Post Archive by Year

John Grenham MAGI About six years ago  I was involved in validating the first transcriptions of Catholic parish registers being made from National Library microfilms for IrishGenealogy.ie.  The process required detailed scrutiny of the original image for every transcript that didn’t match my list of standard names, or that just looked fishy. So I had to look closely at records I wasn’t searching for. In the baptismal register for Skibbereen, I came across this: ’23 November 1827 Catharine of Richd Leonard and Mary Regan, New Bridge, Sponsors: John Glosson Cate Sullivan’ I’m not sure why I thought it looked fishy, but … Read More

  A new book on the Geraldines was recently launched in the new common room in Trinity College. This was edited by Prof. Sean Duffy and Peter Crooks of TCD school of History, and consists of fifteen individual essays on various aspects of the history of this great Irish lineage. AGI member Dr. Paul MacCotter contributed a chapter on ‘The Ramifications of the Geraldines’ consisting of detailed genealogical accounts of the various branches of the lineage. Other contributions from Irish and international scholars covered the entire gamut of the history of this lineage from its origins to how the Geraldines … Read More

Seven Signatories: Tracing the Family Histories of the Men Who Signed the Proclamation, by AGI Member Paul Gorry, details the ancestry of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic in 1916. Researching their varied origins involved a range of genealogical sources. Their stories illustrate the value and uses of these sources. The book developed from a project of the Irish Family History Foundation / Rootsireland while Paul was engaged in editing some of the organisation’s online material. He was asked to research and write up family histories for the seven signatories. Enough material was gathered to warrant a … Read More

Welcome to Ann-Marie Coghlan, who is the latest applicant to be admitted as an Affiliate of Accredited Genealogists Ireland. Ann-Marie’s background is in Education Management and in Business Consultancy in the UK. Her family heritage stems back to Cork, Clare and Dublin. After a career in England she made the move to live in Ireland in 2005, taking up professional genealogy a few years later. Her main professional interest is in the city of Cork and its business and religious communities. She also has particular experience in researching the Irish community in England and Scotland, expanding this out to migration, … Read More

Nicola Morris, MAGI, Dublin Peter Whelan was born on 6 June 1865 in Stepaside, Dublin.  He was the son of Peter Whelan, a soldier residing in Gibraltar, and Margaret Costello. A search for the marriage of Peter Whelan Senior and Margaret Costello in the civil marriage index was unsuccessful, suggesting that the couple married prior to 1864, when civil registration of Catholic marriages commenced, or their marriage was not registered with the civil authorities.  A search of all databases of parish registers failed to find a record of this couple’s marriage, suggesting that the records for the church in which … Read More

Accredited Genealogists Ireland (AGI) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the contract to provide the Genealogy Service at the National Archives of Ireland.  The Genealogy Service provides free advice for those tracing their own Irish family history, whether using sources online or in the national record repositories in Dublin and Belfast, or indeed on a local level. On Tuesday 1 November AGI returned to the Genealogy Service after a break of four years.  At the same time the service was extended from a half-day to a full-day format, opening from 9.30am to 5.00pm, with a 30 minute … Read More

This Friday (21 October) is the first day of BACK TO OUR PAST at Dublin’s RDS. As usual AGI will be out in force over the three days of this annual event. Stop by our stand (108-110) to talk to members, browse the bookstall and maybe even get a free consultation. Also, in the BTOP lecture programme there will be a Q&A session on each of the three days with a panel of AGImembers. You’ll see the times on the Back To Our Past website: http://backtoourpast.ie/        

On Saturday, 15 October a seminar was held to mark the retirement of Dr Raymond Refaussé as Librarian & Archivist of the Representative Church Body Library, the main library and archive of the Church of Ireland. The event took place in the Music Room at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where, between 10:30pm and 1.00pm, seven speakers made presentations reflecting upon Dr Refaussé’s 35 year contribution to the archival heritage of the Church of Ireland. This was followed by the presentation to Dr Refaussé of the Archives and Records Association of Great Britain & Ireland’s Distinguished Service Award by its president, Dr Alex Buchanan. In … Read More

Joanna Cicely Fennell, MAGI, Dublin Numbers 39 and 40 Denzille Street, now best known to Dubliners as The Ginger Man pub on present-day Fenian Street, were for forty years the home and premises of the Stafford family. Believed to hail from north Wexford, John Stafford (c. 1811-1874) first appeared in the 1843 Dublin Directory with a premises at 37 Denzille Street. Within three years John had leased both the corner property, Number 40, as well as the smaller one next-door, in which he ran a successful business as a grocer, wine and spirit merchant for some thirty years. On 16 … Read More

Accredited Genealogists Ireland (AGI) is hosting a very special two-day professional development event in Belfast this week.  Earlier this year AGI entered into an alliance with ASGRA (the Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives).  The two organisations have been providing accreditation for professional genealogists for three decades.  They have joined forces to promote the benefits of such accreditation for both competent genealogists and those seeking to engage competent and trustworthy researchers. 2016 is a significant year for AGI (known until 2015 as APGI – the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland).  Not only did it form the alliance … Read More