Genealogy Steps 11 to 17

11. Visit LDS CenterCall in to the nearest Church of Latter Day Saints or Mormon center where you can get lots of help. They have huge databases of genealogical records and are well worth contacting or visiting even if you are not of their faith.

12. Go to your own national or regional General Records Office
When you have discovered rough dates of birth, marriage or death of ancestors you are now ready to apply for their registered details or certificates. Check out census records, and civil and church records of 'vital' events like birth, marriage and death.

13. Check Church Records
If you know the church that your ancestor attended (no matter how infrequently), then enquire about their baptismal, marriage and burial records.

14. Contact Regional / National Library/ Archives
Make contact with larger libraries and archives that may have documents, information and services. This could prove to be very worthwhile.

15. Use the Internet
Get on the internet and check out everything you can find. Check out sites relating to the Irish in your own country, as well as those dealing with Irish genealogy generally like www.irishgen.com (launch in March 2002). Use the search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Altavista etc to find more specific sites. There are literally hundreds of thousands of genealogy sites. Place messages on their message boards or forums seeking help with aspects of your search.

There are also many international commercial sites like www.ancestry.com, www.cyndislist.com, www.genealogy.com, www.ellisisland.com and many more.

16. Investigate the Origin of Surname
Sometimes it is difficult to identify the region where your ancestor lived in Ireland. It will help to narrow down the search or to at least focus or prioritise it if you can have a look at the distribution of that surname in Ireland at the time.
Many surnames were clustered in particular counties. Therefore, if the surname you were dealing with happened to be Ryan, then County Tipperary and surrounding counties would be the focus of your search initially. Check your local library or websites like www.irishgen.com (coming soon) for information on Irish surname origins and distribution.

17. Check out Ships Lists
In the case of immigration to your country, find out when they travelled, how they travelled, which ship, which port of departure from Ireland and which port of arrival they used. Libraries and websites will also help here. There are lots of ships lists online, however there are few details available at the Irish end.
For Australians it may be worth checking convict transportation records as well as the other excellent genealogical records that are available in Australia.

Irishgen Ltd. 2002