Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genealogist specialising in Irish ancestry
As we approach a second St Patrick’s day still beset by a terrible pandemic, albeit with light on the horizon, I wanted to focus on a collection of records that are relevant for our large diaspora. 80 million people around the world claim Irish heritage and half of that number are in the USA. I’ve…
As part of work for my MA in the History of the Family, I had to contribute a piece of original research to a collaborative public history project called Ports: Past & Present. I wrote about the effect of the sinking of the RMS Leinster on the community of Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire). My ancestor…
The Irish Genealogist for 2020 has been published this week. It goes out to all members of the Irish Genealogical Research Society. I’m delighted to see my own article in it. My One-Name Study of the Ure families of Ireland represents more than a decade of research into this surname, which is more commonly found…
Tracing your Ancestors using DNA: a guide for Family Historians is published by Pen & Sword and edited by Graham S. Holton, with contributions from John Cleary, Michelle Leonard, Iain McDonald & Alasdair F. MacDonald. Having previously read Blaine Bettinger’s book on the same subject as a beginner a few years ago, I was ready…
My ancestor Thomas Henry Guerins had a younger brother called Joseph Francis. Here is the family on the 1911 census in Limerick city. He disappeared at some stage in the late 1910s and was never seen again. Using a combination of traditional genealogical research methods and DNA testing, I’m thrilled to say that I found…
I contributed an article the the IGRS’s 80th Anniversary Archive about my ancestor, James Guerins.
Watch out for my article in the spring edition of Irish Roots.
This article has been compiled from various published materials and my own personal family research. See the bibliography at the bottom of the page. Michael Joyce was one of my maternal great-great grandfathers. He was born in September 1851 to Richard Joyce and Bridget Tubbs and baptised on 6th September in St Mary’s Church, Limerick. …
The Irish Genealogist, the premier journal for Irish genealogy, featured an article written by me on the Davis-Goff family of Waterford & Wexford. This journal is available to members of the Irish Genealogical Research Society worldwide.