Genealogy - Getting Started
If you are just starting out in Irish genealogy you will be anxious to get on with the search to find your ancestry, so I will get through the planning and preparation stage as quickly as possible.
Some of what is to follow may sound like stating the obvious, but stick with it because often the answer is in the obvious.
Information That Will Help You To Get Going On Your Search
Gather As Much Advance Information As Possible
Tip :
When working on Birth dates allow a couple of years on either side. Birth were not always registered immediately and exact dates were often not remembered correctly.
Some of what is to follow may sound like stating the obvious, but stick with it because often the answer is in the obvious.
Information That Will Help You To Get Going On Your Search
- The name of your ancestor and their approximate date of birth.
- The names of your ancestor’s parents and/or spouse.
- Their religious denomination.
- Details of their trade or employment can also be helpful.
- If you have information on the parish or townland your Irish ancestor came from, it would greatly assist in your search.
Gather As Much Advance Information As Possible
- Start with family papers, these may hold clues, do not discard any scrap of information, record it.It may seem unimportant now but could be vital later in your research.You will often find later that the Irish surname you are researching will be shared by many other people not directly connected to your Irish family tree.Any information that will l help differentiate your branch of the family from those sharing the same surname will then become vital.
- Look through old family photos looking for any names or dates. Get yourself a good magnifying glass to help decipher handwriting.
- Try to remember any family stories you may have heard over the years relating to Irish genealogy and your Irish ancestry, especially at family gatherings like Christmas, Thanksgiving and St. Patrick's Day. You may be surprised what information you have stored in your memory regarding your family history but may need prompting to bring it to the fore.
- Make a list of the extended family and contact as many as possible, gather as much information as you can for your research and make a note of everything you learn. Ask them the same questions as you have asked yourself, their memories will also need prompting.
- Talk to older family members, they are the key to the type of information you need.From my experience they will be pleased that the family are interested enough in their roots to undertake researching the family tree and will be glad to share their memories and pass them on.
- Tell the members you contact that you will keep them up to date on your progress. Contact them again with updates, you will find that this when you get the most valuable information. Your first call will have set them thinking, you will be surprised at the amount and type of information that will emerge.
- Record any initial information you gather in a notebook, this can be transferred to your record forms as you go along.
- Make up a folder, this will help keep everything together, you will find the paperwork building up as you progress through your search.
- Your starting point is yourself, then work back,generation by generation based on the information that you already have.
- Where you stop is where your genealogy search begins.
Tip :
When working on Birth dates allow a couple of years on either side. Birth were not always registered immediately and exact dates were often not remembered correctly.
Further Research
There are so many useful (and useless) websites that help family history research, that this list of links could be far more extensive. I decided to make this page like a step-by-step research path your family history research should take and introduce links based on where you may be with your research.
Due to the nature of the web, these links will change in the future, so if you find that this is the case, please contact me and I will remedy it as soon as possible.
Please give me feedback on how useful (or useless) you find this page (and the specific links that determine that opinion). The page is still under contruction and I plan to add many more comments and links over the coming weeks and months.
Step 1: Talk to other members of your family, particularly older members of your extended family, to build up a picture of your family tree. Document what you're told and read, but most importantly, document where you got the information and when. You may well find later on that you need to revisit your source, to clarify or expand on the details. You may also find later, that the information is contradicted based on further research. All information is useful, but be skeptical and verify it using other sources. Even false information may help you find leads that clarify the "real truth" later.
Step 2: Most people verify and expand on the verbal information they've received from step 1, using the 1901 and 1911 census. These are now online and can be accessed at www.census.nationalarchives.ie.On my census page I have linked directly to both DED's concerning the parish of Beagh so you have no reason not to check them out! However, be warned, throughout my research I have found that townlands, DED's, and most dissappointingly, even surnames have been misspelt, so beware!
Step 3: You can build on your research further by searching the Griffith Valuation records from the 1850s. You may be able to find your ancestors in Griffith's list of householders and landholders. These records are available online at www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation. Again, I have dedicated a page on this website to thus resource so check it out
Step 4:Expand your family tree, or verify your information by searching other Irish resources. Other common Irish family-history resources include:
Step 5:Expand your family tree further by searching numerous websites online. Some useful sites include:
Other Relevant Websites include:Irish Professional Genealogy Groups:
Irish Amateur Genealogy Groups:
Due to the nature of the web, these links will change in the future, so if you find that this is the case, please contact me and I will remedy it as soon as possible.
Please give me feedback on how useful (or useless) you find this page (and the specific links that determine that opinion). The page is still under contruction and I plan to add many more comments and links over the coming weeks and months.
Step 1: Talk to other members of your family, particularly older members of your extended family, to build up a picture of your family tree. Document what you're told and read, but most importantly, document where you got the information and when. You may well find later on that you need to revisit your source, to clarify or expand on the details. You may also find later, that the information is contradicted based on further research. All information is useful, but be skeptical and verify it using other sources. Even false information may help you find leads that clarify the "real truth" later.
Step 2: Most people verify and expand on the verbal information they've received from step 1, using the 1901 and 1911 census. These are now online and can be accessed at www.census.nationalarchives.ie.On my census page I have linked directly to both DED's concerning the parish of Beagh so you have no reason not to check them out! However, be warned, throughout my research I have found that townlands, DED's, and most dissappointingly, even surnames have been misspelt, so beware!
Step 3: You can build on your research further by searching the Griffith Valuation records from the 1850s. You may be able to find your ancestors in Griffith's list of householders and landholders. These records are available online at www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation. Again, I have dedicated a page on this website to thus resource so check it out
Step 4:Expand your family tree, or verify your information by searching other Irish resources. Other common Irish family-history resources include:
- Tithe Applotment records. These are normally available for searching in your country library (and have been posted on this website)
- Civil Registration Office. Your county civil registration office will often offer a service to copy your ancestral records (at a fee). Civil registration of births,marriages and deaths became compulsory in 1864. Although it was compulsory, not all of these events were registered. Experience has also shown that birth dates in particular can be later than the real dates - This is due to the fact that fines were imposed if births were not registered. Parents sometimes registered dates that didn't result in fines being imposed (sometimes months or years after the actual birth).
- Church records. Some catholic parishes started to record births and marriages in the 1830s. A number of parishes have since digitised their records and a printed, sorted book of registration is available in some church Presbyteries. Some non-catholic parishes registed these events before the 1830s. The recording of Death records normally started much later - In the case of catholic parishes, this was normally the 1920s. I have provided miscellaneous transcriptions of Shanaglish Church records on this website and would encourage you to contact me if you have some transcriptions to share
- The church of Latter-Day Saints website. Millions of records are available online at the Family-Search website.https://www.familysearch.org/. This is one of the best resources out there, but takes a bit of getting used to
- The local workhouse records. If they exist, they are normally available for viewing in your country library.
- Land Registry records. After Griffith's Evaluation of the 1850s/60s, all of Ireland's lands were mapped and successive landholders registered in the Land Registy Office. This resource can often give an idea of when an ancestor died based on the succession of their house or land.
- Ellis Island Records; if you know your ancestors emigrated to America, they most likely passed through the port of New York at some stage. http://www.ellisisland.org/ and http://www.castlegarden.org/ have indexed their records free online and I would most definetly recommend a look
Step 5:Expand your family tree further by searching numerous websites online. Some useful sites include:
- ...Cyndi's List...
- ...ancestry.com...Paid membership, but can find some information for free...
- ...newspapers online...
- ...http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/genealog.htm Clare Library have a resource that makes every other county library jealous!
Other Relevant Websites include:Irish Professional Genealogy Groups:
- RootsIreland - www.rootsireland.ie
- Galway Family History Society West - galwaywest.rootsireland.ie
- East Galway Family History Society - galwayeast.rootsireland.ie
Irish Amateur Genealogy Groups:
- County Clare - www.clareroots.org