Accredited Genealogists Ireland welcomes Séamus O’Donoghue and Des Murtagh as the two professionals most recently admitted as Affiliates of the association. In December 2012 AGI introduced the new category of Affiliate for genealogists in the early stages of their transition to professional research. This was to be a ‘stepping stone’ towards applying for accreditation.

Seamus O’Donoghue

Séamus O’Donoghue, who is based in his native Co. Clare, was admitted during the summer.  He has worked as an artefact cataloguer for a museum in London and has published a number of books as Séamus O’Donoghue and under the pseudonym A.J. Carron.  One of his genealogical services is correcting ‘Family Trees which had been “polluted” with false/undocumented information’.

Des Murtagh

Des Murtagh is a native of Dublin but now is based in Co. Kildare.  His background is in education and he holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership.  Like a number of genealogists who are now Affiliates or Members of AGI, Des completed the Diploma in Genealogy at Independent College Dublin, run in conjunction with AGI.  The geographical areas in which he has special interest are Cos. Dublin, Cork and Meath.

AGI has limited places in the Affiliate programme, partly because each Affiliate is matched with a mentor from within the body of accredited Members.  To date there have been fifteen Affiliates and six of them have progressed through the accreditation process to becoming Members.