Celtic Connections Conference 2025 is a live, virtual event that explores the tools, records, and methodologies needed to locate family members separated by history and life circumstances.
Fiona Fitzsimons
Fiona Fitzsimons is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, a historical expert and entrepreneur. Since 1996 she's developed the historical research department at Eneclann, setting high standards for its research work. From 2005 to the present, Fiona and her team have provided research and historical consultancy for television and film production, including WDYTYA, Faces of America, Finding our Roots, and Ancestors in the Famine. Fiona has carved out a role as a writer and educator in Irish Public History, and has taught at the Innovation Academy, Trinity College Dublin; Ancestral Connections Summer School in N.U.I. Cork, the British Institute, and SLC. Fiona hosts the popular Summer Talks series in the National Library of Ireland, and in 2014, she established the monthly Expert Workshop @NLIreland series. Fiona writes a column, "Kindred Lines", in History Ireland and is a feature writer for the online magazine Irish Lives Remembered. Fiona contributes regularly to specialist journals, and popular magazines and newspapers
Suffer the nation: Finding Women and Children in care in Ireland, 1840 to 1972
Between the 1840s and the 1970s, tens of thousands of infants, children and young people (up to the age of 16) were raised in institutional care in Ireland: in workhouses, orphanages, industrial schools and reformatories, nursing homes, Mother-and-Baby Homes, Magdalene laundries, and even in private homes. On reaching 16 years, some of these young women were transferred directly to 'sister' institutions such as Magdalene Laundries. Young women who fell pregnant outside marriage were commonly sent to one of the many Mother-and-Baby Homes.
This talk is a 'road-map' to finding records of women and children in care in Ireland.
Dr. Maurice Gleeson
Dr. Maurice Gleeson is a medical doctor as well as a genetic genealogist. He is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, and organiser of the DNA Lectures for "Genetic Genealogy Ireland" in Dublin/Belfast and "Who Do You Think You Are" in England. He also works with people of unknown parentage and has appeared on Irish TV as a consultant for the TV series Adoption Stories. His YouTube videos on genetic genealogy are very popular.
Methodology for solving Unknown Parentage Cases (from an Irish perspective)
This presentation describes the basic 5-step methodology for solving "unknown parentage cases" (UPCs) and then illustrates the methodology with a few Irish case studies. The results of a 2021 survey of UK & Irish UPCs are discussed, highlighting the success rates with Irish UPCs, both without and with professional help (50% vs >80%).
John Grenham
John Grenham was Project Manager with the Irish Genealogical Project from 1991 to 1995 and later went on to develop and market his own genealogical software, 'Grenham's Irish Recordfinder'. In 2005, he was the first Genealogist-in-Residence at Dublin City Library. He was awarded a fellowship of The Irish Genealogical Research Society in 2007 and of the Genealogical Society of Ireland in 2010 and Accredited Genealogists Ireland (AGI) in 2021. He is the author of Tracing your Irish Ancestors (5th ed. Dublin, Baltimore MD, 2019) the standard reference guide for Irish genealogy, The Atlantic Coast of Ireland (2014), Clans and Families of Ireland (1995), and An Illustrated History of Ireland (1997), among other works. He wrote the "Irish Roots" column in The Irish Times from 2009 to 2016, has developed heritage databases with Dublin City Library and Archive and the National Archives of Ireland, and ran the Irish Ancestors website in conjunction with The Irish Times until 2016. In partnership with his son Eoin, he now runs the successor website at www.johngrenham.com.
He was an external member of the National Library of Ireland Genealogy and Heraldry Committee from 2011 to 2021. He has been a member of the full NLI board since 2021 and also chairs the Genealogy and Heraldry Committee.
Crabwise: indirect research can get you around a dead end
The talk is a step-by-step case study of an Irishwoman who emigrated to England in the 1840s and died in a London fever hospital in 1871. She left no trace of her Irish origins, only ever recording "Ireland" as her place of birth. The talk shows how indirect records of neighbours, godparents and marriage witnesses provided enough evidence to link her to a family in west Mayo, a family with living descendants still on the land today.
Dr. Penny Walters
Dr. Penny Walters has been a University lecturer for 35 years, currently teaching Business at Bath Spa University, England. Penny's interest in genealogy started after having her first baby and then wondering about her biological parents, as she was adopted. Penny has six mixed race children, who have all enjoyed discovering their roots through DNA ethnicity results. Penny lectures internationally in-person, and via webinars and conferences throughout America, Australia, Ireland, and the UK. Penny has authored the books: 'Ethical Dilemmas in Genealogy' (2019) and 'The Psychology of Searching' (2020), available on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. searchmypast.co.uk.
From separation to reconnection: psychological and ethical dimensions of finding missing family in Ireland's historical context
Researching family history can bring great joy. However, other genealogical searches are inherently painful. Ireland's mother and baby homes and Magdalene Laundries were inherently unjust, and many people have suffered immense psychological damage and trauma as a result. The desire to search for birth families is not simple in these cases. Many women felt that their baby was forcibly taken from them, others were wrongly led to believe that their baby had died. This presentation will unravel the emotional and psychological complexities and ethical challenges of reuniting survivors and their descendants.