Introduction to Irish Genealogy

Overview

Lectures

Speakers

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  William Roulston grew up on the family farm at Bready, County Tyrone. He joined the Ulster Historical Foundation as a researcher in 1997, becoming Research Officer in 2002 and Research Director in 2006. He was awarded a PhD in Archaeology by Queen’s University Belfast in 2004 for a thesis on the provision, building and architecture of Anglican churches in the north of Ireland, 1600–1740. He is involved in a number of organisations in the heritage field and serves as a Member of Council of both the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society and the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland and is the Convener of the Reformed Presbyterian Church History Committee. He has lectured widely on a range of historical and genealogical subjects in the UK, Ireland and North America. William is the author of a number of books looking at different aspects of the history of Ireland and the sources for its study, including Restoration Strabane, 1660–1714 (2007), Three Centuries of Life in a Tyrone Parish ... Donagheady, 1600–1900 (2010), Abercorn: the Hamiltons of Barons Court (2014), Foyle Valley Covenanters (2015), Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors, 1600–1800 (2nd edition, 2018), Researching Presbyterian Ancestors in Ireland (2020) and Researching Farming Ancestors in Ireland (2021). He was co-editor of Fermanagh: History and Society (2004), Transatlantic Lives: The Irish Experience in Colonial America (2019) and Lough Neagh: An Atlas of the Natural, Built and Cultural Heritage (2022), and co-author of Exiles of ’98: Ulster Presbyterians and the United States (2018).

  Dr William Roulston
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  Fintan Mullan is Executive Director of Ulster Historical Foundation, which he joined in 1995, and has been responsible for the management of this successful Belfast-based, educational non-profit since 2001. He has extensive experience in Irish family history research and is a regular international speaker on Irish genealogy, having spoken in Ireland, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most of the lower 48 states of the USA. He has managed the production of over 150 Irish history and genealogy titles. Fintan has helped to ensure that the Foundation has been at the forefront of developments in Irish genealogy, including heritage tourism products and the provision of online resources. He helped to pioneer www.rootsireland.ie, the unique database with over 22 million Irish historical records. He is a non-executive director of the Irish Family History Foundation.

  Fintan Mullan
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  Gillian Hunt is Research Officer with the Ulster Historical Foundation and manages the Foundation’s many genealogical activities; she has been with the Foundation since 2001. As well as managing the genealogy side of the Foundation's work, Gillian carries out research for clients and is a hugely experienced user of the General Register Office and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland where she sits on PRONI’s Stakeholder Forum. She regularly teaches courses in Northern Ireland and gives talks on family history in the rest of Ireland, the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, co-presenting our annual North American lecture tours since 2013. Gillian also co-delivered (with Fintan Mullan) the British Institute’s week-long Irish genealogy course in Salt Lake City in October 2018 (hosted by the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History) and will be teaching this course again in October 2022. Gillian has carried out the research for a number of television programmes, as well as appearing in several, most recently BBC’s ‘Stephen Nolan: Ulster-Scots, My Family and Me’

  Gillian Hunt

Resources

Classroom

Module Classroom