Every family tree begins with names and dates. But every one of those names belonged to a real person. They laughed with neighbours, worried about money, celebrated weddings, mourned loved ones, gossiped about the latest news, and walked roads that can still be followed today. My work is about bringing those ordinary lives back into view. By combining genealogy, newspapers and local history, I believe understanding the lives behind the records is just as important as finding the records themselves. I ask not only who were our ancestors, but also about the communities they belonged to and the world they knew.
Hello! I’m Rhonda and I grew up in a small town in County Londonderry/Derry in Northern Ireland. Leaving for University in the late ’80s, I lived in Scotland and England before returning to my hometown in Summer 2017.
I gained my Postgraduate Diploma in Information & Library Studies in 2004 and went on to specialize in genealogy while working in Swindon Libraries, England until returning to Northern Ireland in 2017
I’m also a qualified (OCN NI, Level 2) Tour Guide with a particular passion for all things North Coast of Northern Ireland. Since 2018, I have worked for the National Trust, in various properties on the Causeway Coast, including the Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge and Downhill Demesne and Mussenden Temple. I have also worked in Mid Ulster at The Argory, Springhill, Gray’s Printing Press, Ardress and Derrymore. Along the way, I have picked up a good collection of tales to tell.
I bring a wealth of experience and a passion for uncovering family histories. Over the years, I have guided countless individuals on their ancestral journeys. I have helped them break through “brick walls.” I have also devised and delivered a variety of popular workshops.
Since returning to Northern Ireland in 2017, I’ve honed my expertise in navigating the unique challenges of genealogical research here. I particularly specialize in Counties Londonderry/Derry and Antrim.
What I’ve learned is that the north of Ireland is its own puzzle, especially as the censuses are largely gone. Land was held by townland, faith was split across denominations, and families married across the divide far more than the tidy version of history admits. General Irish genealogy advice will only take you so far here — and often in the wrong direction.
I know this partly from the work, and partly from my own family. Following them back, I found an intestate farmer, a court case that had vanished from family memory within two generations, three brothers who left for America in the space of four years, and a man everyone remembered as the one who lost the farm — who turned out to have drawn about the shortest straw a person could draw. I’ll be posting about them all soon in my Dempseys of Claragh series.
I write for the person sitting where I’ve often sat: searching for an ancestor from the north of Ireland, a wall you can’t get past, and the sense that the answer is there if only you knew where to look. Frequently it is.
One of the things I love most is opening an old newspaper and finding an ordinary person who appears for just a few paragraphs before disappearing from the historical record again. For a moment, they become more than a name on a family tree. They become someone’s daughter, neighbour, friend or workmate.
Every record belonged to a real living person with hopes dreams and heart breaks. My job is to help them step out of the archive and back into the world for a little while. Whether your ancestors lived in or left County Antrim, County Londonderry or elsewhere in Ulster generations ago, my aim is to help you understand not only where they lived, but the communities and landscapes that shaped their lives.
If your family came from this corner of the world — especially the Causeway Coast, the Bann Valley or around Kilrea — do get in touch. The comments are open, and I read every one.
