Pure genealogy, that is the collecting of names, dates and places, can be very sterile. A family history aims to put flesh on the bare bones with anecdotes, pictures and objects and encourages an understanding of the periods and locations in which our ancestors lived.

All genealogies reach a stage where no more family information can be uncovered, a point sometimes referred to as 'The Wall'. Research in Irish sources tends to reach that point earlier than most. Sooner or later, all genealogical research begins to move into the grey area between family and local history, where record sources are used not just for the information they may contain on individuals, but for the light they shed on a locality and a way of life.

A good guide to the process of writing a family history is TV FitzHugh's How To Write A Family History: The Lives and Times of our Ancestors, Sherbourne, Dorset, Alphabooks Ltd., 1988.

Further hints and tips can be found on Rootsweb at www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.com/gfaol/reunion/WriteHist.

A good online source about what has been written on the Irish in Britain is The Irish in Britain, 1750-1922: A Bibliographical study at www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/guides/brit.

Ordnance Survey Letters
Between 1834 and 1841 John O'Donovan was employed by the first Ordnance Survey of Ireland to ascertain the original names of the places being mapped. In the course of his travels O'Donovan also wrote detailed accounts of the localities themselves, in the form of letters to his superior in Dublin. The Ordnance Survey Letters, as they are known, detail the way of life of the people, their language and customs, the surnames, the countryside, local monuments and big houses, and much more. They cover every county, except for Antrim, Cork and Tyrone. Some have now been published; most remain in typescript. There are copies in the National Library of Ireland and in the local county libraries.

Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837, reproduced 1977)
This covers each civil parish in Ireland. Along with brief histories and physical descriptions of the locality, the entries list local gentry, schools and churches.

Newspapers
These are often an extremely fruitful source for family and local historians. Read more about using newspapers for research Newspapers: Dates and Areas.

Outrage Papers
These are a subset of the correspondence received by the Chief Secretary's office in Dublin Castle, now in the Public Record Office of Ireland. They cover the years 1832-52 and consist of reports, generally from the Constabulary, of local unrest, often with much circumstantial and personal detail. They are organised county by county and year by year.

Fenian Papers
Also in the Public Record Office of Ireland, these papers detail Fenian suspects over the period 1857-83 and include over 500 photographs of Fenian suspects.

A boom in local studies in Ireland over the past 20 years has seen the publication of many excellent local histories. The National Library of Ireland online catalogue at www.nli.ie is a very good source for recent publications.

Local or county libraries act as a focus for local history studies in their area, as well as holding records and local publications which may not be available elsewhere. See Irish County Libraries Contact Information or www.familia.org.uk/libraries for contact details of all the county libraries.

In the Republic, recent years have seen a proliferation of local museums, often supported by county councils, which overlap in many respects with the local libraries. The best are superb, like Dungarvan Museum in Wateford. See www.dungarvanmuseum.org

Please follow the link for Contact Details of Family and Local History Societies.

There are many useful internet sites to aid your search for Irish ancestors, though there are very few primary records online, and transcriptions are partial and of variable quality. Link here for a list of Recommended Internet sites on Irish Family History.