I live in Ireland and I bought this book about October, 2001. It's an updated version of the 1993 book. Having looked through many books in libraries, I found this to be the ultimate guide to Irish genealogy. I have succeeded in tracing my family back to the eighteenth century from information about parish records, census records etc, as John lists them so well. It gives details of sources county by county in chronological order. The church record listing is also excellent. This is definitely the Irish genealogy bible.

This handy paperback is the first place to start for Irish research.

Irish ancestors can be very elusive due to a variety of factors. Don't get frustrated - get educated. You CAN hunt your Emerald Isle ancestors successfully when armed with the knowledge in this book.

While covering all of the standard civil, church, census, and land records, Grenham's book also covers wills, deeds, newspapers, directories, and other less-used records. The final third of the book is a county-by-county reference guide describing extant censuses and substitutes, available local histories, monumental inscriptions and other sources for each county.

One of the outstanding features of the book is the Catholic parish maps for each county. These were drawn by the author's father and give the date of the earliest records available for each parish.

A researcher with Irish heritage must be as indefatigable and adaptable as their own Irish forebears were in order find them in the existing records. This book is one of the tools you need to start with.

John Grenham's Tracing Your Irish Ancestors appears in its second edition to provide a revised, expanded edition on Irish heritage. New to this edition are a listing of all known copies of Roman Catholic records and details of the Family History Centres of the Mormon Church.

The price of this book was good - but there was nothing new in it - and it did not have 2 of my Irish lines in the book- so no help for my research.

i got this as a gift for my husband (a Reilly) and congratulate myself on the purchase! The historical background is EXCELLENT - enabled me to understand the different ethnic roots of the Irish and also the complexity of the Catholics vs Protestants, etc. In addition, the description of the mass exodus of the Irish to foreign lands was great, the author detailing the emotional background exquisitely. Finally, it was a lot of fun looking up the origins of Irish last names. The crests of each clan is shown in colour.

If I have a complaint, it would be that the significance of the crest of each clan was not discussed along with the origin and history of each clan. If that was included, this book would be 100% perfect, instead of 95% perfect.

A beautifully illustrated and well written guide to the origins of the 200 most popular surnames in Ireland.

Also included is history of the Irish race in all it's forms, this alone is worth the price of the book as it will allow anyone to form a clear understanding of Irish history, cutting away all the myths and confusions that surround the Irish and their origins.

This book is an essential read for anyone with Irish ancestry or any one with an interest in Irish History and you will find yourself dipping into it again and again.

John Grenham is a professional genealogist as was formerly with the Genealogical Office in Dublin. This book is like a mini version of "Clans and Families of Ireland". It includes a short account of the origin, distribution and coat of arms of about 100 of the commonest surnames in Ireland. Only buy if you are to mean to spend the extra money on "Clans and Families of Ireland".

This small book has history and coats of arms of some of the more common Irish family names found throughout the world. It's not an exhaustive reference, to be sure. But for the price it's a nice little addition to one's library, and the reproduction is of good quality.