British and Irish research: the differences

Irish ancestry? If so you may benefit from viewing Wednesday's Legacy Family Tree webinar, given by Brian Donovan. It is online free to view for a week.

"Ireland was England’s oldest colony, so many assume the records will be the same. They are not precisely because the two country’s histories and their relationship to each other were different. We all know about the terrible loss of Irish records, but there are great treasure troves of surviving records which don’t exist in England - records about war, rebellion, security and land control. So while there are great obstacles (record loss, language, differing histories), there is a great wealth of resources rarely accessed by genealogists. This talk will examine these differences in records and research techniques between Britain and Ireland, why Irish records were created, or destroyed, and how they can be used to unlock your past."

The presentation started with an overview of Irish history and geography then moved on to the records and where they may be found online. The pace accelerated toward the end, you may want to pause the playback to note the web address unless you have a subscription giving access to a handout with clickable links.