Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genealogist specialising in Irish ancestry
On my recent trip to PRONI in Belfast, I took some time to do some personal family genealogy. I knew my grandmother’s family had lived in Belfast and possibly also Ballymena for a time in her childhood. They came originally from Limerick city and moved north because my great-grandfather, Thomas Henry Guerins, worked for Woolworths…
Readers of my Twitter account were surprised this week when I mentioned that I was going to visit PRONI (the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland) for the first time. I’ve attended talks there before but never actually done research there. I wanted to take some time to explain why this is the case and…
One of my hobbies (yes, I have non-genealogical hobbies) is writing letters to the Irish Times. They’re kind enough to publish them some of the time. Here’s one I wrote before the 2022 census. So imagine my surprise when I was playing around with the new search functionality on the newspapers section of Findmypast (which…
For International Women’s Day 2022, I’ve written up the life of Annie Mahony, one of my great-great grandmothers. Sadly, I don’t have a photograph of her, but she had at least 186 descendants. I’m hoping to share this amongst as many of them living as I can find & perhaps someone will have one that…
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…
UNESCO designates 8th September every year as International Literacy Day. It promotes the importance of literacy as a human right. Who among us doesn’t love getting caught up in a great novel? In this modern world, very few activities still require your full attention, we’re always on our phones or something, but reading is still…
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…
If you’re a user of Ancestry, and you have a tree attached to your account or DNA results, then you’re familiar with this little leaf which appears to give you hints. These suggestions come in 2 forms. This blog discusses how to know when to accept or ignore them. It can be very exciting when…
The story of the sinking of the RMS Leinster on 10th October 1918 is one that always loomed large in my family because my great-great grandfather, Michael Joyce MP, was aboard when it happened. He survived the disaster but more than 550 people lost their lives. The figures are not exact because travel between Ireland…