The following is an excerpt from the current issue of Family Chronicle...

Mapping Out Your Irish Family History

Tony Bandy offers the best online and offline resources for finding Irish maps

Do you have any Irish ancestors? Does your family research keep bringing you back to Ireland’s shores? If so, you’ll find there are many resources, sites and materials to help you get started. Before settling on one method of research, don’t overlook one of the best: maps! From country to county, to legal and historical, maps and related documentation can often provide facts and information not found anywhere else. Let’s take a closer look at some of the mapping resources available to you, as well as various methods of research to consider when searching for your Irish ancestors.

Irish History
Maps and history go hand in hand. If you’re going to spend any length of time researching Irish genealogical resources, then you will benefit from knowing as much as you can about this island and its sometimes troubled past, yet promising future. Ireland today is actually made up of two separate countries: Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, located in the southern half of the country, which became an independent state in the 1920s.

From a research perspective, particularly with genealogical study, this division of one nation into two greatly influences how you go about finding more information.
For example, if your ancestors once lived in what is now Northern Ireland, then you will probably be spending time online at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, www.proni.gov.uk/index.htm. However, if your ancestors once lived in what is now the Republic of Ireland, then you will want to search the Irish National Archives, www.
nationalarchives.ie/. All differences aside, the separation of Ireland can make things quite confusing at times!

Beyond just politics, Ireland has seen more than its fair share of conflicts and wars over the last century. During the civil wars of the 1920s, many of the battles took place in Dublin, the center of government. One of the unfortunate side effects of this was the destruction of census information and other public records at the Four Courts building in Dublin, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_ Civil_War#Dublin_fighting. This doesn’t take into account other incidents, such as the destruction of census records during the First World War, due to a paper shortage.

All of these issues can make for extremely interesting research. If you don’t find many public documents, then don’t overlook the possibility of church records for sources and information. To quickly get you up to speed, take a look at the following resources about Ireland and its place in history:

General Background
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Republic_of_Ireland
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland

Ireland, Culture and Background
• www.google.com/Top/Regional/ Europe/Ireland/Society_and_ Culture/History/
• http://wikitravel.org/en/Northern_ Ireland
• http://wikitravel.org/en/Ireland

Mapping Resources
When starting your research for maps of Ireland, it’s important to remember that there’s a wide variety of resources to consider, from online resources to offline archives, books, CD’s and other repositories of information. Your use of each is only limited by the depth of research, funds and time. What I’ve done here is to try to give you a wide variety of sites, vendors and information that you can use in determining how to get started....

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