by Dr. Janice MannA recent search of the Ulster Covenant for a family from Ulster led to a surprising discovery.In 1912 Liberal British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, in desperate need of the support of John Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party, proposed a third Home Rule Bill – providing self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom
Read MoreWho Do You Think You Are? Paul Merton
Tracing the Power family for the Paul Merton episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was quite a challenge, not least because Power is one of the most common surnames in Co. Waterford. Paul’s mother’s maiden name was Power. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation), a land survey taken in the 1850s there were over 3000 Power households found in Ireland,
Read MoreWho Was Christmas Weeks
Just before the Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 was published I was working with the editorial team. One of my tasks was to search through the original database for possible errors in the transcription of names. If you order all of the entries alphabetically it is easy to see where anomalous names turn up. In this instance, it was not anomalous, but
Read MoreWho Do You Think You Are? Damien Dempsey
In a recent Irish episode of Who Do You Think You Are? singer and songwriter Damien Dempsey discovered that his maternal ancestor, Frederick Bridgeman, was granted Freedom of the city of Dublin in 1841.Freemen of the City of DublinIn a description on the website of the Dublin City Library and Archives, which hosts a database of records for freemen of
Read MoreIRA Nominal Rolls
The Irish Military Archives have published a wealth of material for researching the 1916 Rising on their website. Amongst this vast collection are the IRA Nominal Rolls. This record set, with the designation RO, was largely created in 1935 to identify men and women who were active from 23rd April 1916 up to 30th September 1923. The IRA Nominal
Read MoreCSORP
The Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers (CSORP) is a vast and rambling collection of material that is pitted with gems for genealogical research. If your ancestor had any interaction with the machine of the state, there is a possibility that they will be documented in this collection.The CSORP can be found in the National Archives of Ireland.
Read MoreIrish Marriage Customs
While searching the Roman Catholic parish register for Kilmormoy in counties Sligo and Mayo (NLI Pos. 4231), I came across the following regulation, copied into the first page of the marraige register. This regulation, decided by the bishops of Killala and Achonry gives us some insight into Irish marriage customs from the early 19th century. Registry
Read MoreFirst World War Irish Ancestors
In July 2014 I spent a day at the WWI Roadshow in Trinity College Dublin helping people to find their First World War Irish Ancestors. The event, organised by RTE and the National Library of Ireland in association with Trinity College Dublin was an enormous success and attracted unexpectedly huge crowds. It seems that the lid has been lifted in on identifying
Read MoreExcise and Inland Revenue Records
Excise and Inland Revenue Records Despite the amount of genealogical and family history records either freely available or though pays sites online, the national repositories of the United Kingdom and Ireland still hold a vast amount of material that can only be consulted on site. The British National Archives, Kew, has over the past number of years
Read MoreMilitary Service Pensions Collection
The Military Service Pensions Collection are applications made by individuals or their dependants for the award of a pension and gratuities for service with the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army, the Irish Republican Army, Cumann na mBan and any other organisation who saw active service or were casualties or wounded while on duty between April
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