Hoffman Research Library, MN Genealogy Center, 1385 Mendota Heights Road, Ste 100
Stop by the library for Irish research help.
Saturday, December 25
Library Closed (Other)
Saturday, January 1, 2022
Library Closed (Other)
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Researching in Ireland - Searching High and Low (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CST (UTC-6)
Instructor: Fiona Fitzsimons
$15 for IGSI members; $20 for non-members
Gasp! Not all the records you need to find your ancestors in Ireland are online. You NEED to go to Ireland! In this presentation, Fiona Fitzsimons will help prepare you for researching in Ireland. She'll take you through what you need to do to prepare the groundwork for your research trip (opening hours, access, finding aids, catalogues, etc.), introduce you to cultural institutions (NLI, NAI, PRONI) and repositories (Valuation Office, Registry of Deeds) plus clue you in to local evidence in your ancestor's county of birth (county libraries). Perhaps you want to trace your family after 1921 (GRO, GRONI) or visit your ancestral home (maps, graveyards/cemeteries, local contacts). Fiona will help you have the most successful research trip.
IGSI members can obtain the required Discount code by contacting the IGSI Education Team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org prior to registration.
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Traveling in Ireland (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CST (UTC-6)
Instructor: Maria Flynn Conway
Free for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
Maria Flynn Conway, a native of Waterford, Ireland, is a St. Paul, MN based tour operator specializing in Ireland. She will answer basic traveler questions such as when should you go to Ireland, planning an itinerary, transportation, where to stay, what to do before you leave, what to pack, where to eat, and all the other questions you have whether you are planning your own trip or going with a group.
IGSI members can obtain the required Discount code by contacting the IGSI Education Team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org prior to registration.
Saturday, February 5, 2022
Focusing Your Genealogy Research (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CST (UTC-6)
Instructors: Shirleen Hoffman and Lois Abromitis Mackin, Ph.D.
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
This webinar will help you develop a solid foundation for your research. First you will learn simple tools, including identity profiles and timelines, to organize what you know and provide a springboard for future investigation. Then Shirleen and Lois will teach you how to use those tools to develop detailed, focused questions that will target your research and make it more efficient and productive.
IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
Saturday, March 19, 2022
Combining DNA and Traditional Genealogy Techniques for Irish Family Tree Research (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CDT (UTC-5)
Instructor: Maurice Gleeson
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
DNA is a great additional tool for researching your Irish ancestral lines. Join internationally known expert Maurice Gleeson as he explores various ways in which DNA and documentary evidence can work hand in hand to break through your Irish Brick Walls. Topics to be explored include: characterizing each Irish Brick Wall; Irish Naming Convention; ways to grab the low hanging fruit; working with Clusters; Triangulated Segments; triangulating with Y-DNA and mtDNA; and Ancestor Reconstruction.
Various tools will be mentioned along the way including: Shared cM Tool, WATO, autoclusters, etc. And, in addition, we will discuss how to build a simple but dffective Descendancy Chart and Shared DNA Matrix that allows you to see all key matches for a given cluster, from all companies, on a single page.
IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Innovation in Ireland: Creative Resources for Your Irish Research (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CDT (UTC-5)
Instructor: Jen Baldwin
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
Irish genealogy is notoriously difficult, so researchers must apply creative tools and techniques - as well as use creative records - to obtain positive results. Explore a variety of routes through Irish family history and learn more about the collections available on Findmypast and elsewhere.
All you need to attend is an internet-connected device with audio capabilities (computer, iPad, smartphone, etc.)
Registration will open approximately 90 days before the program. IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
Saturday, June 4, 2022
The Power of Names in Irish Family History (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CDT (UTC-5)
Instructor: David Ouimette
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
Names are the most powerful means of identifying ancestors. In this presentation, we illustrate three name-based techniques for tracing Irish ancestors: name-variant research, cluster genealogy, and surname heat maps. Name-variant research uncovers the numerous ways your Irish ancestral surnames and given names appear in original documents and indexes, thus helping you discover more family records.
Cluster genealogy focuses on researching extended family and Irish neighbors who may have the same origins as your illusive immigrant ancestors. Surname heat maps leverage the idea that your Irish ancestors and their surnames were likely tied to specific parishes over several generations; creating heat maps for multiple surnames reveals where the family names were collocated in Ireland. All three of these techniques capitalize on the power of names in Irish family history.
All you need to attend is an internet-connected device with audio capabilities (computer, iPad, smartphone, etc.)
Registration will open approximately 90 days before the program.
IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
Saturday, July 16, 2022
An Overview of Irish History (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CDT (UTC-5)
Instructor: Paul MacCotter
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
Historians estimate that Ireland was first settled by humans about 10,000 years ago. To our knowledge no one has traced their ancestors back that far but…wouldn’t you like to know what was happening in Ireland when your ancestors did live there? Join us as Dr. MacCotter takes us on an overview journey through Irish history. He touches briefly on all the key issues, challenging the many myths and legends and replacing them with the true picture of who are the Irish and what is their history.
All you need to attend is an internet-connected device with audio capabilities (computer, iPad, smartphone, etc.)
Registration will open approximately 90 days before the program.
IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
Saturday, August 6, 2022
An Irish Farm History (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CDT (UTC-5)
Instructor: Chris Paton
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
Genealogist Chris Paton will draw together many potential land and vital records resources to tell the story of an Irish family and their farm in County Kilkenny across the 19th and 20th centuries. Using an array of resources (vital records, newspapers, land records, census and military records) he will show how the genealogical narrative of the family was established from the 1820s to the mid-20th century. Along the way he will take the family's and property's story from its humblest of agricultural beginnings, to a dramatic episode of the Irish Civil War, and beyond.
All you need to attend is an internet-connected device with audio capabilities (computer, iPad, smartphone, etc.)
Registration will open approximately 90 days before the program.
IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Turning Dry Facts into Exciting Details (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
7:00 - 8:30 PM CDT (UTC-5)
Instructor: Carol Baxter
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
The ancestral facts that seem to us as precious as gold when we discover them, yet can seem dry when incorporated into a family history. How can we make our family histories interesting to our broader family? Some genealogists resort to fictionalizing their histories. However, the broader family usually has little interested in “recreated” scenes or “reimagined” dialogue. They want to know what really happened. So the author’s efforts may have an audience of only one: themselves.
Most genealogists write their family histories in the “encyclopaedia style” because this is the easiest nonfiction writing style for unskilled and skilled writers alike. However, while the dry facts we’ve found are the foundations of our family histories, they should only be used as stepping stones to more interesting information. They should never be the destination in themselves. This webinar provides different strategies for turning these dry facts into exciting narrative.
All you need to attend is an internet-connected device with audio capabilities (computer, iPad, smartphone, etc.)
Registration will open approximately 90 days before the program.
IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
Saturday, October 15, 2022
Irish Property Records: An Overview (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CDT (UTC-5)
Instructor: John Grenham
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
Property leaves traces long after people vanish. This talk looks at historic Irish institutions that recorded property transactions (The Registry of Deeds) and that created property tax records (The Valuation Office).They are two of the oldest intact record-holding institutions in Ireland and both provide (relatively) unbroken chains of evidence reaching back into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The talk outlines their history, the key records they hold and how to interpret them and, most importantly, how to get at them, especially online. Forthcoming developments in both will also be described.
All you need to attend is an internet-connected device with audio capabilities (computer, iPad, smartphone, etc.)
Registration will open approximately 90 days before the program.
IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
Saturday, November 5, 2022
Understanding Irish Place Names (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CDT (UTC-5)
Instructor: James Ryan
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
This talk outlines the origins and structure of the names of Irish places and explains the historical reasons for the variations in place names encountered in Irish records, caused by a process of anglicization of Irish or Gaelic place names over a long period. We will also outline the land divisions and places that required naming, and the practices that applied in this process.
It will also show key sources that are available to help in finding currently accepted placenames; and the books and websites available to provide the details of the locations of places; the name variations that applied; and maps of different scales and vintages. For each source the type of information contain ed will be shown, and how these reference sources can be found.
All you need to attend is an internet-connected device with audio capabilities (computer, iPad, smartphone, etc.)
Registration will open approximately 90 days before the program.
IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
Saturday, December 3, 2022
Searching for the Immigration Records of our Irish Ancestors (Webinars)
GoToWebinar - from the comfort and safety of your own home
10:30 AM - Noon CST (UTC-6)
Instructor: Mary Wickersham
$15 for IGSI members (with Discount Code sent in member email); $20 for non-members
Millions of U.S. passenger arrival records are available online; even more are not yet indexed from ships’ passenger manifests stored on microfilm at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. How can you tell when your ancestor came to the North America? Searching ship’s manifests and other historical records may provide you with clues about an ancestor’s date and ship of arrival in the U.S. Major resources for finding U.S. (and some Canadian) immigration information will be discussed and listed in the class handout with links to online repositories and helpful online how-to reading materials.
All you need to attend is an internet-connected device with audio capabilities (computer, iPad, smartphone, etc.)
Registration will open approximately 90 days before the program.
IGSI members will receive a Discount code via email.
You can reach the IGSI Education team at Education@IrishGenealogical.org
