E:22/02 How to Trace Your Irish Ancestors by Ian Maxwell

http://www.maturetimes.co.uk/node/4698

Win a copy of 'How to Trace Your Irish Ancestors'

23/01/2008
There are many advantages in looking back to the past and researching our families, not least because it allows us to associate key historical events with our ancestors and more immediately with ourselves.

For many Irish genealogists they will always feel the impact of the Irish Civil War, not because of the way it affected their early 20th century forbearers but because of the barriers it now presents when trying to trace their ancestry today. The destruction of the Public Record Office in Dublin during the Irish Civil War and the loss of so many irreplaceable records has meant that many people from around the world have been denied the easy route to discovering their past ever since.

How To Trace Your Irish Ancestors is a new book out this month by Ian Maxwell and is an essential guide for any family historian whose research has been hampered by the destruction of so many major record collections in Ireland.

Commenting on his reasons for writing the book, Maxwell says, “The purpose of this book is to highlight the most important documentary evidence available to researchers in archives throughout Ireland. Many, like the Irish Poor Law records and Grand Jury records, have been traditionally overlooked by all but the most experienced family historians.”

This extremely practical guide dedicates a whole chapter to each of the various ways of tracking down the evidence needed so that piecing together the past of your Irish family can become as straightforward as it is for families in the British Isles.

Maxwell goes on to say, “It is more difficult to trace Irish families but not impossible and family historians can be surprised by the unifying force of their discoveries. Many Irish families come from a combination of backgrounds, not necessarily confined by religion and geography, and this challenges the popular conception of ‘two traditions’ – of planter and Gael – which has had such a lingering impact on Irish history and society.”

Ian Maxwell is former Records Officer at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, and is now a freelance writer for Family History Monthly and Ancestor magazines contributing to numerous articles on both Irish, Scottish and English history and genealogy and lecturing on those subjects too. Ian is also the author three other genealogy books.

How to Trace Your Irish Ancestors by Ian Maxwell (ISBN 978-1-84528-234-9) is available at all good bookstores priced at £9.99 or by calling 01476 541080 or visiting https://www.howtobooks.co.uk.

Mature Times has 10 copies of the book to give away. For your chance to win a copy, just answer the following question.

An interview with which celebrity is featured in the Genealogy section of our Hobbies pages?
:j Tony Robinson :j

Competition closes 22nd February 2008