OFFALY HISTORICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co. Offaly Telephone: 057-9321421
Opening hours 9 a.m-4.30 p.m Mon-Friday Office and Family History
Library evening : Thursdays 7.30p.m – 10.30 p.m
Email: info@offalyhistory.com

Why not join or renew your membership with us online! Or Gift Membership for the year to a person with an interest in Offaly!
For more information check out our MEMBERSHIP AREA.

To renew membership for 2015 please use this form

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Offaly Heritage Books For Sale Updated October 2015

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Offaly History @ the Ploughing Championships

Offaly History is at the National Ploughing Festival, Tullamore
Block 2 Row 14 stand number 323.
Lovely books, maps and DVDs and not only about Offaly. Good discounts for farmers. Discover Rural Ireland today.

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Rare and Old Books For Sale at Offaly History

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Online Archives Catalogue

We launched an online catalogue for archives in August which is available at www.offalyhistoryarchives.com. It is a work in progress and many more archival descriptions will be added to the database as soon as collections have been catalogued.

It also hosts, in conjunction with Offaly County Council Heritage Office and with the kind permission of Lord Digby of Minterne, Dorset,  digitised images from the Digby Irish Estates Papers, the originals of which remain in Dorset. This is a marvellous resource for researching 19th and early 20th century Offaly, and over 1000 images of rental accounts for the Geashill Estate 1857-1872 are already online, with many more to come in the months ahead.

Offaly History and Offaly Heritage Office would like to acknowledge the support of the Heritage Council for sponsoring both the initial digitisation of the rental volumes and the ongoing archives work in Offaly History.

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Two New Videos From Offaly History

Offalys Links to the 1916 Rising. Dr Philip McConway.
Offaly History is pleased to bring you the last of our three public lectures in our 1916-2016 series. This one was by Dr Philip McConway and was given on 25 April at our centre in Tullamore. It is particularly important to the Society as it was the last public lecture at Offaly History Centre chaired by our president Stephen McNeill who died on 9 May 2016.

The  study of the 1916 period was very important to Stephen and so it good that we are able to bring you a record of this memorable occasion and of a chairman of the Society whose services and enthusiasm for the work will long be remembered. His contribution over the last sixteen years was always selfless and always in the pursuit of the higher goal of serving the people of Offaly in the cause of a pursuit he loved and which he helped to bring to so many.

Community and Historical Mapping For All by Brian Hollinshead.

Brian Hollinshead came to Offaly History to give an interesting lecture on Open Street Maps.
OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.

The Townlands.ie Website is mentioned in this video. The Irish OpenStreetMap community are currently actively tracing all townland boundaries from GSGS 3906 map sheets into the OpenStreetMap database.

You can click on each county to see baronies, civil parishes and townlands in the respective county.
203 baronies, 1,480 civil parishes, 1,129 electoral divisions, 57,431 townlands currently mapped on OpenStreetMap.

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IN MEMORIAM
STEPHEN McNEILL

Died 9th May 2016
We are sorry to convey the news of the death of our President,
Stephen McNeill, who died suddenly on Monday 9 May.
Stephen’s life was marked with enthusiasm and energy for his many projects.
Above all else he was a devout Catholic, family man, a historian and so much more.
Our sympathies to his wife Celestine, his children and his extended family
of friends and correspondents around the world.

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Placido Castro, Galicia, Spain visits Ireland in the late 1920s PDF DOWNLOAD

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OFFALY HISTORY LIBRARY CATALOG AVAILABLE TO VIEW ON LIBRARYTHING.

Thanks to lots of hard work – an almost complete listing of our Library is available online.
This extensive listing currently includes 9561 entries. This will only grow.

Click the link and either search or use the top left bar to select a sub-collection.

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Family History

Offaly Historical Society is the designated research centre for the counties of Offaly (formerly called King’s County) and Laois (formerly called Queen’s County). The Centre offers a full research service. All initial enquiries are answered promptly within 2 – 3 working days and you will be advised how much information is located within all the Church Records, Civil Records, census records, some graveyard records and all other sources that are available at our centre.  Our head research officer Margaret has sixteen years experience working in family history. She also has a wealth of local knowledge and is on hand to advise on the local area.

Enquirers can write to us with their request to Offaly History. Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co. Offaly Ireland or fill in an application form on our website here  or why don’t you email Margaret your family history request- The name of the family, the location, the dates or any information you know and she will search all records available and let you know how much information she may uncover on your ancestors. The fee for this initial assessment is €10.

She will advise if there is enough information uncovered to compile a family history report and put together in a book form, to include a map of the parish where your family came from, also photos of the area long ago.  if you require baptismal certificates, she will furnish you with the name of the Parish Priest.

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Offaly History Books for Sale Catalogue (PDF Format, Downloadable)