RELEASE DATE: MAY 3, 2020
KINSEARCHING
by
Marleta Childs
P. O. Box 6825
LUBBOCK, TX 79493-6825
[email protected]
With the onslaught of technology’s constant influence on many aspects of research, how-to manuals and guide books have to be updated periodically in order to reflect the changes. To meet these needs, Brian Mitchell has completely revised his helpful work, NEW POCKET GUIDE TO IRISH GENEALOGY, while maintaining his original premise.
Mitchell begins his volume with a brief chapter about Irish history and its important connection to Irish family history. Other introductory chapters deal with getting started on research overseas (particularly Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the United States) and the first steps necessary to check out resources there.
The rest of the publication is divided into two main sections: sources and insights and strategies. Mitchell first focuses on the nature and uses of the major significant resources available in Ireland. These include civil and parish registers, gravestone inscriptions, wills, tithe applotment books, and censuses and census substitutes like Griffith’s Valuation and hearth money rolls. Next he furnishes information about additional sources, such as newspapers, directories, school registers, plantation and settlement records, military rolls, workhouse records, the registry of deeds, estate records, and ordnance survey memoirs.
In the section concerning insights and strategies, the author discusses Irish administrative divisions and place names, Irish surnames, Irish passenger lists, and DNA and genetic genealogy. He also updates the physical addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and websites for the major record repositories in Ireland, which now have much of their genealogical material available online. In addition, he supplies a list of publications useful in tracing Scots-Irish forebears in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Because he covers so much material in this volume, the author condenses beginning research methods down to a three-step guide that pertains to the basic vital statistics and census resources. To help researchers further understand how to use some of the sources discussed, Mitchell provides case studies tracing the Irish ancestry of Alderman James McCARRON of the city of Derry and the Scots-Irish ancestry of Abraham HILLHOUSE in County Derry.
Mitchell skillfully blends his knowledge of the subject, illustrations, and case studies to convey a wealth of data in this one volume. Family historians attempting to connect the roots of their lineage back to the Emerald Isle will want to get a copy of NEW POCKET GUIDE TO IRISH GENEALOGY.
The 122-page paperback contains several maps and charts that illustrate information found in various types of documents. To the book's price of $25.00, buyers should add the cost for postage and handling charges. For U. S. postal mail, the cost is $5.50 for one book and $2.50 for each additional copy; for UPS, the cost is $7.50 for one copy and $2.50 for each additional book. The volume (item order #8574) may be purchased by check, MasterCard, or Visa from Clearfield Company, 3600 Clipper Mill Rd., Suite 260, Baltimore, Maryland 21211 (for phone orders, call toll free 1-800-296-6687; fax 1-410-752-8492; website www.genealogical.com).