Dashing through the snow

My newsletter is a bit later this month to coincide with the end of the year. Thank you to all my readers. My subscribers are up 35% in 2025. Beehiiv, who host my newsletter, did some stats. I was interested to see the breakdown by country. I fully intend to keep the newsletter free & accessible to everyone. I’ve already got a busy 2026 planned with lots of talks and a few conferences.

It’s Christmas time: there’s no need to be afraid

I like to do some new research at this time of the year, so I took a look at some people who are Christmasy all year round.

Chestnuts roasting by an open fire

If you’re still shopping for the family history enthusiast in your life, I have a few suggestions:

• Annual subscription to Family Tree magazine

• DNA test (but not as a surprise because people may not wish to take one) There’s still some great offers lurking around

• A month’s subscription to the Irish Newspaper Archive (newly renovated!)

• Book vouchers. You can never go wrong with giving people the gift of buying more books.

• The next iteration of my beginners class in Malahide Community School starts in January. If you’re local to the area, it’s very modestly priced (Dept. of Education subsidised!) and runs for 10 weeks. Book via their website.

• A block of research hours with yours truly! I can guide you on how to use a DNA test, review your tree or advance your research. If you’re interested, I’m taking bookings for 2026. Just drop me an email on [email protected] 

All I want for Christmas is

The 1926 census! It won’t be long now. Here’s the page on the National Archives site about it & watch the teaser trailer below. I’m going to be giving a number of talks about & I’ll let you know closer to the time when they’re coming up.

Not everyone will have a happy Christmas this year, for any number of reasons. Do whatever you can to find some joy in the darkest days of the year (for us northern hemisphere dwellers anyway!) If that means doing genealogy all day long on the 25th, I say go for it. If you are with family, make sure to ask some leading questions that might lead to interesting anecdotes or new avenues to research! Nollaig Shona Dhaoibh!