Irish Genealogy & Family History Resources
Are you interested in discovering more on your Irish family history? In this section, I have included letters (and podcasts) that include stories, explanations and approaches to help you investigate your own Irish family history. You may even receive a little inspiration to break down one or two family history brick walls!
Browse the features listed on this page and jump to one that interests you, or enter a placename, surname or other item in the search box below to see related letters and podcasts.
Irish Genealogy & Family History Letters
In times gone by, the first weekend in August was the start of the “builder’s holiday”. Our own family used to all pile into the car on the Friday night and head off to the wilds of Ballydehob in West Cork for a fortnight of laying about and not doing much at all. We really…
Today, we are going to have a “wander” around the place – covering two significant birthdays, one here in Ireland and one in France. Then, we’ll head over to Scotland for a reel or two. Finally, we’ll hear from a reader who ties a lot of these items together. Very international, I’ll have you know…
2.1 Million Australian citizens who identified themselves as being of Irish ancestry in the 2011 census. When I hear from our Australian readers, there is often at least one story of “transportation to a penal colony” in their ancestry.
We see a lot of Irish family trees both here and in the Green Room. Do you have an Irish family tree of your own? Perhaps handwritten in a sketchbook, or carefully constructed and annotated on Ancestry.com? What’s your biggest challenge/wish with the information on this tree? Do leave a comment below and let me know.…
Do you own a piece of Linen? How about Irish Linen? Maybe a nice tablecloth or even a cool dress or nice shirt? A few weeks back, I received the following email from Joan Adams: My ancestor, William Irwin, was born in County Antrim about 1703 and immigrated about 1741. I have long wanted to find…
Irish Genealogy & Family History Podcasts
In a follow-up to our recent episode about traveling from Cobh to Ellis Island – we head back to the Cobh Heritage Centre in County Cork and hear 7 stories of emigration from this very spot to many places around the world. Many thanks to Jack Walsh and all the team at the Cobh Heritage…
Join us on a Saint Patrick’s Day Parade of Story and Song. In this episode we share two stories – one all about the places in Ireland where Saint Patrick is said to have walked and the next looks at the Shamrock and the gorse, two plants associated with this time of year in Ireland.…
In this special episode of the Letter from Ireland show we start our journey in Cobh (Queenstown) in County Cork. We chat with the manager of the Cobh Heritage Centre who has his own immigration stories to tell. We then take the route across the Atlantic that our ancestors would have followed (just slightly upgraded!)…
In this week’s episode we go back in time. First we go back to a time when the first Celtic peoples arrived in Ireland – we then go back even further to look at the period when the Celts appeared on the continent of Europe for the first time. Much of this “history” is relayed…
In this week’s episode we look at the life times and legacy of three ancient Celtic saints – with lots of fine music in between. We start with a letter all about the Irish Saint Gobnait – but you may be surprised at how her name was anglicised into different versions that you may have…