We just attended a seminar on Scots-Irish ad Irish research with the Ulster Historical Foundation. This four-hour seminar is presented by Fintan Mullan, Executive Director of the Ulster Historical Foundation, and Gillian Hunt, Research Officer at UHF. The seminar is “Researching Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors, an introduction to the sources and the archives.”
Both speakers spoke twice, the first talk from Gillian is a discussion of the myth about the loss of records. Though some records w destruction of the Public Records Office in 1922, many more still exist or there are substitute records to help with your genealogy research. She also talked about getting started with Irish genealogy, books, and websites to use, and general guidelines for research.
Fintan spoked about Irish land divisions and how they are used when researching records. See our blog on Irish land divisions. He spoke about the province, county, barony, parish, and townland division. He spent extra time on the townland and showed examples of records and how the land divisions were used.
Gillian next talked about the different categories of records, especially church, civil, and census records. She covered what’s available online and in archives. See our blog on getting started in Irish research. She discussed birth, marriage, and death civil records, baptism, marriage, and burial church records, and census records and census fragments. She also discussed land records, especially Griffith’s Valuation. Maps are also an important resource for genealogy research.
Fintan talked about in the last talk about census substitutes (as most of the census records before 1901 were destroyed). The Old Age Pension claims, muster rolls, flax growers list, and more. There was a brief question and answer session afterward.
If you have Irish or Northern Irish ancestors, the Ulster Historical Foundation has a diverse assortment of records online and in their archives. They also have research services as well as publications you can purchase. Their website can be found at https://www.ancestryireland.com. Very useful and enjoyable session.
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