Forthcoming Events
12 March 2025 Census of Ireland records in the VRTI Speaker: Brian Gurrin
14 May 2025 Speaker: Gerard Delaney, South Mayo Research Centre
10 Sept 2025 Speaker to be announced
12 Nov 2025 Speaker to be announced
Western Family History Association are pleased to announce the 2nd event of of our 2025 series.
Date: Wednesday 12th March, 2025
Time: 8pm
Location: Lackagh Parish Centre in the village of Lackagh (see here for directions)
Speakers: Brian Gurrin
Synopsis
Dr. Brian Gurrin is the census and population specialist on the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland Project based at Trinity College Dublin. He has written extensively on census taking in Ireland and is co-author of a number of books.
Brian will speak about the Virtual Treasury of Ireland project’s efforts to introduce surviving extracts from the five Irish censuses that were held in the Public Record Office (censuses of 1813, 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851) into the Virtual Treasury, thereby making them freely available to family and local historians. He will speak about the records that are currently available in the VRTI, and the records that they will be introducing during 2025. Special emphasis will be placed on the census records for Connacht.
This promises to be a most interesting evening and we look forward to seeing you there. The presentation is open to members and non-members.
Western Family History Association Annual General Meeting.
Date: Wednesday 15th January, 2025
Time: 8pm
Location: Lackagh Parish Centre (H65 EK52) in the village of Lackagh (see here for directions).
The Annual General Meeting of the Western Family History Association will be held on Wednesday, 15th January 2025, at 8:00p.m. in Lackagh Parish Centre (H65 EK52).
New members are welcome.
After the AGM a short talk talk will be given by:
Speaker: Bríd Higgins
Synopsis
Bríd will speak about aspects of her family history, previously unknown family members, including an ancestor who emigrated to Indianapolis, USA, uncovered through DNA connections and other USA sources, particularly Immigration records, Federal State Census Records, Vital (Civil) Records, Newspapers and Cemetery Records.
Western Family History Association are pleased to announce the 2nd event of our Autumn 2024 series.
Date: Wednesday 13th November, 2024
Time: 8pm
Location: Lackagh Parish Centre in the village of Lackagh (see here for directions)
Speakers: Patrick and Joe McGinley
Synopsis
A Family Tree Research Journey
Patrick and Joe McGinley, are father and son from Galway.
They have spent many years researching their own family tree, and have a wide range of interests, including currently producing the “Our Ireland Walks” series of walking guidebooks. At this event, they will describe their family tree research journey with a focus on using these resources:
- Living relatives or records left by deceased relatives
- Ancestry.com
- Irish Newspaper Archives
- DNA
- Some very interesting stories they found on their research journey.
Western Family History Association are pleased to announce the first event of our Autumn 2024 series.
Date: Wednesday 11th September, 2024
Time: 8pm
Location: Lackagh Parish Centre in the village of Lackagh (see here for directions)
Speaker: Frank Gavin
Synopsis
Frank is the author of the recently published book “The Dillons of Clonbrock: A History”. Clonbrock Estate was situated close to the village of Ahascragh in east Galway. He provides an unparalleled insight into the twilight years of the estate, and of the local families impacted.