Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genetic genealogist specialising in ancestry from Ireland
It’s the time of year when people start thinking about evening courses. My beginner level course in Irish genealogy is back for a 14th year. It starts on Monday 16th September at Malahide Community School in north Co. Dublin and is now enrolling students. This course is subsidised by the Department of Education so costs…
It might be still Spring, but Malahide Community School’s Autumn Adult Ed program is already out. I’ll be running my popular Irish Genealogy course in person for 10 weeks starting 16th Sept. This is the thirteenth year of running the class in my alma mater. It’s always good fun and I’m always refining the topics…
For St. Patrick’s Day 2024, I’m taking a look at a new collection on Ancestry of Guinness records. Guinness, in case you didn’t know, is one of Ireland’s most famous exports. The Guinness Store House is a top tourist attraction in Dublin. I actually don’t much like the black stuff, but I do recognise the…
A couple of weeks ago, I gave a talk during Heritage Week at Fingal Local Studies and Archives. An Irish Times journalist came along and I did a small interview with him beforehand. He stayed to hear all the questions and spoke to some people in the audience about their use of genetic genealogy to…
It was an ordinary November day. Then came an announcement from Minister Catherine Martin that she was making €5m available to digitise the 1926 census and it will be available online, for free, in April 2026. You can read the full press release here! I’m really hoping they’ll redesign the whole census/genealogy site, which are…
I’ve launched a YouTube channel. The plan is to have videos on Irish genealogy and DNA testing. I have a few taster videos up already but more will come over the weeks and months. If you have any ideas for content, please do leave a comment. If you enjoy, please do like, share and subscribe!
Back to Our Past returns to the RDS in Ballsbridge, Dublin this weekend. It will feature trade stands from some of the big genealogical organisations – both commercial and state repositories as well as family history societies. I’ll be delivering two talks – my first in-person events for over two years! Saturday 12 noon: Tracing…
Many of you will be aware that I gave a workshop at the recent RootsTech. It was attended by people from all over the world. Unfortunately, it was beset with technical issues. The recording is now online here, but I didn’t get time to answer all the questions during the session. Fortunately, we were able…
A new initiative born from Twitter sees family historians talking about their genealogy origin story using the hashtag #MyGenealogyStory. Here’s mine. I was a child who was interested in the past. I loved history at school. I researched some of my recent ancestors named when choosing my confirmation name. At 12, we were given a…
We’ve only just finished the last term on Monday but Malahide Community School Adult Education is quick off the mark to advertise the next term. My 10-week in-person beginners Irish Genealogy class would make a lovely Christmas gift. It’s a steal at just €110. We start back on 31st January 2022. Details & booking here.…