• Researching Ulster Ancestors after 1800 with Dr. William J. Roulston. Explore this distinct period and learn practical guidance.
• DNA and Irish Genealogy with Dr. Tyrone Bowes. Methods for learning where your ancestors lived.
• Migration Patterns in Irish Genealogy with Pamela Guye Holland. Learn about chain migration and emigration routes from Ireland to North America.
• AI and Irish Genealogy: Opportunities, Pitfalls, and Best Practices with Susan M. O’Connor. Discover how AI can help with your research.

Hedge schools were informal schools that operated outside the official educational system, particularly during the 18th and early 19th centuries when laws restricted the education of Catholics and other religious groups. Teachers provided instruction wherever they could—sometimes in homes, barns, or out in the countryside—and these schools became an important means of keeping learning alive despite the restrictions.

The Brehon Academy uses “hedge school” as a metaphor for learning outside the traditional classroom. Today, instead of gathering students beside a hedge, it brings Irish history, mythology, culture, and the Brehon laws of early Ireland to a worldwide audience through the internet. Its courses, videos, articles, and digital resources are intended to make aspects of Ireland’s early heritage accessible to anyone interested in learning more.

In that sense, the “digital hedge school” is a modern expression of an old Irish tradition: learning that takes place outside conventional institutions and keeps knowledge alive by sharing it from one generation to the next.

Researching Ulster Ancestors, 1800-1914: The Essential Genealogical Guide
(Reviewed by John D. Beatty, CG, FASG)
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The Scots-Irish are an ethnic group that touches the ancestry of many Americans. The group emerged in the northern Irish province of Ulster after large English landowners transplanted Protestant Scottish settlers there in the seventeenth century to help subdue Ireland from a cycle of Gaelic-led rebellion. Beginning in the eighteenth century, these ethnic Scots immigrated in large numbers to colonial America and became one of its most consequential ethnic groups at the time of the American Revolution.

Finding Scots Irish ancestors is a major challenge for genealogists. The records are fragmentary, and the settlers themselves, once they settled in America, left few clues about their exact place of origin in Ulster. By far the most authoritative guide to Scots-Irish or Ulster Scot records is William J. Roulston’s "Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors: The Essential Genealogical Guide to Early Modern Ulster, 1600-1800," published in its second edition in 2018 (GC 941.6 R759ra). Dr. Roulston, who is Research Director of the Ulster Historical Foundation in Belfast, presents a nearly comprehensive account of genealogical records and lists of Ulster towns, together with available church records, secondary works, family papers, and other archival records.

Roulston has come out with a new volume, a sequel to his earlier guide, titled "Researching Ulster Ancestors, 1800-1914: The Essential Genealogical Guide" (Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2026) (GC 941.6 R759re). Like the previous book, it presents Roulston’s encyclopedic knowledge of resources, record groups, and research methodologies for accessing Ulster records in the nineteenth century.

The book is organized into twenty chapters: Introduction; Printed sources; Church records; Civil registration; Census records; Gravestone inscriptions; Valuation records; Records of land organization and management (including estate records); Education records; Medical and hospital records; Wills and testamentary papers; Governmental and civil administrative records; Law and order; Election and political records; Businesses, occupations, and trades; Fraternal organizations; Records of Charity and relief; Records of the armed forces; Diaries, journals and memoirs; and Records of emigrants and emigration. Each chapter had many subdivisions, in which Roulston discusses specific record groups, many of which can be found at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). His detailed descriptions will help the reader decide whether a collection would benefit one’s genealogical research. He concludes the book with detailed parish maps for Ulster’s nine counties (Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Derry-Londonderry, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Monaghan, and Tyrone); a list of archives and libraries; and a list of locations in Ulster, including the civil parish and county.

Americans with Scots-Irish ancestors immigrating in the eighteenth century may not find this sequel book as useful as the first, but they should not ignore it. Those immigrants may have left family behind in Ulster that will turn up in later records, and they may be keys to finding earlier information. Also missing from the sequel is Roulston’s alphabetized list of Ulster towns, which included references to associated church records, secondary sources, and other archival records. Perhaps he reasoned that the list from the earlier book would still benefit those with a later focus.

“Researching Ulster Ancestors” remains a tour de force – a work that deserves the careful study of every American genealogist wishing to do research in Ulster. Not every collection will be relevant, but it contains many references that will be invaluable to research.

 

Note: To subscribe to “Genealogy Gems,” simply use your browser to go to the website:  www.GenealogyCenter.org. Scroll to the bottom, click on E-zine, and fill out the form. You will be notified with a confirmation email.

A digital version of the July 2026 issue of The Septs was emailed to all IGSI members on July 15. For members with a General Membership, a printed copy of the quarterly journal should have arrived by now as well.

Published in January, April, July, and October, The Septs is one of the primary benefits of membership in the Irish Genealogical Society International (IGSI). Each issue features articles centered on a particular theme related to Irish family history research.

The July 2026 issue includes eight feature articles devoted to one of the genealogist’s most underutilized—and often most rewarding—resources: historical newspapers. The articles in this issue offer something for everyone, whether you are new to newspaper research or an experienced researcher.

Title of cover photo: You can't do that with "on line" news.          Photo credit: Neil Moralee on Flickr.com

Signed-in IGSI members can access all issues of The Septs dating back to 1981 by clicking on The Septs (Journal) tab at left. Once there, you can browse the collection by Contents (Date) or Issues by Theme.

Not an IGSI member? Click on the Join tab to gain access to past volumes of the journal, along with all the valuable articles that will appear in upcoming issues.

• Scottish Kirk session records and parish registers
• Ulster Plantation-era land and muster rolls
• American colonial and early republic documents (especially in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas, which received heavy Scots-Irish settlement)
• Printed city directories of the 1700s and early 1800s
• Wills, deeds, and court records across the British Isles and their colonies

• Belfast Co-Op Consumers of Coal, 1947
• Biographical Index of Irish Immigrants to South Australia, 1836-1885
• Businessmen who issued tokens in Ireland, 1653-1679
• Census of Donaghendry Parish, Co. Tyrone, c. 1840
• Census of the Templeton Estate, Co. Antrim, 1846  
• Collectors of Taxes in Ireland, 1678
• Deaths Recorded in South Carolina, USA, Newspapers, 1806-1838
• Early Ulster Military Records including Militia Lists, Muster Rolls and Yeomanry Lists
• Emigrants Cited on Co. Down Gravestones, 1790-1948
• Emigrants from Ulster cited on Troy, New York Gravestones, 1828-1896
• Employment of the Industrious Blind, 1871-1875
• Irishmen who served in the Spanish Netherlands, 1581-1672 
• List of Good Tea Agents in Ireland, 1855
• List of Motor Spirit Dealers, 1922
• List of Transportees to Australia, 1830-1845
• List of Wholesale Grocers in Northern Ireland, 1924
• Offer of Service from the Tenants of Lord Charles Fitzgerald, c.1798
• Owners of Motor Transport in Banbridge, Co. Down, 1924
• Pawnbrokers Registered in Ireland, 1832-1844
• Robertson's Parochial National School Register, Raphoe Co. Donegal, 1871-1900
• Shares in Belfast Ropeworks, 1941
• Tenantry of Lord Oriel of the Ferrard Barony, 1820-1827

Tomorrow on Good Morning America, millions of Americans will learn about a groundbreaking research discovery made by the 10 Million Names team at American Ancestors!

Show host Robin Roberts will uncover the extraordinary human story behind one of the nation’s most iconic landmarks: the White House. In a genealogical breakthrough years in the making, Roberts and American Ancestors staff will sit down with the first confirmed living descendants of an enslaved individual who helped build it.

Don’t miss this exciting event! Here’s when and how to watch the show:

Saturday, July 4

Good Morning America, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET  — A first look at the report airs during a special Fourth of July edition of Good Morning America. Watch on ABC, ABC News, ESPN, National Geographic, Disney+, Hulu, FX, Freeform and ABC's owned television stations and affiliates.

Monday, July 6

ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis, 7 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PCT
A short version of the full special will stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

ABC News Live, 8:30 p.m. ET, 5:30 p.m. PCT

Premiere of the full 30-minute segment!

The full 30-minute special streams on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

Happy Independence Day from American Ancestors!