Episodes

In this episode, Mike Collins chats with Jayne McGarvey (our Green Room genealogist) about what drives a genealogist crazy about how some people use ancestry.com. We talk through the strengths and weaknesses of ancestry.com, problems specific to Irish ancestry research and how people can improve the way they use ancestry.com. Lots of nuggets from a practising Irish ancestry genealogist.

Join Mike and Carina as they chat about just one reader story from the Irish Land Wars of the late 1800s. Our reader shares an amazing story of immigration and now understands the reasons why her family were so reticent about talking of their Irish family history.

Join Mike and our head genealogist in The Green Room, Jayne McGarvey, as we chat about the usefulness of the Irish "Tithe Applotment Books" when discovering more about the location and lives of your Irish ancestors during the early 1800s.

Join Mike and Carina as we take around Inishmore - the largest of the Aran Islands which lies at the mouth of Galway Bay to the west of Ireland. It's a magical part of the world - and we travel around in the company of a very special tour guide.

We are (hopefully) at the closing stages of a pandemic as I write. However, our ancestors had to endure many pandemics and famines through the centuries - and all without the same access to medicines we enjoy today. Today's show is all about one famous Irish author whose mother had to endure a pandemic in her native Sligo town before heading off for a new life in Dublin.

Did you ever wonder how the Irish surnames in your family tree originated and evolved? This handy guide talks you through many Irish first names - and how they eventually led to Irish surnames - with plenty of examples along the way!

Would you like to join us on a tour of County Cork as we emerge from Covid restrictions here in Ireland? We take you on a circuit of a part of County Cork - stopping in 6 different places full of Castles, Stone Circles, Villages and Market Towns.