Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genetic genealogist specialising in ancestry from Ireland
One of the areas that Rootstech could improve on is more books. I love buying books about my work and I’m always trying to build my reference library further. This year saw the release of a new book written by Michael S. Ramage & Catherine Becker Wiest Desmarais (amongst others) and published by the National…
As an Irish genealogist, I spend a lot of time explaining context. This comes in many forms. In reports, I have paragraphs to help clients understand different sources like Griffith’s Valuation or the Tithe Applotment books. I contextualise census material by explaining that the building a family lived in housed other families in a number…
As reported by various media outlets today, 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy protection in the USA. Anne Wojcicki has stepped down as CEO but is staying on the board. They’ve also published an open letter to their customers. The current intention is to sell the company. There’s a lot of discussion on social media about…
Well, last week was a whirlwind. I flew to Salt Lake City on Tuesday, arriving mid-evening. Wednesday saw me catching up with various friends new & old, doing a tech-check and attending the speakers dinner, followed by fun with DNA friends. Far too much fun for photos but you know who you are! Thursday we…
As a young genealogist, Megan Smolenyak was one of the first “famous” genealogists I ever heard of. She was involved with the discovery of former US President Barack Obama’s Irish ancestry (now commemorated in that most Irish of ways by a motorway service station!) and the discovery of the real identity of Annie Moore, the…
Hot on the heels of the changes to the National Archives website, the other main state portal for genealogical research has had a refresh. ETA: 27/2 – several of the issues that I noted below are now fixed! Hence, I’ve removed or edited my comments. Last week, I was in touch with IrishGenealogy to ask…
I’m very excited to be giving a talk on St Patrick’s weekend for the Society of Genealogists in London. Sadly I won’t be there in-person to see the new premises (fond memories of the old one from my IGRS days though). This talk is all about Irish censuses and census substitutes. I’ll be covering all…
Secondly, it’s almost time for Rootstech again: the biggest genealogical conference in the world. It takes place in Salt Lake City on 6-8 March and has both in-person and online content available. I’m delighted to be attending for the second time. If you’re not already booked to attend either in-person or virutally, there’s still time. Here’s a…
As of 5th February, there’s been a major refresh of the National Archives websites. There are a lot of changes so buckle up! This post will focus on the main genealogy changes, mostly to the census returns and I’ll do another post about the catalogue as time allows. My review is done in a rush…
We have now an official date for its release: 18 April 2026. In just 15 months, professionals, family historians, hobbyists and regular historians will be sitting at their desks hitting refresh while we await the first Irish census release in more than 50 years (if we count the microfilm release of the previous two in…