Want to discover your Irish and Scots-Irish Ancestors?

Many people believe that researching Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors is impossible because of the destruction of the Public Record Office in 1922. While many records were destroyed, others survived and have come online in recent years.

Join experts Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt from the Ulster Historical Foundation to learn how to get the most out of Irish resources and records, gain strategies for breaking down brick walls, and grasp important historical context that may help fill in gaps in your research.

Whether you are just beginning your Irish research or have been at it for years, you won’t want to miss this workshop!

Find out more by attending at the Genealogical Society of Qld Inc. resource rooms, 25 Stackpole Street, Wishart, or via Zoom to a special Irish and Scots-Irish seminar from the Ulster Historical Foundation:

Irish Mini Seminar with Ulster Historical Foundation

Date: Thursday 15th February 2024
Time: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM AEST

Staff from the Ulster Historical Foundation – Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt will present a seminar on Irish and Scots-Irish genealogy for beginners and active family historians.

Program topics will include:

• Using landed estate records: tracing families in the 18th & 19th century.
  The documents generated by the management of landed estates in Ireland are among the most valuable of records for the local and family historian. This presentation will look at the background to landed estates in Ireland, before going on to discuss the more useful sources found in estate collections. And while historically because of the nature of these records they were the least likely to be digitised/transcribed, that too has been changing in recent years, and attention will be drawn to where some of these records can now be found online.
• Using the Registry of Deeds: an important source for 18th century research.
  In 1708 the Registry of Deeds was established in Dublin as a repository for all kinds of documents relating to the transfer of title to land, including leases from landlord to tenant. This presentation will explain the value of the records of this archive which survives complete from 1708, but which can often be an overlooked or daunting resource for researchers.
• Newspapers as a source for Irish research.
  While every genealogist knows that newspapers are an important source of family history information, historically the major drawback to their use was the paucity of online access and the lack of indexes to names, places and subjects. The landscape has changed radically in recent years with more and more Irish news titles coming online at quite a number of major collections. With access having dramatically changed researchers can enjoy the wealth of detail on individuals that newspapers can provide. Not only the obvious – birth, death and marriage notices (though in many cases a newspaper notice may be the only record of one of these events if it took place prior to civil registration and if a church record has not survived) but a full gamut of information on our ancestors and their lives as they lived them – for good or ill; whether tragic or heroic, and importantly speaking of the connections of an Irish diaspora and a wider world as reported in the press.
• The Ulster Plantation and sources for finding 17th century families in Ireland (not just Ulster).
  This presentation will look at sources which can throw light on families in the seventeenth century. It identifies documents relating to the Plantation period (1610–41), such as the Muster Roll of 1630/31 and also considers a range of sources from the second half of the seventeenth century, such as hearth money rolls, the Civil Survey and poll books, early surviving church records, and much else, which are of use to genealogists. The presentation will also provide information on a range of resources published in the past few years which can help researchers. The sources discussed will relate to the island of Ireland generally and not only the northern province of Ulster.

The seminars provide very practical and detailed information and will explore strategies for researching Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors. The program content covers the whole island of Ireland, not solely Ulster.

The presenters are from one of Ireland’s foremost genealogy research organisations and publishing houses and they will give advice on what to do and where to go next.

These sessions will help the beginner and the seasoned genealogist alike.

About the speakers:

Gillian Hunt
is Research Officer with the Ulster Historical Foundation and is responsible for the management of the Foundation’s many genealogical activities. As well as managing the genealogy side of the Foundation’s work, Gillian carries out research for clients and is a hugely experienced user of the General Register Office and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. She regularly teaches courses in Northern Ireland and gives talks on family history in the rest of the UK and Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Gillian has been co-presenting our annual North American lecture tours since 2013 and has been with the Ulster Historical Foundation since 2001.

Fintan Mullan
is Executive Director of the Ulster Historical Foundation and has been responsible for the management of this successful Northern Ireland-based, educational non-profit since 2001. He has extensive experience in Irish family history research and is a regular international speaker on Irish genealogy, having spoken in Ireland, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most of the lower 48 states of the USA. He has managed the production of over 150 Irish history and genealogy titles, including the perennial favourite, Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors. Fintan has ensured the Foundation has been at the forefront of developments in Irish genealogy, including heritage tourism products and the provision of online resources. He helped to pioneer www.rootsireland.ie, the unique database with over 22 million Irish historical records. He is a non-executive director of the Irish Family History Foundation.

Gillian and Fintan last visited Australia and New Zealand on a lecture tour in 2017 culminating in New Zealand Society of Genealogists’ 50th Anniversary Conference and are delighted to be returning again in 2024.

About the organisation
Ulster Historical Foundation has been helping people to trace their Irish and Ulster ancestors for 65+ years, and is one of the most experienced, long established and highly reputable organisations in Ireland in the field of Irish family history. For more information on our services please visit: www.ancestryireland.com

The Foundation is a leading genealogical research agency in Ireland and a major publisher of historical, educational and genealogical source books. It has also devised a series of ground-breaking online historical and genealogical resources, which have helped to transform the availability of Irish records for family historians at home and abroad.

The Foundation is a non-profit organisation (Registered Charity No. NIC 1002800) based in Northern Ireland and established in 1956 to promote interest in Irish genealogy and history, with reference to the historic nine-county province of Ulster. 

This event will be recorded and made available to registered attendees only and made available for 3 weeks only to view after 2nd March 2024, when their tour of Australia and New Zealand finishes.

All tickets close on Wednesday 14th February 2024 at 3:00 PM

The link to attend via Zoom will be sent out after 4:00 PM 14th February 2024.

Sorry the In Person attendance has now closed but you can still attend via Zoom.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR RAFFLE TICKETS !!!