The Irish Genealogical Research Society

The Irish Genealogical Research Society The Irish Genealogical Research Society is a learned Society established in 1936. The primary concern back then was to gather together copies of materials compiled before the 1922 Great Fire at the Public Record Office in Dublin.

The core of their unique reference Library was formed at this time, and the collection has been greatly expanded since. The Library is currently located in London and is widely recognised as the world’s largest and most important collection of Irish genealogical material held in private hands.

History
In 2011 in his weekly column in The Irish Times, John Grenham – arguably Ireland’s most well-known modern day genealogist – described the Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) as the “great granddaddy of all Irish family history societies“.

The Ireland Branch was established in 1967, and was reorganised with an elected committee in 1986, at the request of members living in the Irish Republic and in Northern Ireland.

In the last few decades, the IGRS has grown and prospered, in line with an upsurge of interest in family history research generally. In 2012, membership topped 700 individuals worldwide. The IGRS is involved in various educational and scholarly programmes and projects. For example, each year lectures are sponsored in both London and Dublin.

Benefits

 * The Irish Genealogist
 * Twice-annual newsletter and other publications
 * Access to the online members-only section of the website, as well as access to the Members Discussion Forum
 * Access to the unique library collection

Publications

 * The Irish Genealogist was first published in 1937 and fairly regularly since that time. Over the years, authors of articles have included some of the most well known and respected Irish genealogists. IGRS also publishes Irish Roots Magazine. Along with the newsletters and electronic bulletins, the IGRS periodically publishes special publications of genealogical interest.

Benefits of Membership in Local Family History Societies
The following advantages and benefits of joining a local family history society will help you extend your pedigree and grow your knowledge and research skills in each England county:


 * 1) One of the best ways to discover other (distant) relatives, with whom to collaborate on family lines.
 * 2) Learn about events and local history which directly affected your ancestors.
 * 3) Know how/what effective search strategies and other critical approaches to employ in your research.
 * 4) Obtain numerous ideas for helping you overcome brickwalls in constructing your genealogy.
 * 5) Learn about, use, help create critical products being compiled by each society, such as transcribing or indexing churchyard, marriage, baptism, census, military, occupation, and etc records of the area or county, perhaps even helping to build data content for your parish[es] of interest (i.e.index) if desired.
 * 6) Purchase books, CDs, microfiche, or the services of knowledgeable and experienced local residents to perform "lookup" services for all those researching ancestry from remote areas around the world.
 * 7) Share/publish your ancestral surnames of interests for others to view and respond with help and assistance in various ways.