Here comes the summer

Dearest gentle reader, now that we’re all over the excitement of the new season of Bridgerton, it’s time to get back to genealogy. Did you know Nicola Coughlan is from Galway?

Another famous Galway Girl was Nora Barnacle, the wife of James Joyce, one of Ireland’s giants of literature. 16th June marks Bloomsday in Ireland, when we celebrate all things Joyce, but especially Ulysses, in which he commemorates the anniversary of his first date with Nora in 1904. This led me off to look at some records about James & Nora, and you can read more here.

While I’m on a literary theme, you know I love a good murder mystery. Agatha Christie was the subject of a previous blog post, but I’ve written another one about genealogical mysteries featuring some series that I’ve enjoyed in recent years. Do let me know if you have others to recommend.

I’ve also been working further on my family tree on MyHeritage, playing with their recent transcription of New York vital records which have a lot of Irish people in them. My 4x great-grandparents, Cornelius Tubbs & Margaret Fogarty, went to New York during the Great Famine, and most of their children with them, so I’m always interested in New York records. This led me to make a video showing you how to add or remove site members from your tree on MyHeritage.

Before the week is out, I’ll be heading to Glasgow to attend the University of Strathclyde’s Advancing Genetic Genealogy conference. It’s not too late to book a ticket to attend online (or in-person, if you’re easily able to get to Glasgow). All the details are here. Watch out for my report mid-June.

In the meantime, enjoy the summer. The Leaving Certificate exams (which Irish teenagers take to finish secondary school education and gain admission to university) start on Wednesday. This always means good weather so we eagerly anticipate some sunshine!