Registration and welcome

 

The programme starts with a broad overview of Scots-Irish and Irish research. Benefiting beginners and seasoned genealogists alike, it is practical, wide ranging, factual and informative. Using attractive visual aids, it will explore issues such as land divisions, the major collections of records and how to access them. This primer will set the programme up for the day with the sessions coming afterwards looking at some these important sources in greater detail.

Introduction to Irish and Scots-Irish Family History Research (part 1)

(includes an illustrated overview of the major Irish sources, highlighting how such collections can be accessed in Ireland and North America).

Emigration from Ireland to America and the Sources for Its Study

The story of the Scots-Irish and their experiences in Ireland and the New World are discussed in this presentation. Using a range of documentary evidence, this presentation will touch upon, the causes for migration, push and pull factors, the patterns of migration, the estimated size of the exodus and its implications for the development of American colonial society.

11.40-12.30pm

This session explains in some detail the church records available for the main Christian denominations in Ireland: Church of Ireland (Anglican), Presbyterian and Roman Catholic, as well providing an understanding of the differences between the different Protestant denominations. It will also look at the value of annotations found in Catholic Church records which can be of great benefit the family historian.

Understanding Irish Townlands: The importance of place, identity, and administrative divisions

For Americans the vastness of their own country may often make it difficult to comprehend the very local and tightly-knit nature of Irish society and the world of their ancestors. The sense of place in rural Ireland (irrespective of where one lives) is paramount, and gaining an understanding of this uniquely Irish sense of place and location is crucial to being successful in Irish genealogical research. This presentation explores in some detail the different administrative divisions: eg townland, barony, civil and ecclesiastical parish, county, Poor Law Union, District Electoral Division, where they originated, how they relate to each other, and their importance in using the historical records. It reinforces the need for researchers to understand Irish administrative divisions and to become familiar with the locality of one’s ancestors, if one is to be ultimately successful. Thus this subject is not merely of value as a study in its own right, but fundamental in being really successful in Irish family history research research. This presentation can be very useful as part of the introductory sessions.

The documents generated by the management of landed estates are among the most valuable of records for the local and family historian. Until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Ulster was a province of landed estates. This talk will identify those estates records of most use to genealogists, such as leases, rentals and maps, as well as considering the significance of landed estates in Ulster.

Irish and Scots-Irish Research: Not always at the bottom of the pile

This presentation looks at the lesser known and more fragmentary sources available for the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as the large though often un-mined resources such as estate records, the Registry of Deeds, wills, and other materials. It draws attention to some quite uniquely and very rich Irish sources, that are not available elsewhere in the British Isles, indeed Europe, and therefore the theme of the lecture is a counterpoint to the rather disparaging remark that some researchers used to use to make: that they had Irish ancestors ‘but I leave that to the bottom of the pile’, based on the erroneous notion that all Irish records were destroyed in 1922, and as such there are few records at which to look. This lecture is the antidote to that attitude, and demonstrates that in some instances Ireland has quite exceptional and unique sources.

Question and Answer Session hosted by both speakers