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Researching Northern Irish Ancestors 2021

  

|  Topics |  Special Offers & Door prizes |  Recorded Presentations & Materials |  Instructor Bios |

 

Welcome!

Thank you for registering for the online conference, Researching Northern Irish Ancestors!

The Scots-Irish have been migrating from Northern Ireland to the United States and Canada since the early 18th century. As with any genealogical research, there are challenges to researching your Northern Irish ancestors—finding their exact origins, sifting through common names, working through record loss—but there is a way forward! This online conference aims to provide you with the historical context, record overview, and research strategies to not only make real headway in your family history research, but also provide you with a better understanding of your ancestors’ daily life. This conference will focus on the six counties within Northern Ireland (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone), and provide some suggestions for researching in the three additional counties within Ulster Province (Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan).

Through your participation in this online conference, you will be able to:

  • Access 5+ hours of presentations 
  • Hear from renowned speakers, authors, and professional genealogists
  • Interact with the instructors and fellow attendees 
  • Take advantage of special offers and virtual “door prizes” 
  • Download and/or print handouts, worksheets, templates, and other resources
  • Access recordings of each presentation until June 30, 2021

SESSION TOPICS

Class 1: A Brief History of Northern Ireland and the Scots-Irish Migration to America, Presented by Judy Lucey  
Understanding how your ancestor’s life fits into a greater context is critical to understanding their motivations, daily experience, and may shed light on new avenues of research. This first class will provide a brief history of Northern Ireland and offer an overview of key waves of migration to America.

Class 2: Determining Origins: Using American Records, Presented by Eileen Pironti  
Before we can make the leap across the pond and dive into the records in Northern Ireland, we must first know exactly where our ancestors came from—beyond the county. There are several types of American records that can lead us to this information. This class will review both common—and less common—records that can assist you in making that leap.

Class 3: Records in Northern Ireland: Religious Records, Presented by Rhonda R. McClure  
Church records and parish registers are an essential resource for anyone researching Irish ancestry. This class will review the records and resources available for Protestant, Catholic, and Presbyterian ancestors living in Northern Ireland. We will look at what records exist, what they contain, how to locate them, and how to apply them to your family history research.

Class 4: Records in Northern Ireland: Landed Estates, Presented by Rhonda R. McClure  
Estate records can provide an incredible amount of information on both for land-owning ancestors and tenants. Because these records aren’t in a single location, not always digitized, and seldom indexed, they are frequently overlooked by genealogists. In this class we will demonstrate how to navigate and leverage these important records.

Class 5: Researching in Northern Ireland, Presented by Judy Lucey  
This final class will review additional—often overlooked—records from Northern Ireland, provide an overview of key repositories, and offer advice on how to plan a research trip to your ancestral homeland.

Q&A with the Instructor, LIVE!
Saturday, March 20, 2021 2:00 - 3:30 PM EDT  
Chat with the instructors, interact with fellow participants, and get your questions answered! 

SPECIAL OFFERS & DOOR PRIZES

SPECIALS: For conference attendees only! — Save $10 on an order of $30 or more at our  online bookstore. Just enter NIconf032021 as your promo code at the time of online checkout. Offer valid until April 7, 2021.  Start browsing today!

DOOR PRIZES: Everyone was entered to win a 30-minute consultation with a genealogist (two chances to win). Congratulations to Anne LaFoley and Isaac Stewart.

RECORDED PRESENTATIONS

Click on a session below to access class recordings, handouts, and slides.

INSTRUCTOR BIO

Judy Lucey, Senior Archivist joined the staff in 2003. She received a B.S. in Education from Northeastern University and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. She has written several articles for American Ancestors magazine, is co-author of Genealogist's Handbook for Irish Research (2016), and has led several research tours to Ireland and Northern Ireland. Her genealogical areas of expertise include Irish genealogy, Newfoundland, 19th and 20th century genealogy, beginning genealogy, Italian genealogy, and the history of Cambridge and Somerville, Mass.

Rhonda R. McClure, Senior Genealogist is a nationally recognized professional genealogist and lecturer specializing in New England and celebrity research as well as computerized genealogy; is compiler of more than 120 celebrity family trees; has been a contributing editor for Heritage Quest Magazine, Biography magazine and was a contributor to The History Channel Magazine and American History Magazine. In addition to numerous articles, she is the author of ten books, including the award-winning The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy, now in its second edition, Finding Your Famous and Infamous Ancestors, and Digitizing Your Family History. Her areas of expertise include Immigration and naturalization, Late 19th and early 20th Century urban research, Missionaries (primarily in association with the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions), State Department Federal Records, New England, Mid-West, Southern, German, Italian, Scottish, Irish, French Canadian, and New Brunswick research as well as Internet research, genealogical software (FTM, RootsMagic, TMG, Reunion), digital peripherals, and uses both Mac and Windows machines.

Eileen Pironti, Genealogist of the Newbury Street Press graduated with a B.A. from Saint Anselm College, and received an M.S. from American University. She wrote about her ancestors’ participation in the colonization of Nobles County, Minnesota in “‘An Invitation to the Land’: Reconstructing James and Eliza Conlon’s Migration to Minnesota,” which was published in the Summer 2011 issue of American Ancestors magazine. She has also helped lead two research tours to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her areas of expertise include Irish, Scottish, and 19th century New England research.

 

CLASS MATERIALS

Class 1 Handout
Class 1 Additional Suggested Reading
Class 1 Slides Worksheet
Class 1 Slides (large)
Class 2 Handout
Class 2 Slides Worksheet
Class 2 Slides (large)
Class 3 Handout
Class 3 Slides Worksheet
Class 3 Slides (large)
Class 4 Handout
Class 4 Slides Worksheet
Class 4 Slides (large)
Class 5 Handout
Class 5 Slides Worksheet
Class 5 Slides (large)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Subject Guide: Irish Genealogy

Database: Irish Newspaper Archive (scroll down; access included in membership)

Database: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland (scroll down; access included in membership)

Handout: Introduction to Griffith's Valuation

Handout: Survey of Irish Records Online