Irish Roots Cafe

From the Irish Roots Cafe and Hedge School
www.Irishroots.com           Mike O’Laughlin

Author Central Irish Genealogy Resource Link:
https://www.amazon.com/author/irish

New: About the Author
Amazon is launching an app that will be helpful
to researchers on Kindle.  Its a resource that works
on your desktop computer, now adapted for Kindle.
(Based upon existing author direct pages.)

Here is the release I just received from Amazon:

“When readers find a book interesting, they oftentimes look for more
information about the author. We’ve developed a new feature for Kindle
Paperwhite and Kindle Fire HD to help those readers – About the Author.

About the Author gives readers easy access to your photo, biography, and
bibliography so they can learn more about you and your other books, which
are only 60 seconds away.  Readers can tap on any of your books to go to
the Kindle Store.  Also, any time you update your bio or claim a new book
through Author Central, we will update About the Author on Kindle so your
readers have access to the most recent information about you. ”

Better Genealogy Every Day !
One more resource to make finding information easier, and we have
all 60 of our Irish genealogy and history books or so already in the program.
This sounds like one more resource to make our lives easier when researching.
(Most of our titles can be searched online with this program.)

Irish Roots Cafe & Hedge School News
1) We have the first upgrade to www.Irishroots.com in place now.

2) Our next live event will be in Louisville, KY the weekend of the
28th of September.  Singin’ on Friday, consulting and exhibiting
on Saturday and Sunday at Bellermine University:
http://www.louisvilleirishfest.com

3) Our summer vacation ends soon, and we’ll be increasing
our podcasts and regular blogs shortly !

Thanks,
Mike O’Laughlin
Irish Roots Cafe and Hedge School Update
http://irishroots.com/mike/IrishRootsCafe/Hedge_School.html

From the Irish Roots Cafe and Hedge School

Sources for this article found at:
1)Hedge School entry for Irish Heraldry and Coats of Arms

2)The Irish Book of Arms, detail, contents

How Heraldic Records Can Help
Everyone wants to see the coat of arms
attached to their family name. Understandable.
This is true even though the man that
was issued those arms was no relation
to your family. (This is true even if heraldic
law says you have no right to them at all.)

Top Entries
When I compiled and updated the Irish Book
of Arms, it was interesting to note the most
numerous family names found in this resource:

Butler: 17 Hamilton: 15
Smith & Smyth(e): 13 Moore: 12
Bourk(e)+ Burke+ DeBurgh: 11
Fitzgerald; Boyle; Brown(e): 10 each
Barry: 9 Coote; Nugent; Stewart: 8 ea.

Following the above names, are those of
Plunket; Dillon; Annesley; Talbot; Gore;
Wilson; Percival; Lloyd; King; Knox; and
Jones, each with 6 or 7 listings each.
Obviously there are no names with ‘O’ or
‘Mac’ shown on the list of the top 20 most
numerous armigerous families.

Relationships
Some family names with multiple listings,
or coats of arms shown, are not related
at all. Others are related but are younger
branches of the family. Slight changes in
coats of arms were common over the
generations.
When you see two completely different
coats of arms for the same family name
it may mean they are of completely
different origins, of course.
In either case, you need to research
your family to see if you are related
to the PERSON that was granted the arms.

Heralds Research
Now, the heralds job was to document
the armigerous families from generation
to generation. Give proof that they were
who they said they were.

Family History
You’ll find some entries in the heralds
work recording origins from outside
the country. Sometimes this is plain
politics. The Fitzgeralds may have
wanted to come from Italy originally
because it was trendy ? The Queen
of England even traced a distant
ancestor to the great Irish High King
Brian Boru. This of course, gave her
some ‘right’ to rule over the Irish ?

Generations Found
Now, if a book was written in the 17th
century, then the information for that
generation would likely be correct, for
people were alive who could directly
dispute it !

What You May Discover
To make a quick summary of what I
have found, you may find out which
family line was ‘royalty’ or ‘armigerous’.
You can also find mention of younger
branches of the family, names of
wives and children for several generations.
That is a rare find for dates back to the
17th century.

New Resources, old documents
When compiling the Irish Book of Arms, I included
the illustrated arms and genealogical notes found
in these resources. Some are worn and tattered:

Included in the Irish Book of Arms:
1. The Irish Compendium (1722)
2. The Peers of Ireland by Kimber(1768)
3. The Irish Peerage by DeBrett (1806)
4. The Visitations of Ireland (1897)
5. The original Irish Book of Arms
6. The archives of the Irish Genealogical Foundation.

More to learn
There is much more to learn, and I may
continue this article next week. Please do
check out the sources given at the top of
this entry, it continues the story.

Resource Note:
The Irish Book of Arms, Genealogy & Heraldry
($29.95) 1,000 illustrations in color and black
& white. 8 1/2 x 11. (0940134-86-1)

About the Author
Mike is a one of a kind resource. He has authored
12 hardbound books; 34 Irish genealogy county
books, 20 CD’s/videos, 300 podcasts, 7 broadcast
series’, and 1,000+ articles. He also publishes rare
works like ‘The Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters’;
and ‘Missouri Irish’.
Mike also sings in Irish Sean Nós style, ranking #1
in the U.S., and #2 in the world, as a celtic artist
with the Irish Roots Cafe:
http://www.reverbnation.com/irishrootscafe
(Reverbnation 2012 May-August.)
His next appearance is at the Louisville, KY Irish
Fest, the weekend of Sept. 28th.