Monday 4 April 2016

IGRS launches 80th Anniversary Archive

The Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) is celebrating its 80th anniversary by creating a special archive of personal stories of Irish-born ancestors.

Founded in 1936, the IGRS is the world's first and oldest society dedicated to the study of Irish genealogy and was established with a prime objective to offset the devastating 1922 fire at the Four Courts, Dublin, by creating a unique collection of Irish genealogical material. The founding policy continues to this day, and is the stimulus for the creation of the new archive.

Launching the initiative, IGRS chairman Steven Smyrl said: "While modern genealogy has seen huge advances in the amount of data that has become available, especially online, we shouldn't forget that all the facts we find are actually part of a richer narrative: the life stories of the individuals who nest in our family trees.

"We are calling for family historians with a favourite Irish-born ancestor to write up their story and submit it for posterity to our archive.

"We are looking forward to hearing some fascinating tales and hope to meet our target of at least 80 in this our 80th anniversary year!"

The resulting archive will be made freely available in its entirety via the Society's award-winning IrishAncestors.ie website, and the best of the submissions will be included in a special anniversary eBook.

Details of how to submit your monograph to the IGRS, including an example, can be found on the Tell us about your ancestors page.

The submission deadline is Wednesday 31 August 2016.