Waterford Origins
Newtown
Annestown
County Waterford
Ireland.

Email: waterfordorigins@gmail.com
www: www.tonyhennessygenealogy.com

Areas of Research: All of Ireland (26 counties). However, Tony has a particular interest and knowledge of his native Waterford and surrounding counties and of the former copper mining community on Waterford’s Copper Coast.

Tony Hennessy has been researching Irish family history for some forty years and over twenty of those as a professional genealogist. His interest and passion evolved through osmosis – he was surrounded in his youth by a heady combination of yarn spinners and tellers of tall tales on his father’s side and five ancient aunts with 200 year old memories on his mother’s side! He discovered early on that every family has a story to tell – but not every family’s story gets told.  That’s where he comes in….

BESPOKE FAMILY TREE CHARTS:  Tony specializes in drawing bespoke family tree charts to commission, often for presentation.  His largest to date has included 18 generations and over 800 individuals (he enjoys a challenge!).  His family trees have been presented to Mayor Richard M Daley of Chicago, Mayor Marty Walsh of Boston and US Senator Bernie Sanders and various business leaders, although most of his clients are private individuals who wish to save their family story in an accessible and visually attractive form.  Several of Tony’s family trees, undertaken in partnership with the National Library of Ireland and the Travelling Community, are in the NLI Collection.

EDUCATION:  Tony runs a successful online 10 week course in genealogy in Spring each year (to which members of our mighty Diaspora are always welcome). He is a leading lecturer, since 2014, on the NUI Diploma in Genealogy at University College Cork and at the Certificate in History of Family & Genealogical Methods at University of Limerick.  Tony also lectures on the AGI run genealogy course at City Colleges. He is a regular speaker on genealogical related topics, both online and in person. He studied genealogy in University College Dublin (1994-95) under the tutelage of Seán Murphy MA. 

TELEVISION:  Tony has carried out research on behalf of the PBS series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.  He was also involved with the Irish documentary series ‘The Travellers’.
Tony has been a member of Accredited Genealogists Ireland since 2012 and is coordinator, since 2017, of the AGI Image of the Month feature.  He is a member of the National Library of Ireland Genealogy & Heraldry Committee. He is a member of IGRS (Irish Genealogical Research Society) and is a Research Associate at IARC (Irish Ancestry Research Centre).