Tracing Your Irish Ancestors: The Complete Guide

Professional Irish genealogist John Grenham has written a book that combines all the best features of a textbook and a reference book, a book that carefully explains the elements of Irish research while at the same time providing an indispensable body of source materials for immediate use. Thus in Part l the most basic genealogical sources are gathered together and discussed in light of a research project, while in Part 2 sources which have a more advanced application are examined. And in Part 3 there is a reference guide to a comprehensive range of materials including county source lists, printed family histories, and church records.

Here are some of the highlights of Tracing Your Irish Ancestors: Maps of all Catholic parishes, checklist of sources for wills and testamentary records, list of manuscripts in the Genealogical Office in Dublin, itemization of passenger and emigration lists, various county by county source lists, complete listing of family histories in the National Library of Ireland, complete listing of all Church of Ireland parish registers, and a listing of Irish research services, societies, and repositories.

The tremendous growth of interest in Irish family history since the publication of the first edition of Tracing Your Irish Ancestors has brought to light many new sources and has radically changed the way in which some familiar sources can be used. These developments--along with a need for updates and revisions to the existing text--are the primary reason for publishing a new edition, which includes an expanded account of Northern Ireland repositories and a more comprehensive description of the holdings of the Family History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But the most significant advance in this 2nd edition is the inclusion of a list of Roman Catholic parish records--a 150-page list of copies of all known Roman Catholic records that can be found in the National Library of Ireland, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the LDS Family History Library, and in local Irish Heritage Centers. County by county and church by church, this list gives the dates, locations, and formats of all existing copies of baptism, marriage, and burial records. Keyed to parish and county maps, it is perhaps the single most important finding aid available to the genealogist.