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…
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…
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…
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…
Sometimes it’s a risk to watch a show that features a topic you know a lot about. You might find yourself nodding along but you also can be quickly shouting at the screen “that would never happen”. Police procedurals sometimes commit the crime of saying things like “we checked the 1991 census and here are…
I’ve talked before about the pros and cons of different kinds of hints on the various commercial genealogy sites. Today I want to write about Ancestry’s ThruLines, which are a DNA hint. When you get your results, if you attach your DNA to your tree, it will look for matches who could be related through…
I’ve been looking at Christmas traditions in Ireland, both old and new. One of my favourite places to look at old stories is the Schools Collection hosted by Duchas. Did you know that animals have the power of speech on Christmas night? It was news to me but is mentioned in several stories in the…
This November I’m talking about the Valuations Office, which is a working arm of Taillte Eireann, which is the national property authority. But first, I want to mention two offers time-limited offers. The Irish News Archive is Irish-owned and has a large collection of newspapers. Over the last decade, there has been a huge growth…
Within the Roman Catholic Church, couples needed a dispensation to marry if they were related to each within a certain degree. The rules were laid down by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. If a couple shared great-great grandparents or closer, then they needed a dispensation. Depending on how close, this might be granted at…