Virtual Treasury

You may have seen yesterday that the Virtual Treasury released new records on the 103rd anniversary of the Four Courts Fire, which had devasting consequences for Irish genealogy and history. International media coverage abounded but the big news is that they’ve got 60000 new census records found from fragments. Happy days! If you’re not familiar with the resources at the Virtual Treasury, then why not watch my Rootstech 2025 talk on the subject? Be sure to download the handout too.

Love a spot of bigamy!

I actually found some time in the past month to do a bit of research on my own family tree - what’s seldom is wonderful. I found another bigamist for my bingo card. Read about him here.

What subscription site is best for Irish research?

This is a question I get asked a lot when I teach, so I decided to do a bit of investigation, and I presented a lecture on for my International Institute of Genealogical Studies class last month. The school has shared this presentation (and many more) on YouTube so you can check it out too. If you have other go-to sites, I’d be delighted to hear about them.

My first DNA workshop for Fingal Local Studies & Archives took place last week and was a great success. We still have a couple of spots available for the next one on 8th July. You can book directly with Fingal. This is an in-person workshop and it’s not recorded. Incidentally, did you know they are a FamilySearch affiliate centre? This means you can access additional content from there (and any other Fingal library) than you can from home. I’ll be presenting a lecture on these extra resources later this year.

One of the reasons I’ve been so busy this month is that I took a week off to go aboard the MV Sylvia Earle as a genealogist in residence, which was a wonderful experience.

Finally for this month, I’ve read and reviewed a new DNA guide from Pen & Swords books. I think it’s worth reading, but do remember that DNA books often go out of date quickly, and indeed, this one went to print before the changes at MyHeritage, where they no longer allow uploads.

I wish you a wonderfuly July - may it be filled with new family history finds!