How did employers recruit their servants in the 18th century? In a previous article I looked at those who worked at Kenwood House, which led me on to take a look at how employees were recruited. Many servants acquired their position via word of mouth and were able to supply a good reference from a…

As my Inbox fills up with stupid Black Friday emails. Here's a little reminder of our starter pack, celebrating #IrishDesign. Lots of lovely things to buy, and you will feel all squishy inside for supporting small Irish business. #spheirgorm #SLATED #Boycottamazon go.bsky.app/9sh8HQq

#speirgorm and @msfrugalone.bsky.social and #booksky for spreading the word

Oh wow, nice to get a mention here, the book that refuses to die! www.rte.ie/culture/2025...

Downtown Charleston’s International African American Museum will open 'Speaking Truth', an exhibit next week to serve as a national archive on family histories of slavery. www.live5news.com/2025/10/22/i...

There's an old Irish proverb, "An rud is annamh is iontach," i.e., "what's seldom is wonderful". Special thanks to Martin Oakley and his wife Kate (Lee or Leahy) who gave their Irish counties of origin in the US Census of 1870. #Genealogy #IrishGenealogy

Something for the early modernists!

I have a chapter in the forthcoming edited collection from Policy Press: Grant & Kara 'Using Documents In Research'. My chapter discusses the creation of a digital archive (www.deardiaryresearch.co.uk) from diary entries/interview transcripts. policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/using-docume...

I remember hearing relatives singing about Tom Dooley when I was a kid www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3zd... Somewhat amazed to discover multiple connections between my relatives and the extended family of that same Tom Dooley (surname sometimes Dula) #Dulatown #Genealogy cc @saytheirnamesir.bsky.social

So much fun earlier this evening discovering the service record of an Irish veteran of the Crimean war. His service of 1 year and 11 months ended when he was shot in the neck. Even better, it gave a clue to his later residence & confirmed his connection to a Kerry family in the 1888 news. #Genealogy

#SpeirGorm #GateGate

Promised I'd write a paper for someone, but it feels like there are 47 different, relevant, thoughts vying for attention all at once.

Poor Peter Flanagan - in 1776 he discovered the truth of the saying "where there's a will, there's a relative". His will of Feb. 1776 had to be amended in Nov of the same year because his son Michael, already provided for, had "robbed" him. #Genealogy census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/dw/IRE...

Another fascinating FamilySearch discovery: "A Return of Foreign Office passports issued in Dublin to persons supposed to have joined the Papal Army from 1st May to 30th June" (1860) www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3... Intriguing to see so many from the province of Munster. #Genealogy #History

Does anyone know what happened with Oxford University's 'Victorian Professions' project? I can see a list of people, but no blogs or links to published/peer-reviewed output www.victorianprofessions.ox.ac.uk/about.html #Genealogy #History cc @joesaunders1.bsky.social @balhnews.bsky.social

Learn how to read early modern Secretary Hand, with me in this online short course this month. 🗃️

I found a fantastic account of my 2nd great grandfather's family and education. Apparently, this Irish farmer had a classical education in Limerick!?! It also mentioned related families, the Murrays and the Olive(r)s - intriguing. When I checked JSTOR, I'd only dreamed it all - vividly! #genealogy

Random, bored, surname/placename enquiry on FamilySearch's free text search appears to have blown open a brick wall and indirectly confirmed the names of my 3GGPs (hypothesis based on DNA and FAN) - all thanks to a woman in Troy, NY who named her husband's nephews in her will. #Genealogy

Reminder to sign (and share) this petition please and help emphatically tell The Fash they are not welcome in Castlebar. We can do better than 800 signatures surely? www.change.org/p/stop-the-m...

The Registration Act of 1836, officially titled "An Act for Registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England", received Royal Assent OTD 17 August in 1836. The act itself came into effect on 1 July, 1837. The Act established the General Register Office and a new system of national registration.

When a parish row in 1834 Ireland leads to the recovery of about a thousand men's names, which might otherwise have been lost. (Names recorded on two posters printed Spring 1834 - parish records don't start until 1838, and no surviving census records for that time/place). #Genealogy #LoveArchives

Could the genealogist be described as "anal erotic"?? 🤔 "In terms of psychological motivation, these obsessive collectors of biographical information belong to the same category of anal-erotic males as the collectors of butterflies, postage stamps, or cigarette cards" www.jstor.org/stable/20023...

Tomorrow! The much anticipated follow-up to Joe’s introduction to this subject at our #OnePlaceStudies Conference last November (the recording of which is available via the Members’ Area of our website).

Georgina Brooks, a Black woman incarcerated at Mercer, was a victim of systemic racism and institutional neglect. She couldn’t save herself—and like many others, she died behind the walls of the Mercer Reformatory. 1/2

This may be Of interest to my #oneplacestudies friends here on #GenHour. We’re thrilled here at Projectkin. All events are free. 🥰 open.substack.com/pub/projectk...

Ordered a will hoping it would list some small bequests to friends, which had been mentioned elsewhere. It turned out to be brief and left everything to known family members, but was written as a letter in an informal and chatty style, and has therefore been useful in a completely different way.

Currently reading, Craig Bailey's "Irish London: Middle-Class Migration in the Global Eighteenth Century". Despite being an academic text, it's easy to read, and the bibliography is fantastic for anyone doing #Genealogy of the Irish and/or professions in this period.

A few tickets left for this talk next week for Belfast Pride 2025! Come hear about a ‘female husband’ dockworker (1880s), a scandalous Victorian male brothel, Jazz Age gay novels, a trans woman in mid 20th c. Ballycastle, & NI’s (sadly forgotten) 1st lesbian activist! linenhall.com/event/sex-lo...

Abraham Lincoln was an Irish-man. 🫢 Well, not Irish-born (a pesky Constitutional bar), but of Irish descent, (The Christian Year, 18 Oct 1913). His mother Nancy Hanks descended from the Hanks of Birr, Co. Offaly. A strangely specific claim, but there was a Hanks family c 1770s in Birr #Genealogy

I'm not quite sure what was going on in the town of Birr c. 1838-39 but the Catholic parish registers contain pages noting the conversions of various "Protestant" individuals and families, instead of the marriages I expected registers.nli.ie/registers/vt... #Genealogy #IrishGenealogy

#MyHeritage is offering free access to US newspapers from 3 July through 5 July 2025. #Genealogy #FamilyHistory genealogyalacarte.ca?p=45775

Check out my latest post…Part II of a family mystery! ronwilliamsmemoirs.com/2025/06/24/pt-…#AncestryHouru#GenChata#ancestryr#genealogygy

Because of my #Genealogy I've become interested in the extent of interfaith relationships in pre-Emancipation Ireland. One newspaper c. 1815 records a memorial from a meeting of RC parishioners to a departing Catholic curate. Many of the signatories were active members of the local Church of Ireland

Day at the archives yesterday reviewing a number of sources from the 1700s. One of these was the journal of a trainee doctor and "man midwife", with study notes on anatomy, and a journal of practice (births he attended). The image of conjoined twins was included in the practice section. #HistMed

BBC News - US mass grave could contain remains of up to 120 Irish immigrants www.bbc.com/news/article...

Lately, research has taken a drift towards exploring how "local" people were in early Ireland. Fascinating to discover a Birr man (Co. Offaly, Ireland) marrying in Cornwall in 1684, and a woman (former apprentice) who had lived in Dublin and Offaly (Ireland) before moving to London c. 1720.

I have a lump in my throat reading this thread. Isn't it remarkable that so many people we regard as true heroes in Ireland have had to achieve that recpgnition not just by the work they have done, but also by having to overcome State and establishment resistance to their truths?

Lovely to hear that a 55 page report prepared for a New York family has now been bound and is in homes either side of the US-Mexico border #genealogy

Light reading - finally made it to the library to collect some texts: Kirkland's "Irish London - a cultural history 1850-1916" and Herson's "Divergent Paths - Family histories of Irish Emigrants in Britain 1820-1920". The Kirkland text will be an eyesight test! #HistFam #Genealogy

How my family history research led me to an encounter with Friedrich Engels in the backstreets of Victorian Manchester. Read part 1 of Finding Mr Engels ⬇️ #genealogy #familyhistory #genhour #ancestry #genealogy #history #friedrichengels #manchester

#ICYMI we published this during the week with @uk.theconversation.com, about the new Railway Work, Life & Death project data release: theconversation.com/how-remember...

Our session is just about to start! #speirgorm Learn more about Toney who was enslaved by Rev. James Shannon of #Monaghan on Zoom at 6pm Ireland today with Prof Scott Giltner #speirgorm @stacyacole.bsky.social and I will be hosting. All welcome. theyhadnames.net/event/

This is a disaster. There are papers only available on Chronicling America and nowhere else. Not to mention, if you're trying to track down a hard copy of an undigitized newspaper, their database is far and away the best one-stop-shop for that type of search. #genealogy

X Marks the Spot Fascinating code for non marital and extra-marital births in the parish of Newport, Co. Tipperary, Ireland. X for non-marital births and an X in a circle beside the names of those who have engaged in adulterous (extra-marital) relationships. registers.nli.ie/registers/vt...

Not just 23&Me blocking uploads. It seems that @myheritageofficial.bsky.social is now doing the same (at least in Europe) h/t @thednageek.bsky.social #Genealogy

My new article on pauper apprenticeship is online and open access! Bound to the soil (Part I): the origins of compulsory apprenticeship schemes in South-West rural England c.1670–1750 doi.org/10.1017/S026...

Lovely email this morning thanking me for my "excellent detailed analysis" which redirected a family's research from Co. Cork to Co. Offaly (Ireland). #Genealogy

tfw you're a good Protestant clerk but you can't get transubstantiation off your mind