Irish Emigration before 1850
history and genealogy
An Introduction To Family History or Genealogy
When you look around at our present comfortable existence it makes you think that, in comparison, our ancestors had quite a hard life. You may find your ancestors were forced out of their homes during the Highland Clearances (or the Irish equivalent), the Irish Famine, or died during the many epidemics of Cholera, Scarlet Fever, Consumption - even the Plague etc However you will also find stories of happiness and realise that in times of hardship there can be fun and laughter.
As you're reading this page, then you're already on the web looking for information about local history. What you will find can be pretty random, but it's always a good idea to enter a number of terms in your favourite search engine and see what comes up. Entering the name of the place you're interested in and 'local history', local history society', 'local studies library' will usually throw up some useful sites which may lead you further.
Local studies libraries are likely to have a comprehensive collection of books about the locality, including street directories. From an archival point of view their greatest asset is often a comprehensively indexed collection of press cuttings from local, and sometimes national, newspapers going back to before the First World War. They may well also have some original documents, such as poor law records or personal papers, but they are usually not the first place to see original material. Many will also have an extensive collection of local photographs and maps, especially Ordnance Survey maps. In addition, they may have oral history tapes and transcriptions, which include references to places and topics of interest to you.
Membership rarely costs more than a few pounds a year and most societies will hold between 6 and 12 meetings a year. In addition, many societies also publish their own newsletters, journals and books about local history. Your local library should be able to tell you about any local history societies in your area. Most counties have at least one county-wide local history association, which often acts as an umbrella group for all the societies in the county.
Lanarkshire Family History Society LFHS is a charitable organization which encourages the research of genealogy and general interests of Lanarkshire.
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Genealogy Resource Guide - good guide - links mostly US
Much can be done by yourself, using the facilities of the large network of family history centres run by the Mormon church primarily for their own members but open to everyone - free of charge - but you will have to book. They can borrow microfilm of the parish registers and census records you need, but not much of the statutory registers are available this way. If you live in the UK, most large libraries and some family history societies have lots of family history material for their area on microfilm. You don't always have to go to Edinburgh or London or Dublin to see the originals.
Happy Hunting!!
