Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genetic genealogist specialising in ancestry from Ireland
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…
Researchers for 20th century Ireland may be familiar with the Schools’ Collection, which can be viewed on Duchas.ie. This project was run by the Irish Folklore Commission in primary schools between 1937-1939. It had a much higher uptake in rural and suburban areas than in the cities. Children were asked to collect a story from…
It is often said that the Irish “do death well”. It is quite normal for people who never met the deceased to attend their funeral because they are a co-worker of a bereaved person. As I’ve been researching and revising death & burial recently for the International Institute of Genealogical Studies, I wrote some material…