Practical course on genealogy gives opportunity for those with interest in their Irish heritage

A weekend course in genealogy will be offered at the Genealogical Society’s Library and Archive, ‘An Doanchartlann’ in Dublin, beginning on 19 January 2013 for those interested in tracing their Irish heritage.

The class is a joint initiative between the Genealogical Society of Ireland and Ancestor Network.

'As a Bostonian who has lived in Ireland for a long time, I always had a fascination about my Irish roots' said John Hamrock, owner of the Ancestor Network told WorldIrish.

'My native Irish-speaking mother emigrated from Connemara to Boston in 1940' he said, 'her mother had also lived in Boston, but had returned to Galway to look after her elderly parents. My father's father had emigrated to Boston in 1914 not only for economic reasons, but also I think to avoid conscription in the British Army at the start of the Great War. All these things as well as wanting to know more about my Irish relatives aroused my curiosity and thus interest in genealogy.'

Hamrock said that he found that there were many adults who were interested in learning about how to research their family trees. 

This growing interest in genealogy, he says, stems from popular television programmes such as 'Who Do You Think You Are?', 'Blood of the Irish', 'Blood of the Travellers', and 'Dead Money' as well as the release online versions of Ireland's censuses by the National Archives of Ireland. 

'The challenge' Hamrock said, 'for many adults is that sometimes it is difficult to attend evening classes because of job, parenting or commuting pressures, so we decided to launch a Saturday class.'

According to John, the aim of the course is to teach people how to conduct research on their own families, combining an academic and practical approach to teaching people about genealogy.  

On the academic side, we point out to the students the various sources that can be used in compiling a family tree and narrative as primary and secondary sources and how to write their own families' histories.

On the practical front, we offer classes in how to research via the internet, but also take the students on guided tours into libraries and centres such as the National Library of Ireland, Dublin City Library and Archive, the Registry of Deeds, the Royal Irish Academy, etc.

There we show the students how to register for a reader's ticket, access the records, and how to use microfilm readers and such like.  With more and more information coming onto the internet, recent examples being the Morpeth Roll (NUI Maynooth and Ancestry.com), and the Tithe Applotment Books (National Archives of Ireland), learning how to research on the internet is a crucial skill, but knowing how to research in archives and libraries is also critical. 

Image: Wikimedia Commons: Family Tree Detail

In September 2012, Hamrock and his team launched an evening Introduction to Irish genealogy course with All Hallows College in Drumcondra, Dublin. The college is part of Dublin City University and the genealogy course is part of the Adult Learning Bachelor of Arts programme.

'We had in excess of thirty adults who participated in that class.'

There is a formal syllabus for the class but students are required to write a paper and to take part in a presentation at the end of term.

Ancestor Network, was part of the group appointed in May 2012 by the National Library of Ireland and the National Archives of Ireland to provide genealogical advisory services to visitors of these two cultural institutions.

With The Gathering now underway [...] Ancestor Network has submitted tenders to a number of counties in Ireland to either help train Irish people how to conduct research for visitors coming to their local parishes or to train the visitors themselves.  

2013 should be a very busy year for us.

The programme has been running for over two years and has trained close to fifty people. You can find out more about it by checking out ancestor.ie here.