Genealogical society fellowship for author

WRITER, GENEALOGIST and teacher John Grenham was last night honoured with a Fellowship of the Genealogical Society of Ireland.

The fellowship, described as a special award to mark the 20th anniversary of the society, was presented to Grenham by Minister for Tourism Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin at a ceremony in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

Grenham is widely known for his journalism, teaching and consultancy but also for his books, particularly Tracing Your Irish Ancestors, which has become the indispensable reference for those researching their family history.

Grenham also contributes the “Irish Roots” column to this newspaper and the Irish Ancestors page at irishtimes.com. Irish Ancestors aims to be the first online stopping-off point for those interested in researching their Irish ancestors. Michael Merrigan general secretary of the Genealogical Society of Ireland paid tribute to Grenham saying he had done much to popularise genealogy. He said the society had been set up to make records available and to demystify the research process so that everyone could use facilities such as the National Archive and the National Library, regardless of the level of their formal eduction or personal resources.

He said Grenham had done much to help achieve those goals. “His books include ‘how-to-do’ sections, details on where the resources are, reference numbers and text references. I would say his work is essential for anyone starting to search their family history,” he said.