Tracing Your Irish Ancestors: The Complete Guide (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive guide for anyone wishing to trace their Irish ancestors..." (more)
Key Phrases: National Archives, Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland, Church of Ireland (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Written by a professional Irish genealogist at the Genealogical Office in Dublin, this book is the product of more than a decade of professional research. It focuses on tracing ancestors in Ireland and, while designed for researchers at different levels of experience, its intent is to provide help even for the "hard-bitten veteran." It is organized into three parts: Part 1 addresses the most basic genealogical sources (civil, census, church, and land records); Part 2 discusses more advanced tools (wills, emigration, deeds, newspapers, directories, and the Genealogical Office in Dublin); Part 3 offers a reference guide to a wide range of more fugitive resources (county source lists, printed family histories, church records, and research services, societies, and repositories). Revised editions could profit from more readable maps, more complete and current bibliographical references, an enlarged scope that includes Irish research in the United States and Canada, and a comprehensive bibliography of published sources. Still, the book provides a good beginning as a replacement for Margaret Dickson Falley's Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research (self-published, 1962). Grenham's book is by far the best work available on Irish genealogy and is essential for individuals and institutions researching the subject. For a comprehensive collection development article on genealogy, see the reviewer's "Branching Out into Genealogy," LJ 11/1/92.--Ed.
- Judith P. Reid, Library of Congress
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

The new edition has been revised to include more broadly relevant material, such as a listing of copies of Roman Catholic records, covering dates, locations and formats. This edition also includes details of the Family History Centres of the Mormon Church, one of the world's richest genealogical archives.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Gill & MacMillan; 2nd edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0717127966
• ISBN-13: 978-0717127962
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,911,916 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The modern "bible" for Irish research., August 21, 2000

By	Mark Howells (Puyallup, Washington State, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Tracing Your Irish Ancestors 2nd edition (Paperback)

This handy paperback is the first place to start for Irish research.

Irish ancestors can be very elusive due to a variety of factors. Don't get frustrated - get educated. You CAN hunt your Emerald Isle ancestors successfully when armed with the knowledge in this book.

While covering all of the standard civil, church, census, and land records, Grenham's book also covers wills, deeds, newspapers, directories, and other less-used records. The final third of the book is a county-by-county reference guide describing extant censuses and substitutes, available local histories, monumental inscriptions and other sources for each county.

One of the outstanding features of the book is the Catholic parish maps for each county. These were drawn by the author's father and give the date of the earliest records available for each parish.

A researcher with Irish heritage must be as indefatigable and adaptable as their own Irish forebears were in order find them in the existing records. This book is one of the tools you need to start with.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of Irish genealogical records, February 5, 1999

By	[e-mail] "panman" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tracing Your Irish Ancestors (Paperback)

I've just begun to research my Irish ancestors and this book presents an extremely thorough list of resources available to help with this search. Not only a detailed catalog of what's available, the book also does a great job of suggesting how best to use each type of record to reach your goals.

If you are a US resident researching your Irish ancestors, there is a decent section pointing out which US records may be of assistance. The book seems written in general, though, for those who live in Ireland or are otherwise able to get there to do research. I would have found it helpful to have a little more information about what each agency is able to do by mail (or online) for those of us who can't get to Ireland!

All in all, the book was well worth the money.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Grenham - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors, May 6, 2002

By	"mmeconroy" (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tracing Your Irish Ancestors (Paperback)

I live in Ireland and I bought this book about October, 2001. It's an updated version of the 1993 book. Having looked through many books in libraries, I found this to be the ultimate guide to Irish genealogy. I have succeeded in tracing my family back to the eighteenth century from information about parish records, census records etc, as John lists them so well. It gives details of sources county by county in chronological order. The church record listing is also excellent. This is definitely the Irish genealogy bible.