I gave a talk yesterday at South Ayrshire Libraries History and Family History Fair on Irish family history resources online, which had a great audience. Thanks to the organisers, and all the vendors there, for yet another great event.
In my talk I discussed how Irish research can often be more complicated than Scottish research, due to less detail in available Irish resources and in many cases, just a lack of resources - but it can still be done. Nowhere did this lesson hit home more so than last night, when quite unexpectedly I made the biggest discovery in my Irish family history research to date. It transpires that my ancestors, in this case the BILL family from Doagh, were involved in a major murder trial from 1874 - the Templepatrick Murder.
To understand the research process used to find it, I have written up last night's paper trail (website trail!) on my other wee blog at http://walkingineternity.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/another-irish-eureka-moment-and-another.html.
Last year I had a book written and published about a murder in Perthshire involving my family - now there's another murder, this time in Ireland. I think I'm beginning to feel more like Columbo than a genie...!
Chris
My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers, starts May 15th - see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/scotland-1750-1850-beyond-oprs-starts.html. Time to smash a few brick walls...!
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