth the Shannon; and a fourth, which is more common in Leinster.

The Y-DNA, male line, your father’s father’s father’s father’s line, etc. This is also called the surname line. If you are female, you have to submit a cheek swab from your brother, father, paternal grandfather, father’s brother or other male who shares your genealogy in that line.

2) mtDNA: This test looks at the HVS1 region in combination with mtDNA coding region markers to identify which historical lineage the maternal ancestors belonged to.
The mtDNA, mitochondrial line, your mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s line, etc. Both males and females carry this DNA information, so either can be tested for it, but only females pass it on to their children.

Niall of the Nine Hostages
Recent genetic studies at Trinity College Dublin have discovered the genetic signature of the most important dynasty of early medieval Ireland, the Ui Niell, literally translated as the descendants of Niall, a fifth century warlord whose descendants claimed the high kingship of Ireland. We provide this test using the same genetic markers as used in the landmark study by Moore et al. The test determines your genetic relationship to the Ui Niell signature.
After submitting your saliva sample we will extract your DNA and test 27 markers on your Y chromosome. We will then compare your results to our company's extensive database and infer your haplogroup. This will not only allow us to recognise if you carry Niall of the Nine Hostages' type, but also allow classification into a number of other Y chromosome types, each with a distinctive history. You will receive a certificate in pdf format summarising your results.

Privacy Ensured
Your personal information and results will be kept completely confidential and never shared with outside parties.

How can you order and what will the results look like?
Once you submit your online order to http://www.ancestor.ie/, we will confirm to you by email that your order has been received. Our email address is info@ancestor.ie. EthnoAncestry will in turn send you a confirmation email; post out a DNA kit directly to you. This normally takes 2-3 working days for UK customers, 3-10 working days for EU customers and up to 15 working days for customers outside Europe. You will receive an email notifying you that your kit has been shipped. You will then return this kit to our lab in London via the postal system. You will be notified via email when your sample arrives safely in London. Note the customer is responsible for ordering the correct test. EthnoAncestry will guide customers in selecting the most suitable test but are not responsible for incorrectly placed orders. You will receive a pdf certificate of your results by email which is an attractive certificate illustration with description.

Your electronic pdf certificates for Haploview and mtDNA tests are emailed to you, which contain both your individual marker results as well as a map showing where your type is found in the world, with some interpretation of your genetic history. Y-SNP and mtDNA subgroup as well as custom SNP test customers will receive a PDF detailing their individual marker results.

Additional Information
Technical details on your Haplogroup subgroup tests
The Haplogroup subgroup tests use either direct sequencing of known SNP locations or a technique known as TaqMan in which different genetic types are tagged with different coloured dyes for detection. We use a "tree approach" to testing for some haplogroups. For example not every possible SNP in Haplogroup J is tested. As each person can only be in one group, it is possible to chose which SNPs to test following the Y chromosome tree on the basis of the previous round of results.

How to supply a DNA sample
The DNA extraction kit shipped to you contains a small vial of a harmless preservative solution. All you need to do is rinse your mouth out thoroughly with water (to remove any food particles) then provide a saliva sample to the tube. The preservative solution will keep your saliva sample in good condition until it reaches our lab in London. The DNA provided by this process is of the very highest quality and ensures fast and reliable results for whatever testing you decide to have undertaken.

Turnaround time on your tests
Lab-based tests take a varying amount of time depending on the exact test ordered and the number of orders at the lab. Eight-twelve week turnaround times (from receipt of your sample at the lab) are the norm but testing can sometimes take longer.

The procedure from receipt of your DNA samples is as follows:
a) DNA extraction - this is where we purify and store your DNA,
b) DNA sequence reactions - this is where we prepare reactions to sequence and/or analyse your DNA,
c) DNA sequence analysis - this is where we run the result of your sequence reaction on machines that provide us with information on your DNA,
d) Interpretation and returning of results - this is where we interpret your DNA sequence information and return your result as an official certificate. Note that low throughput testing such as particular custom select SNPs are more prone to delays as they require more 'hands on' time in the lab.

Interpretation of results
Our Haploview and mtDNA test results include interpretation; however the more advanced tests (Y-SNPs and mtDNA subgroup tests) do not, in common with the majority of other companies.

Can results be used to determine medical conditions?
EthnoAncestry does not test any DNA marker that is associated with any known medical condition.

Costs
To order a Haploview test the cost is €200. The mtDNA test costs €140.

About Ancestor Network Limited

Ancestor Network Limited was established to provide Irish family history research and to promote knowledge and learning about genealogy and heraldry in Ireland. John Hamrock, the founder of Ancestor Network Limited, is a member of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy.

"The mission of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy is to advocate for and educate about the use of genetics as a tool for genealogical research, and promote a supportive network for genetic genealogists."

Riddle of 200-year-old Irish grave in New York

2010-01-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

Riddle of 200-year-old Irish grave in New York
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Source: The Belfast Telegraph

Workers uncovered a young Irishman's grave in New York's Greenwich Village more than 200 years after he died.
Now authorities are determined to solve the mystery of the life and death of the Co Kildare man.
New York City Dept of Parks and Recreation workers expected to find unidentified bones when they dug below the city's Washington Square Park -- more than 20,000 people are believed to be buried in the former graveyard. But they discovered the 210-year-old 3ft-high sandstone gravestone of a Co Kildare man who died in 1799.
Its writing, still clear, read: "Here lies the body of James Jackson, who departed this life the 22nd day of September, 1799 aged 28 years, native of the county of Kildare, Ireland."
Workers have several times found skeletons during the restoration of the park, but Jackson's stone was the first burial marker.
"It's very unusual," John H Geismar, the archaeological consultant who made the discovery, said. "In fact, I'm stunned."
The New York Historical society has identified one James Jackson of 19 East George Street, who was listed in the city death records on September 23, 1799, Ms Geismar said. His occupation is listed as a watchman, though a city directory at the time listed him as a grocer.
Diana de Zerega Wall, an archaeology professor at the City University of New York, said that at the time Jackson was buried, the city was wrestling with a series of yellow fever outbreaks and he may have died from the illness.
Victims were buried there away from the then centre of town, as a safety measure.
After the discovery, workers dug seven feet below the gravestone but found no body. It is thought it may have been moved when the area was developed into parade grounds.
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said that even in the absence of a body, the city hopes to learn more about the young Irish immigrant.

Essays Presented to Liam Mac Alasdair by the Genealogical Society of Ireland

2009-12-12T02:42:00.000-08:00

The Genealogical Society of Ireland presented Liam Mac Alasdair, a longstanding member, Fellow and former Director of the Society with 'Feil-Scribhin Liam Mhic Alasdair,' or 'Essays Presented to Liam Mac Alasdair' on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009. This collection of essays by Members and Friends of the Genealogical Society of Ireland covers a range of subjects from genealogy, heraldry, social history, military history, Orders of Chivalry, cultural studies, clan/sept histories, family histories and the Irish abroad. The work was edited by Rory Stanley and contributors include Dr. Noel Cox, Jim Herlihy, Bartoz Kowlowski, Roisin Lafferty, Philip Lecane, Sean Mac Bradaigh, Tony McCarthy, Caroline McCall, Katrijne Merrigan, Michael Merrigan, Seamus Moriarty, Sean Murphy, Barry O'Connor, David O Morchue, Seamus O'Reilly, Jaùes Scannell, and your truly, John Hamrock.

My essay on pages 50-59 is entitled, 'The origins and chief locations of the O Gara sept' and is an excerpt from a more extensive history of the O'Gara sept which I hope to have published in due course.

Sir Richard John Griffith

2009-10-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Irish Genealogy Research Society's September 2009 Newsletter reports,

Recently a portrait in oils of Sir Richard John Griffith was purchased by the National Gallery of Ireland. Griffith is well-known to genealogists as the organizer of various valuation surveys in Ireland and these remain a primary resource for genealogical studies. Patrick Wyse Jackson of Trinity College, Dublin, has written a paper published by the Royal Irish Academy that describes the portrait. The paper, which contains a colour reproduction of the portrait, may be freely downloaded from http://www.ria.ie/cgi-bin/ria/papers/100809.pdf.

Inhabitants of Scattery Island, Shannon Estuary, Co. Clare by Senan Scanlan

2009-09-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/don_tran/fam_his/scattery/introduction.htm

Inhabitants of Scattery Island, Shannon Estuary, Co. Clare by Senan Scanlan

This excellent book by my friend Senan Scanlan is on the Clarelibrary.ie website and
can be read there.

1 Introduction and Acknowledgements
Scattery Round Tower
Scattery Round Tower

Introduction

This book intends to provide a detailed account of the inhabitants of Scattery Island from the earliest recorded times to the 1940s. Its primary objective is to provide genealogical information on the main inhabitants from the 1840s to the 1940s and this includes all the available memorial inscriptions from the graveyard on the island.

Section two gives an outline account of those inhabitants that settled on the island up to the 1840s, taken from the best available source which includes extracts from a number of the Annals[1].

Section three summarises the information relating to the main inhabitants from the 1840s to the 1940s it outlines the reasons why the island was repopulated in the early 1840s and why its population increased during the famine when the rest of West Clare was in severe decline. The detailed genealogical information on the inhabitants in Appendix 8 is primarily the result of extensive research in Kilrush Parish Registers and the General Register Office, Dublin, including obtaining more than thirty copy certificates for Births, Marriages and Deaths. In addition some dates prior to official registration in 1864 have been estimated from information on Marriage and Death certificates and from the Census for 1901 and 1911 together with data from the memorial inscriptions. The research, which also included examination of some War Office records in The National Archives in London, concentrated on providing where possible all the details for the nineteenth century and only outline details are given for the early years of the twentieth century. Section three also outlines details of land division on the island together with the names of pilots and source details for these are included in Appendix 10. A brief description of Appendix 11 which has pedigree sheets for the main island families is also included.

Section four details the memorial inscriptions extracted from the island graveyard and gives details of the deceased inhabitants that lived on the island and those that lived elsewhere but are buried in this graveyard.

Section five describes aspects of life on the island including details of the main occupations of the islanders; the roles played by the Island School the Coastal Battery and the Lighthouse.

Section six gives details, principally from newspaper extracts of the Western Pilots and section seven gives an outline of Kilrush and Estuary News from c 1840 to c 1900. Section eight contains the main Appendix 8 which details the dates for Births, Marriages and Deaths of the main inhabitants that occupied the island from c 840 to c 940. In addition details of families that temporarily resided on the island for shorter periods during these years are included these being mainly associated with the Coastal Battery and the Lighthouse.

Section nine is Appendix 9 which is a plan of Scattery Graveyard.

Section ten is Appendix 10 and it provides details of pilot names and land division for Scattery Island.

Section eleven is Appendix 11 and contains seven outline Pedigree Sheets for the Main Families of Scattery c 1840 to c 1940.

Section twelve provides a detailed sources list divided into primary and secondary sources.

Acknowledgements
The Database (Appendix I) outlining the details of the main inhabitants after c1840 AD could not have been completed without the assistance and research done by Mick McGrath of Kilrush. In addition Mike Guiney, Glanmire, Cork, David Scanlan, Swords and Warren Buckley, Dundrum, assisted with the memorial inscriptions. Warren also arranged the layout and provided the photographs and cover for this book. Ron Battye, Dublin also provided some photographs and enhanced the map showing the fishing weirs. John Scanlan, Ennis provided valuable guidance. The Staff of the National Library of Ireland, National Archives, Limerick Archives, Dublin City Library and Archive also provided valuable assistance. Thanks to Andrew Scanlan for organising the printing of this book.

This book is dedicated to my late father Sinon, born on the Island in 1911 who encouraged and gave me the initial information and it is hoped that it will be of assistance to others who wish to pursue further research relating to the Island. Finally I would like to thank Mick McGrath and Patrick Scanlan Kilrush and Rachel Scanlan, Dublin who read and corrected the first draft of this book and therefore prevented me from making even more mistakes. Any remaining errors are my responsibility.

Senan Scanlan.
2007

© Copyright 2007, Senan Scanlan

Contact: book@scattery.com

Ennis, Co. Clare to Make Muhammad Ali first 'Freeman'

2009-08-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

from the Associated Press and eurweb.com
17 August 2009

A town council has voted unanimously in favour of making boxing legend Muhammad Ali the first Freeman of his ancestral home in Ennis, Co Clare.

The 67-year-old former world heavyweight champion will visit the birthplace of his great grandfather on September 1. A civic reception will take place in Waterpark House, Drumbiggle, before Ali tours the town and the council is also hoping to host a public open-air event during the visit.

Ali's ancestor Abe Grady emigrated from his home on the Turnpike Road in Ennis to the US in the 1860s. Grady sailed from Cappa Harbour in Kilrush, Co Clare, eventually settling in Kentucky where he later married.

MUHAMMAD ALI TO VISIT HIS IRISH ROOTS: Boxing legend to tour town in Ireland where his great grandfather was born

*Boxing legend Muhammad Ali is to visit the Irish town from where his great-grandfather emigrated to the United States in the 1800s, the town's mayor announced Thursday.

Ali, 67, has finally agreed to take up a long-standing invitation from the town council to visit Ennis, County Clare, reports Reuters. "We will make him very welcome," Mayor Frankie Neylon told AFP. "We will be delighted to see him. I would hope to arrange a vote of the council to make him a freeman of Ennis."

Ali will be in Ireland later this month to take part in "An Evening with the Greatest," a Dublin-based fundraising event for the recently established Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Charitable Fund. The Irish biotechnology firm Alltech established the fund with Ali to promote educational and humanitarian goals. Alltech president and founder Pearse Lyons said Ali will revisit Dublin -- where he fought Al "Blue" Lewis in 1972 in front of a crowd of 25,000 -- for "a new and equally profound fight, a fight in the name of benevolence."

Research by genealogists found that Ali's great-grandfather Abe Grady emigrated to Kentucky in the 1860s. Abe married an African-American and they had a son called John Grady who was Ali's grandfather. He in turn had a daughter called Odessa Lee Grady who was Ali's mother. Ali was originally Cassius Marcellus Clay Junior but changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to the Nation of Islam.

Genealogists also claim that both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are descended from Irish families of shoemakers with their ancestors leaving Ireland within weeks of each other in April and May 1849.

Obama's ancestor came from Moneygall in County Offaly in the midlands and Biden's is believed to have emigrated from Carlingford, County Louth in the north-east. As a result of waves of migration, about 34 million people in the United States claim an Irish connection today.

Ancestor Network Limited Launches new family history research brochure and order form

2009-06-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

John Hamrock to Present Paper at Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society Annual Conference

2009-06-15T14:52:00.001-07:00

John Hamrock will present a paper at Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society Annual Conference to be held over two days at University College Dublin on Friday, 4th September and Saturday, 5th September 2009. This year’s conference will be focused on the Penal Laws. This conference is supported by the School of History and Archives, the Humanities institute of Ireland, and the Micheál Ó Cléirigh Institute. John’s paper is entitled, ‘Irish Augustinians in the Penal Times.’

Please see below draft programme (subject to change) which is a full and varied one. Please also see registration details and conference fee below.

Proposal to Make It Easier to Claim Irish Citizenship

2009-04-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

The New York Times reported on March 15, 2009 that the Irish Taoiseach, or Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, in a speech at the American Irish Historical Society on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, proposed measures to make it easier for Americans to claim Irish citizenship, reversing a restrictive course the Irish government took in 2005.

“The connections between Ireland and America remain strong,” Mr. Cowen said, “but we cannot take them for granted.”

Mr. Cowen proposes to ease naturalization by allowing Americans whose nearest Irish ancestor is a great-grandparent to qualify for citizenship, provided that they have spent considerable time studying or working in Ireland. Under current law, the most distant forebear an American could claim and still qualify for Irish citizenship is a grandparent.

“There’s an awful lot of Irish-Americans who feel very cut off by the ‘grandfather rule,’ ” said Niall O’Dowd, the former chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform and a founder of the Irish Voice newspaper in New York as well as of a new Web site, Irishcentral.com, that started Sunday night. “This would open up Irish citizenship to a whole new generation of Irish-Americans.”

The number of Americans with Irish ancestry has been estimated to be as high as 40 million, and millions of those people have no closer blood tie to Ireland than a great-grandparent.

The immigration proposal grew out of a “strategic review” of Irish-American relations Mr. Cowen ordered up last year, the first such review performed by the government since the 1930s, he said.

Dublin's Country Mix 106.8fm to host new family history / genealogy programme with John Hamrock presenting:

2009-04-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

John Hamrock will be presenting a family history / genealogy programme on Dublin's Country Mix 106.8fm from May 1st 2009 on a weekly basis. Dublin’s Country Mix is a Country and Western/Easy listening style Radio Station. From time to time the Station features articles on air that are of special interest to listeners. For example Gardening, Wine, Books etc.

John Hamrock will present from the studio once a week to instruct the listeners on how to trace their ancestors with hints and tips to help them. This will be of great interest and practical value to Dublin’s Country Mix listeners interested in how to trace their ancestors.

Country Mix's flagship programme has one of the most professional and experienced female presenters in mainstream radio today, Lynsey Dolan. Lynsey hosts two hours of chat every morning from 9am - from major topics of the day to what’s what in Entertainment and now Genealogy will join the list of those topics of interest to radio listeners.

John Hamrock appointed to Ireland Branch Committee of Irish Genealogical Research Society

2009-04-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

At the Ireland Branch of the Irish Genealogical Society Annual General Meeting held on Saturday, 4th April, 2009 at Dublin City Library and Archive, John Hamrock was elected to the Branch Committee for the 2009/2010 year.

Dublin City Library and Archive Family History Day 28th March 2009

2009-03-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

Dublin City and Archive are hosting the annual Family History Day on Saturday, 28th March 2009. Booking is essential to guarantee a place. Registration is at 9:30am. Sean Murphy of UCD's talk at 10:00am is 'Know Your Surnames.' This is followed by a talk by John Grenham entitled 'The New Dublin Freemen and Trade Guild Database' at 10:45am. Douglas Appleyard is speaking at 12:00pm on 'Searching the Stoker Family.' At 2:00pm Paul Gorry is speaking 'Can I Trace Emigrants?' and Steven Smyrl is speaking at 2:45pm on 'Ireland's Court Records - What Survived 1922?' It promises to be an informative and interesting day for family historians.

Irish Genealogical Research Events in Dublin in March, April, and May 2009

2009-03-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

The Irish Genealogical Research Society - Ireland Branch is hosting its Annual Genealogy Open Day which will take place on Saturday, 16th May 2009 from 10:00am to 4:00pm at Dublin City Library and Archive, 138 - 142 Pearse Street, Dublin 2. There will be a full programme of lectures and a therapy session for genealogical problems. Further details to follow. All are welcome.

Miriam Moffitt, author of Soupers and Jumpers - the 19th Century Protestant Missions in Connemara, will be speaking at Dublin City Library and Archive on Pearse Street, Dublin 2, at 3:15pm. Admission is free and all are welcome. This talk is sponsored by the Irish Genealogical Research Society and will follow the Society's AGM at 2:30pm (members only).

The Irish Genealogical Research Society is hosting a Spring Lecture at Buswell's Hotel on Kildare Street, Dublin 2, at 7:00pm, Monday, 30th March 2009. The Speaker is Dr. Ciara Breathnach and her talk is, 'The nature of Wills and the prevalence of Intestacy in modern Ireland.' Admission is free and all are welcome.