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Aiden Feerick has always had an interest in local and family history. Since national school he has had an interest in place names, the land question and memorials of the dead. This comes from growing up in County Mayo in close proximity to the parish graveyard before rural electrification, before television and before houses had the modern conveniences we now take so much for granted. In a word, he grew up during the fifties when the way of life of country people had not changed for generations. So, he understands from direct experience what life was like two or three generations ago.
After reading Classical languages at University College Dublin and after a short spell teaching, he went to live and work in Italy. There he spent nearly 25 years. This is a country where family records go back hundreds and in the case of aristocratic families, thousands of years.
Returning to Ireland, he decided to investigate the history of his own family. He joined the University College Dublin Genealogy course tutored by Sean J Murphy M.A., a well know genealogist and family historian. The three year course covered all important aspects of genealogical research: births marriages and deaths records searches, Census searches, ecclesiastical records searches, wills and court records as well as land registry searches. Time was also devoted to the study of armigerous families as well as to early documents like the Tithe Applotment Books. Because emigration was such an important factor in 19th century Ireland, especially towards the USA, research techniques in this field were extensively covered.
During the course of the three years, Aiden specialised in the study of records relating to County Mayo, his home country. In the final year, he prepared a critical edition of the Tithe Applotment Book for the parish of Killedan in the same county. This is as yet unpublished.
Having recently retired, he was delighted when John, his classmate from the genealogy course, asked him to join Ancestor.ie in offering qualified genealogical services to clients.
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