The Night of the Big Wind is a powerful example. On 6–7 January 1839, a devastating storm swept across Ireland. Met Éireann has re-examined the storm using contemporary reports and notes its strong social and cultural legacy.

For many families, this storm became a remembered event — the kind of story passed from one generation to the next. Someone might remember a roof being torn away, a cottage damaged, livestock lost, trees falling, or neighbours helping after the storm.

Records may identify women through fathers or husbands. Surnames may change after marriage. Domestic labour, care, faith, and storytelling may not be clearly evident in official documents.

This is why figures like St Brigid matter. Her memory helps us reflect on women’s roles in Irish heritage: spiritual leadership, care, hospitality, creativity, healing, and continuity.

For many people tracing Irish family history, the story begins with a question: why did they leave?

Irish emigration shaped millions of family stories. Some people left because of famine, poverty, land pressure or lack of opportunity. Others left for work, adventure, education, safety or family reunion. Whatever the reason, leaving Ireland often changed the direction of a family for generations.

The EPIC Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin helps visitors explore this wider story of Irish migration and diaspora. Located in the CHQ Building on Custom House Quay, EPIC presents Ireland’s global story through exhibitions about emigration, identity, memory and the impact Irish people had around the world.

During the Great Famine, leaving Ireland could mean survival. It could also mean separation from parents, siblings, neighbours, parish life, family graves and the only home a person had ever known.

The Jeanie Johnston Famine Ship helps descendants understand this emotional part of Irish family history. The original ship was built in Quebec in 1847 and later purchased by Kerry merchants. Between 1848 and 1855, it carried emigrants from Tralee to North America during the Famine years.

When tracing Irish family history, land records can be one of the most useful ways to connect a family name to a real place.

Civil records and church records tell us about births, marriages, deaths and baptisms. Land records can tell us where people lived, what property they occupied, who they leased from and what kind of local community they belonged to.

One of the most important sources is Griffith’s Valuation, officially known as the Primary Valuation. The National Archives of Ireland explains that Griffith’s Valuation was the first full-scale valuation of property in Ireland, with publication dates between 1847 and 1864. It includes occupiers of land and buildings, those from whom property was leased, and details about the amount and value of property held.

Family history is personal, but it is also shaped by law and politics.

Irish families lived through systems of landholding, taxation, education, religion, voting rights, citizenship, migration law and public administration. This means that understanding Ireland’s political institutions can help descendants better understand the world their ancestors lived in.