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
Many readers often ask about the origin of an Irish first name in their family tree. Sometimes, it’s an unlikely Irish name such as “Jeremiah” – or sometimes a rare name such as “Gobnait”. It’s no secret that many of our shared Irish roman catholic ancestors borrowed names from the saints and angels of the…
When we lived in England during the 1990s, a phrase that I heard many times was “teaching granny to suck eggs”. Maybe you have heard it in your family? It was used in a context of not wanting to insult another person by stating what should be common sense already e.g. standing in front of…
Carina here – a bit of a change from Mike. I came downstairs earlier and pulled Mike off the keyboard to sent him back to bed – still stressing about “never missing a Letter from Ireland yet”. So I said, don’t worry, I’ll do it instead.At this stage I read the Letter from Ireland each…
Don’t you just love that word – “Diaspora”? Apparently, it comes from the Greek word for “scattering”. The reason I bring this up today is because Ireland appointed it’s first “Minister for the Diaspora”. I first remember the word being used in the context of an “Irish Diaspora” when President Mary Robinson used to light a candle of…
Just this week, I received a request from Helen Wyse (always listen to someone with Wyse as a surname!). Helen said: I am very curious about the naming conventions used for townlands, baronies, villages etc. which seem to repeated over and over again. So many places are prefixed or suffixed in such a way that it…
Irish Genealogy & Family History Podcasts
We look at the connections between the Irish name “Brigid/Bridget”, Saint Bridget of Kildare and the Irish Celtic Goddess Brigid. This is all very appropriate as we come up to the celtic festival of “Imbolc” – celebrating the start of a celtic spring as well as Saint Brigid’s day. We hope you enjoy! You can…
This week we have a special episode that takes you around ten counties on the island of Ireland. We stop off at each point and share a song – as well as more on the place and the person featured in the song. Please note that this episode was broadcast in a different format inside…
In this episode we trace the origins of Carina’s Irish grandfather – Bartholomew Cronin. He died well before she was born and she only recently realised how little she knew of his early days, the wider family and his final resting place”. So, join us as we look to solve this mystery – with plenty…
In this episode we trace the origins – and more – of Carina’s mystery Irish grandmother. I say “mystery” because Carina only ever knew her as “Granny Cronin”. So, join us as we look to solve this mystery – with plenty of journeys, unexpected turns, twists and interesting characters along the way. We hope you…
Have you ever wondered how the Irish surnames in your family tree came about? Understanding just HOW your Irish surnames developed is KEY to understanding more about your Irish origins and likely locations in Ireland. In this episode we take two very different Irish surnames and use them to illustrate the sometimes simple – and…