What should I bring on a roots trip, and what should I leave at home?
Bring copies, leave originals at home. No archive will thank you for an irreplaceable certificate, and none needs it: the records you will use are the archives' own. Print your family tree, the census and valuation pages for your townland, and a one page summary of what you know and what you are hunting; staff at the National Archives and the National Library in Dublin work far faster from paper than from a story. Both reading rooms are free to use: register for a reader's ticket with photo ID on your first visit. Pack a notebook and pencil, the reading rooms' standard kit, and photograph records only where the room allows it. Bring small printed photographs of the family in America to leave with relatives. Leave at home: the idea that one visit will finish the tree. It will not, and planning for a second question list is the mark of a good trip.
Useful pages: Irish in USA · The Irish surnames map · Trace your Irish roots · Coming home · Irish around the world
Sources
- National Archives of Ireland: the 1901 and 1911 censuses, census fragments, Tithe Applotment Books and research guidance, nationalarchives.ie
- National Library of Ireland: Catholic parish registers, registers.nli.ie
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