For many family historians the pleasure is in the search and though there is a lot that the individual can do towards building a family tree via the Internet, LDS centres, etc, there are a number of advantages to commissioning research.

One problem facing the family historian is that access to sources is relatively restricted unless one actually makes the journey to Ireland and ven if one does go personally to the principal libraries and archives the nature of the records tends to make research long and painstaking.

The Internet is a very useful tool for making enquiries and getting help but as a practical research tool the web is quite limited. Online guides and newsgroups are helpful but searchable databases are the exception rather to the rule and although this will certainly change in years to come there is not a lot of actual genealogical research that can be done on the net at the moment.

Irish records are far less complete than those of countries such as the US and Australia. Civil registration for most of the population did not begin until 1864 and most of the Census records prior to 1901 have not survived. For this reason research will often be concentrated on less systematic, unindexed, handwritten records such as church records and estate records. These records can often be illegible to the inexperienced eye and much time and wasted effort can be saved by employing an experienced genealogist who is familiar with less accessible sources.

The experienced researcher can avoid wasting time looking for records that are not going to be found. Many family historians spend hours upon hours trawling through records without having done prepatory research that could have eliminated those records form the search. Searching records in the correct order can be critical if you are to avoid pointless research. Therefore the professional genealogist can achieve in a 5 hour block of research what might take the novice 20-30 hours.

What can I expect to find?

The simple answer is that the likelihood of locating records and the volume of records available is dictated mainly by 4 factors:

1. When your ancestor was born
2. Where your ancestor's family came from
3. What religion your ancestor's family were
4. Your ancestor's position in society/occupation

There are likely to be more sources available relevant to your ancester if he/she was Protestant, born after during the nineteenth century in the North or East of the country and relatively wealthy/professional. On the other hand if your ancestor was born c.1720 in the west of Ireland and without property then the likelihood of finding any information diminishes greatly. The most significant factor is when your ancestor was born because there are comprehensive birth and marriage records after 1864

Where should I begin?

Before you submit the information that you already have there are a number of sources that should be consulted in order to maximise the chances of tracing further records:

1. Family records/Bible
2. Naturalization Records
3. Death/Cemetary Records
4. Passenger Lists
5. Military Records