Читать книгу Collins Tracing Your Irish Family History - Ryan Tubridy, Anthony Adolph - Страница 20

Records will usually be held either in the archives of the organisation that created them, or in public archives, either local or national. Use www.cyndislist.com to find the archives you want. Their websites will tell you opening times and what identification you’ll need, and many have online catalogues. If you are unsure, contact them in advance of your visit to be certain they have what you want.

It is not always practical or sensible to visit an archive, so luckily there are other options:

1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also called the Mormon Church, has the world’s largest (and ever-growing) archive of microfilm copies of original records from all over the world, including much for Ireland. Founded in 1830, the Utah-based church has a religious mission to trace all family trees, identifying all humanity in the context of living descendants or relatives. The living hold ceremonies giving the deceased the opportunity of becoming Mormons, should their souls so desire. They have Family History Centres in most major towns: find your nearest at www.familysearch.org. They are open to all – entirely without any compunction to convert – and here you can order any Mormon microfilms (MMFs) to be delivered from the Mormon’s Family History Library in Utah.

2. Genealogical societies often have substantial libraries. The Society of Genealogists (SoG) in London, for example, has a vast collection of printed and manuscript sources covering all Great Britain and Ireland, including much on the Irish in Britain, detailed in A. Camp, Sources for Irish Genealogy in the Library of the Society of Genealogists (SoG, 1998), which you can buy when you arrive.