On Thursday evening June 21st, the Irish American Heritage Center will have genealogical speakers Fintan Mullan, Executive Director, and Dr. Brian Trainor, Research Director, from the Ulster Historical Society in Belfast, from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m.

Fintan Mullan will speak on Irish Catholic Records:  Annotations to the Records and Some Lesser-known Sources for Finding Irish Catholic Ancestors. This presentation will give a very brief background on the impact of the Reformation and the wars of the 17th century on the lives of Irish Catholics particularly in the context of their apparent absence from records.  It will explain the church records available for the Catholic church in Ireland and look at the value of annotations found in Catholic records which can be of great benefit the family historian. The presentation will finish with a survey of some lesser known sources available for tracing Catholic Irish ancestors.

Fintan Mullan is Executive Director of Ulster Historical Foundation. He has been with the Foundation for twelve years. He is a non-executive director of the Irish Family History Foundation, a member of the Northern Ireland Publications Resource (NIPR) and a director of the International Society for British Genealogy & Family History. He has spoken widely in the USA about Irish family history research, and also in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He has a bachelor’s degree in Irish Politics and Philosophy, and a master’s degree in Organization and Management, both from Queen’s University Belfast

Dr Brian Trainor will speak on Emigration from Ulster to North America in the 18th Century. The story of the Scots-Irish and their experiences in Ireland and the New World are discussed in this presentation. Using a range of documentary evidence, this presentation will touch upon, the causes for migration, push and pull factors, the patterns of migration, the emigrant journey in the 1700s, the estimated size of the exodus, and its implications for the development of American colonial society.

Brian Trainor is currently Research Director of the Ulster Historical Foundation. Formerly Director of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and Chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission he has also held a lecturing post in history at Queen’s University, Belfast and a fellowship with the Institute of Historical Research, London. Educated at St Columb’s College, Derry and Queen’s University, Belfast, he holds a 1st Class Honors degree in History and has been awarded a Doctorate of Letters from the University of Ulster and a Doctorate of Law from the National University of Ireland.

A Question & Answer Session by Dr Brian Trainor and Fintan Mullan will follow.

The Irish American Heritage Center is located at 4626 North Knox Avenue, Chicago, IL 60630, about seven miles north of downtown Chicago.  Phone:  (773) 282-7035 www.irishamhc.com