The AGI series of Summer Lectures in association with the National Archives of Ireland finished on Tuesday, 25th July, with an informative and insightful talk by AGI member Sandra Doble on Church of Ireland records. 

Sandra Doble standing before the front rows of the crowd gathered to hear her talk on Church of Ireland records

Sandra not only dealt with locating and searching Church of Ireland parish registers, she also gave the audience useful historical context and introduced them to the wealth of sources that might be found in the Representative Church Body library as well as other sources that can document Church of Ireland ancestors.

Sandra also demonstrated the necessity of checking the original registers using an example from one of her own searches of Donaghmore parish in Co. Wicklow.  Although these records are found online at www.rootsireland.ie an inspection of the original register revealed that records prior to about 1813 were transcripts from an original register that had deteriorated and this transcript was missing entries between 1790 and 1810.

The AGI Summer Lecture series was a well attended event and AGI President, Máire Mac Conghail, extends the thanks of the Association to all of the speakers: Tony Hennessy, Brian Mitchell, Georgina Scally, Nicola Morris and Sandra Doble.  We look forward to working with the National Archives on a similar series again next year.

In the meantime, a further three additional lectures will be held at the National Archives of Ireland’s premises on Bishop treet, Dublin, during September. Further details can be found here.