At the EGM on Monday 19 June 2023, the President of AGI, Nicola Morris, announced the election of John Grenham as a Fellow of AGI. John entered the world of genealogy in 1981 as one of the panel of Genealogical Office researchers. He is a genealogist, writer, journalist, programmer, consultant, speaker and teacher. John was instrumental in setting up the GO Consultation Service, the forerunner of the current Advisory Services in the National Library and National Archives. John established a genealogy course with the Irish Times and later developed a course with City Colleges, which is now under the AGI … Read More

WHEN IS A BIRTH RECORD NOT A BIRTH RECORD? Michael Walsh  B.Sc (Econ), M.A.G.I. This is the story of a mysterious birth record! I was supporting an application for citizenship.  I searched for the birth of Christina Emily NOONAN who was born on 27 December 1901 to Patrick NOONAN and Hannah CROKE in Ballyclough, Co. Cork. I found a baptismal record which showed that Christina Emily NOONAN was born on 27 December 1901 to Patrick NOONAN and Hannah CROKE and baptised on 29 December 1901 in the RC parish of Ballyclough in Co. Cork. However, I also found a civil … Read More

SEÁN P. Ó SÉAGHDHA, ADVOCATE FOR THE IRISH LANGUAGE Máire Mac Conghail,  B.A., F.I.G.R.S., F.A.G.I. Seán P. Ó Séaghdha, (birth registered, John Patrick), was born 7 July 1887 in Cork City, the first born of James O’Shea, a compositor/printer, and his wife Mary “Minnie” O’Brien. James must have experienced a ‘downturn’ in employment, as the family was resident in Birmingham, England, by early 1899. Within a year James was dead– December 1899 – at the young age of 40, leaving his family impoverished. Seán P. assisted his mother financially by initially working as an errand boy, then as a railway … Read More

FROM COUNTY DOWN TO YORKSHIRE: PATRICK BRONTE (1777- 1861): Father of the renowned literary sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Linda Clayton MAGI FIGRS Patrick Brunty was born 17th March 1777, the eldest of ten children born to agricultural labourer Hugh Brunty and Alice (nee McClory) of the townland of Imdel in the Parish of Drumballyroney, County Down. Following spells as an apprentice blacksmith, a linen weaver and a teacher in the local village school, he left Ireland, aged 25 years, to study in England at St John’s College, Cambridge. It appears to have been in Cambridge where he became known … Read More

PAYING THE RENT Aidan Feerick B.A., M.A.G.I & Tony Hennessy M.A.G.I. Our farming ancestors paid their rents twice a year on what were known as Gale Days. One was Lady Day (25 March) and the other was Michaelmas (29 September). This practice of the periodic payment of rents varied between estates. Payment could be in cash or in kind; turf, oats, barley, or animals were sometimes accepted in lieu of rent. Sometimes, tenants paid a part or all their rent by working for the landlord. At other times, agents traveled around the estate collecting the rent; in some places, the … Read More

AN IMPORTANT FAMILY OBITUARY PAINTS A VIVID PICTURE Kiara Gregory, M.A.G.I. David Moriarty from Decatur in Georgia was researching his Moriarty family history in Kerry Local History Library, when he found an obituary of my great-great grandfather, Timothy Moriarty, in The Kerryman1, dated 4 September 1909. According to his obituary, Timothy Moriarty was eighty six when he died, and he was a fit, tall, sporting man. His career, as discussed in his obituary, was very interesting, and on this I will focus. Timothy Moriarty was seneschal or judge of the Manor Court for the barony of Corkaguiny in Co. Kerry. … Read More

AGI member Michael Walsh is to give a talk entitled “From Tithes to Griffith’s: Property and Valuation Records”  at the National Archives of Ireland on Thursday, February 16 next. Michael’s talk will introduce participants to the key factors of the major land and property valuations in 19th-century Ireland. Among the record collections covered will be the following sources: Tithe Applotment Books, early townland valuations and notebooks compiled as part of the valuation process, Griffith’s Valuation (valuation sheets and associated maps), Valuation Revision Books, and other information and resources underpinning the valuations. For more information, see the National Archives site. You … Read More

FROM LOG CABIN TO MUD HUT: The extraordinary childhood experiences of Reverend Philip Homan of Villierstown, Co. Waterford. Justin Homan Martin, M.A.G.I. (Emeritus) By the close of the eighteenth century many of the descendants of John Homan, Esq., (of Moategranoge, Co. Westmeath, d. 1683) had migrated toward Dublin; my mother’s ancestral branch had by then established itself at Ardenode (otherwise Ardenwood) near Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare. In the year 1812, Isaac Homan (a Dublin barrister and second cousin to members of the above branch) found himself a victim of “heavy and unforeseen” pecuniary circumstances and was obliged to depart Dublin … Read More

FRANCES-JANE FRENCH John Grenham MAGI The first thing anyone who met Frances-Jane French will tell you is that she was a formidable woman. From the 1960s to the 1990s, she strode the streets of Dublin, black cloak flapping around her shoulders, ebony cane ready to wave over the head of any poor soul who thwarted her. To those of us starting out in genealogy, she was terrifying. Her vocation was Anglo-Irish family history and she laboured long and hard correcting and expanding the published trees in Debrett’s. Genealogy came naturally to her. To quote a profile in the Trinity News … Read More

Ancient Mansion of the Brownes, Galway Joan Sharkey MAGI Researching the paternal (Usher/Ussher) side of my family brought me to Galway City many times. Griffith’s Valuation in 1855 recorded Matthew Usher as the occupier of a house, bakery and yard at No. 3 William Street. It adjoined a passage way leading to No. 3 a which was an office and yard. With the help of the Valuation map, the exact location of the house and bakery was found, showing the passage and courtyard which ran behind No. 1, 2 & 3 William Street and some houses on Abbeygate Street. A … Read More