At last week’s Annual General Meeting Máire Mac Conghail completed three years as President of Accredited Genealogists Ireland. In the accompanying photograph she can be seen congratulating her successor, Joan Sharkey (left), as she begins her first term. The meeting also elected the following officers and other members of Council to serve for the coming year: Nicola Morris was elected to be the new Vice-President; Anne Rodda succeeds Sandra Doble as Hon. Treasurer, whose term of office has ended; and Georgina Scally was re-elected Hon. Secretary. In addition to the four officers, six ordinary members were also elected: Rob Davison, … Read More

Accredited Genealogists Ireland regrets to report the death of John McCabe, one of AGI’s Fellows and a founding member of the Association. The late John McCabe became involved in genealogical research in the 1960s.  Being a native of Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, and living in Lisburn, he specialised in the province of Ulster, primarily using the resources of the various Belfast record repositories. He originally worked with the Ulster-Scot Historical Society, which was later renamed the Ulster Historical Foundation. Afterwards he began his own practice as a professional genealogist under the name Ulster Family Research Services. In the 1980s, John, like … Read More

Accredited Genealogists Ireland regrets to report the death of its former President, Henry (Harry) McDowell, genealogist, writer and publisher. Harry’s interest in family history began at a young age. In the early years of his marriage he worked in publishing in London and while there he was a regular visitor to the Library of the Society of Genealogists, then housed not far from where he lived with his young family in Chelsea. In 1965 he and his family returned to Ireland and for the next decade Harry was the agent for the Du Pont family estate. It was during this … Read More

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 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 … Read More

On Tuesday, July 12th AGI member Georgina Scally gave the third talk in the National Archives of Ireland’s series of Evening Lectures when she spoke on newspapers as a source for genealogy and family history. Georgina explained the evolution of newspapers at national and local level, illustrating their often political agenda, as well as the social and cultural contribution they have made to wide society. With specific reference to biographical and other associated notices, Georgina very clearly drew her audience’s attention to the detail one might expect to find in birth, marriage and death announcements, funeral reports, obituaries, trade advertisements and … Read More

Four members of Accredited Genealogists Ireland have recently been appointed to positions of influence. One has been appointed a member of the National Archives Advisory Council; another elected a vice-president of the Irish Genealogical Research Society; and two appointed members of the Irish Manuscripts Commission. John Grenham is one of the 12 members of the National Archives Advisory Council (NAAC), recently appointed by Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys TD. The NAAC is a statutory body with remit to advise the Director of the National Archives of Ireland on policy and practical matters. John is a longstanding … Read More

AGI’s first Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event of 2017 took place at Dublin City Library & Archive on the afternoon of Tuesday, 21 February. It was a great success, with stimulating talks and lots of catching up among colleagues. More than half of the Association’s members were able to attend and they were joined by all eight of AGI’s Affiliates. The day’s speaker as were Andrew Cooney of Tusla, on the new adoption bill currently before the houses of the Oireachtas; John Grenham, MAGI, on tips and shortcuts  for many of the standard online sources for Irish genealogy; and Nicola Morris, MAGI, … 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

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