Following on from our successful 2015 conference programme, the Ulster Historical Foundation will be hosting two family history conferences in June and September 2016. Both events will combine a varied and exciting mix of research opportunities in the archives (including the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the National Library, the National Archives and the Registry of Deeds in Dublin), talks from acknowledged experts and a choice of tours to a number of historic sites, including Kilmainham Gaol and Trinity College, Dublin, Barons Court, the palatial country house of the Duke of Abercorn in County Tyrone, Titanic Belfast and the world famous Giant’s Causeway.

The Foundation’s popular conferences are therefore ideally suited to the keen family historian who will be given assistance by our experienced genealogists throughout the week and also those who favour learning more about the Ireland of their ancestors as we travel through our verdant countryside en route to our selection of famous sites and locations.

Our June event will run from 15-22. For more information and guidance on how to register please visit http:www.ancestryireland.com/family-history-conference/summer-2016/

The website for our second event to be held from 4–10 September 2016 should be operational very soon.

Feedback from the delegates who attended our recent conferences has been extremely positive with many considering a return to our shores in 2016. We hope that you will also join us in 2016 for a truly memorable experience.

 

The Christmas lecture, Revolution and the Irish Country House: burnings and enforced exile 1919 – 23  by Terence Dooley, Maynooth University, will take place on Monday, 14 December at  7.15 p.m. (please note earlier time) followed by optional dinner in The Gold Saloon and Drawing Room

The burning of Irish country houses during the War of Independence and Civil War was a phenomenon which until the publication of Terence Dooley’s book, The decline of the big house in Ireland in 2001, had received little or no attention from historians.  This talk provides an insight into the motivation for the burning of country houses nationwide.  Drawing on new research from papers in private possession it also provides an in-depth insight into the fate of two country house families caught up in revolutionary change between 1919 and 1923.

Light refreshments served from 6.30pm
Admission fee per lecture:  €10.00 payable prior to the lecture or on the night
Admission fee for Christmas lecture including dinner in The Gold Saloon & Drawing Room: €50.00

(Dinner for the Christmas Lecture must be booked and paid for in advance) 


Please note that as numbers for dinner are limited places must be booked and paid for in advance.  Seating in the Gold Saloon will be filled on a first come, first served basis.
Enquiries to Carton House only at Telephone: (01) 6517708 and Email:  sales@cartonhouse.com

The Irish Georgian Society and the Institute of Conservators-Restorers in Ireland’s Heritage Housekeeping: philosophy and practice study day, takes place in the Saloon at Russborough, County Wicklow on Thursday 26th November (cost €90 including lunch).

Katy Lithgow, the Head Conservator for the National Trust UK will deliver the keynote paper.  This will be a highly practical day with advice on the storage, display, cleaning and care of all aspects of collections from paintings and paper to furniture and textiles.

Bookings can be made through the Irish Georgian Society website http://www.igs.ie/uploads/Heritage_Housekeeping_booklet.compressed_(1).pdf

This new website is a unique archive of Irish Soldiers in World War I which was researched and compiled by secondary school History students in Ireland.

Check the site out at My Adopted Soldier

 

The latest book from James Durney, well-known historian and author, is now available. It tells the story of Co. Kildare and its involvement in the 1916 Rising, providing a chronological account of the days before, during and after the Easter Rising. This study records Co. Kildare’s huge involvement in these momentous events and reveals a story that has not previously been told using many sources available for the first time, along with eyewitnesses’ testimonies.

On Easter Monday 1916 1,600 men, women and children went out to fight for an independent Ireland. They faced the most powerful empire in the world. The battle raged in Dublin for six days and resulted in 485 deaths and the destruction of many parts of the city. While mainly a Dublin affair many of the Volunteers were from outside the city; two dozen Kildare men and women took part in the Rising, including fifteen who walked from Maynooth to the General Post Office. Several Kildare natives and residents were killed on all sides in the Rising, while dozens more were wounded or imprisoned in the aftermath.

The subsequent execution of the leaders of the Rising awakened a generation to the cause of Irish freedom. In the succeeding War of Independence and Civil War the Kildare men of 1916, including Domhnall Ua Buachalla, Tom Harris, Pat Colgan, Michael Smyth and Éamonn Ó Modhráin, would play their part.

This book is aimed at the general reader or anyone interested in the history of Co. Kildare and the 1916 Rising. It is a vital source for teachers, students and researchers who are interested in this period of Irish history.

Foremost and Ready. Kildare and the 1916 Rising will be formally launched on Friday, 20th November 2015 at 7.30 p.m. in the Council Chamber, Naas Town Hall by Cllr. Fiona O’Loughlin, chair of the Co. Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee. All welcome.

The book is available in all good bookshops.

 

On Monday, 16 November 8.00 pm Jeanne Meldon (vice-chair and a director of the Castletown Foundation) will speak on teh topic:

From green pastures to designed landscape: new reflections on the evolution of the
Castletown demesne and the role of the forgotten Conolly 

Castletown today comprises a large demesne with parkland, riverside walks, woodland and areas under tillage. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Castletown lands were much more extensive and included much of the town of Celbridge as well as lands to the north and west of the current demesne. The mid to late 18^th century period in the history of the designed landscape is well known. This presentation covers the earlier period of William (Speaker) Conolly and Katherine, and also of his eventual heir, William Junior, in many respects the ‘forgotten’ Conolly. It attempts to map the outline of the demesne lands at the time of the acquisition of Castletown and the surrounding lands, and charts the accompanying story of growth and shrinkage as fortunes changed and resources dwindled over the centuries.

How extensive were the lands purchased by Conolly in 1709? It has previously been suggested that the demesne did not extend to the Liffey until after the 1760’s; this paper suggests that this was in fact not the case.  Were the 1740’s and 1750’s the fallow period that has often been suggested or did the Speaker’s nephew have a greater role than has hitherto been believed; to what extent were the influences of his wife, Anne Wentworth, brought to bear on the Conolly landscape of Castletown? These are some of the questions explored in this presentation, which uses much of the documentary evidence that survives in the Castletown papers in the Irish Architectural Archive.

Light refreshments served from 7.15pm

Admission fee:  €10.00

Enquiries to Carton House only. Telephone: (01) 6517708 

email:  sales@cartonhouse.com

Family History Conferences 2016

We are pleased to advise that the website for our June 2016 family history conference is now LIVE! We trust that the combination of research opportunities, with the Foundation’s experienced genealogists on hand to provide guidance and assistance, and an extensive touring programme to many historic sites will again prove popular.

For more information on our June 2016 family history conference please visit: http://www.ancestryireland.com/family-history-conference/summer-2016/

Publications

Men and Arms: The Ulster Settlers, c.1630

The bestselling volume in the critically R.J. Hunter Collection is now back in print and available to purchase on Booksireland at £19.99.

Men and Arms is essentially the first census of English and Scottish settlers in the nine counties of Ulster in the early seventeenth century. The edition includes extensive additional information on the settlers drawn from a variety of contemporary sources.

Also back in stock is William E. Hogg’s, Threads: From an Irish Backcloth (£9.99)

Following on from the success of Mrs. Nettlebed’s Year, Foundation Trustee Dr Sam Burnside has recently completed the second volume in this series for children, Mrs. Nettlebed and the Woodlander. An enchanting story and an ideal Christmas gift for the younger folk in your family.

Other recently acquired titles which we hope will be of interest are:

The Country Rhymes of Hugh Porter: The Bard of Moneyslane c. 1780 (£5.99)

The Country Rhymes of Samuel Thompson: The Bard of Carngranny 1766-1816 (£5.99)

Country Rhymes of James Orr: The Bard of Ballycarry 1770-1816 (£5.99)

Tracing Your Great War Ancestors: The Somme: A Guide for Family Historians (£12.99)

Wills of our Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians (£12.99)

All available from www.booksireland.org.uk

Forthcoming Events

We are running a FREE lunchtime talk in association with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) next month.

Tina Beaird and Debra Dudek from Illinois, USA will be speaking on: All routes led to Chicago: Irish railroad workers and canal builders in the nineteenth century on Monday 16th November at 1pm in PRONI.

Debra M. Dudek is Head of Adult and Teen Services at the Fountaindale Public Library District in Bolingbrook, IL. Debra specializes in British genealogy and technology topics. She is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in Genealogical, Palaeographic & Heraldic Studies from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Tina Beaird is the Genealogy/Local History Librarian at the Plainfield Public Library in Plainfield, Illinois. Tina uses her master’s degree in archiving and preservation to lecture on topics including genealogical research, archival preservation, and Illinois history at national, state and local conferences. She has provided professional research assistance for more than a decade and has been researching her family’s history for over twenty years.

To book your free place, please email proni@dcalni.gov.uk or telephone: (+44) 028 90 534800

In the Footsteps of St Patrick, a travelling exhibition, will be launched in Down County Museum on Wednesday 11 November at 7.30pm. For further details please contact the museum on 028 4461 5218.