If you have never hired a professional genealogist before, I would like to offer guidelines to assist you in being a savvy consumer. While my advice will discuss some aspects unique to exploring your Irish family history, many of the principles are widely applicable. Hiring a genealogist is not like hiring a plumber, who is expected to fix your sink. In hiring a genealogist you are purchasing expertise and a block of time. Not results. This is because there is no way of knowing ahead of time if your ancestor’s names will appear in the old records. When you hire a genealogist, you need to be confident that he or she is knowledgeable. Some genealogists specialize only in one area such as the United States or only in Ireland. If your goal is to “get them over the water” then you need someone skilled in both. The answer to Irish origins, often lie in the records of the immigrant country not in the Irish records. Books, blogs, past research and journal articles written by a particular genealogist can help you determine quickly a researcher’s specialty level and depth of knowledge. When considering Irish related research, here are some bases from which to judge your results: • The average Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist church register only begin in the 1820s or 1830s. Sometimes even later. Half the Church of Ireland (Anglican, Episcopal) parish registers were destroyed in the 1922 Civil War which saw the archives burn. The other half typically begin in the later 1700s or early 1800s. However, the Quaker records can start in the 1600s and the Moravian registers in the 1700s! • The government began recording Protestant marriages in 1845 and all births, marriages and deaths in 1864. However, many families after 1864 were lax in registering. • Unless you tie into a prominent land-holding family, the average tenant farmer family can only be traced back to about 1800 or the later part of the 1700s. Just about all the cases I work on start in one country, sometimes go into another, and only then I’m prepared for research in the Irish records. If you only know “Ireland” as a birthplace, then chances are this is an immigrant research problem first. Often enough information is already known about the family that efforts can begin directly in the Irish records. Remember, even if all the Irish records were indexed online, and you even knew a county of origin – which “Mary Kelly” or “Patrick Sullivan” is yours if you don’t know their parent’s names? This is why research in the immigrant country first can help circumvent these types of issues. Hard Work Pays Off To me the biggest perk to Irish research is if I can pin your direct family, sibling or parent who stayed and was taxed in in Griffiths Primary Valuation (1847-64), then this leads to historic maps showing the exact plot of ground where your ancestors lived. Then you can buy your plane ticket and go visit the site. To me that is more personal and satisfying than researching back hundreds of years. You can literally walk where your ancestors did.
Specialized Knowledge
Know the limitations of your area
Immigrant Research