Research Advice - Websites & Finding Aids
Irish Geneaography was born from both my desire to organise an ever growing list of bookmarks and to recount my own research experiences in order to help others solve vexing Irish people puzzles. Several research advice websites proved invaluable to me when I was getting started and I continue to consult them widely and have included many links to them across my own pages. Most also have their own blogs which I've covered in my Blogs, Magazines and Forums page. Here are some of my favourite recommendations for great advice and useful finding aids;
Irish Genealogy Toolkit
This is Claire Santry's free research advice website, and it is packed with tips, links, resources and illustrations from her own research. She has also written a book called "The Family Tree Irish Genealogy Guide" and has compiled several versions of a very useful e-book that summarises new Irish record releases since 2011. The latter gets updated every year, so the link name changes. The latest one I can see is "New Irish Genealogy Resources 2023". Both publications are available to buy via links on her site.
Claire has also generously shared a number of downloadable forms, charts and outline maps to help you document your research - see under the "Tools and Resources" tab. I really like Claire's writing style and I am sure you will enjoy roaming over her hugely informative website.
This is Claire Santry's free research advice website, and it is packed with tips, links, resources and illustrations from her own research. She has also written a book called "The Family Tree Irish Genealogy Guide" and has compiled several versions of a very useful e-book that summarises new Irish record releases since 2011. The latter gets updated every year, so the link name changes. The latest one I can see is "New Irish Genealogy Resources 2023". Both publications are available to buy via links on her site.
Claire has also generously shared a number of downloadable forms, charts and outline maps to help you document your research - see under the "Tools and Resources" tab. I really like Claire's writing style and I am sure you will enjoy roaming over her hugely informative website.
Irish Ancestors
This website was originally run by John Grenham under the auspices of the Irish Times but is now a separate entity. Much invaluable information is freely available but there is a limit to the number of daily results pages that you can view for free. There are several subscription options if you can't wait another day to carry on your research.
As you might expect from the author of the definitive guide to researching your Irish ancestors, "Tracing Your Irish Ancestors" (see my Guides and Finding Aids page for more information), the website is full of expert advice. Large tracts of his book, along with useful articles, are published on his web pages. It is also a treasure trove of reference information about surviving records of all descriptions and where to find them. To appreciate just how much information is available, check out the Sitemap.
In particular, there are also some quite frankly epic finding aids in the form of interactive maps and carefully compiled statistics about surname variants. If you are struggling to find your family, consider searching via his collated examples and you might just find that elusive ancestor. The site is also littered with hyperlinks which will take you directly to very specific occurrences in the resources he has plundered to create his finding aids e.g. Irish censuses, Griffith's Valuations etc.
This website was originally run by John Grenham under the auspices of the Irish Times but is now a separate entity. Much invaluable information is freely available but there is a limit to the number of daily results pages that you can view for free. There are several subscription options if you can't wait another day to carry on your research.
As you might expect from the author of the definitive guide to researching your Irish ancestors, "Tracing Your Irish Ancestors" (see my Guides and Finding Aids page for more information), the website is full of expert advice. Large tracts of his book, along with useful articles, are published on his web pages. It is also a treasure trove of reference information about surviving records of all descriptions and where to find them. To appreciate just how much information is available, check out the Sitemap.
In particular, there are also some quite frankly epic finding aids in the form of interactive maps and carefully compiled statistics about surname variants. If you are struggling to find your family, consider searching via his collated examples and you might just find that elusive ancestor. The site is also littered with hyperlinks which will take you directly to very specific occurrences in the resources he has plundered to create his finding aids e.g. Irish censuses, Griffith's Valuations etc.
Independent Sites
- Index of Free Irish e-Books = This is a real treasure trove of links to online books including histories, journals, almanacs and directories. The Church Records pages in particular contain links to selected online records where you may get lucky with a parish of interest. (NAMES)
- SWilson.Info = Shane Wilson's very wide ranging collection of maps, transcripts and articles. Check out the articles list in particular for some good advice on navigating place-names. There is also a brilliant Catholic Parish finding page which also shows you where the churches were c.1837. (NAMES) (MAPS)
- Sean Murphy's "A Primer of Irish Genealogy" = Sean Murphy's excellent introduction to searching for your Irish ancestors in the form of a PDF document that you can download. Sean taught a hugely popular genealogy course at UCL in Dublin for many years and has also been involved in several volunteer projects in Dublin.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2023
