When I read Claire Santry’s post in her blog, Irish Genealogy News, about a database of Irish directories, I did the happy dance. Woo hoo! “Forget about the garden,” I said, “I have dead relatives to find!” I was even a bit concerned about who was going to cook dinner while I was busy searching all my Irish ancestors’ names.
The free directories’ database is a collaboration between Joe Buggy, an Irish genealogist, based in Washington, and Shane Wilson, a family historian based in Dublin. Together, they have created a database of more than 550 links to online directories.
I first entered “Haire.” Bingo! One entry! Then, I discovered it was the wrong person. No problem, I will try “Dever” and “Diver” in Donegal. Same result. Nada. Sigh… Unlike Montreal directories, the Irish directories seem to only list people of a certain stature, not the working class sort, such as my ancestors. Oh, well. I have plenty of other names to search and will continue to plow through them. Surely one of my ancestors rated a mention in a directory.
Despite my initial lack of success, I recommend giving this database a try. It is easy to search.
Copyright © 2014, Gail Dever.
