October 25 - The Great Hunger - with Elizabeth Stack

Name: October 25 - The Great Hunger - with Elizabeth Stack
Start: 2025-10-25T10:45:00-04:00
End: 2025-10-25T12:00:00-04:00
Location: Freeport Memorial Library

Schedule

Sat Oct 25 2025 at 10:45 am to 12:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Freeport Memorial Library | Freeport, NY

October 25 - The Great Hunger - with Elizabeth Stack
This presentation will be held in-person at the Freeport Memorial Library, 144 West Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520, and virtually for members via Zoom.
*Always check for last-minute meeting day changes due to weather or technical issues. We will send you emails and post updated information on our website, IFHF.org, and Facebook.
The Irish Family History Forum offers nine world-class Irish Genealogy lectures, both in person and on ZOOM. Handouts and most of our presentations are recorded and available to our MEMBERS for viewing on our website for a limited time after the original presentation.

If you would like to join the Irish Family History Forum, go to: https://ifhf.org/index.php/plans/join-ifhf/
Individual: $30 a year.
Family: two people (one address) - $40 a year
Student (with a student ID) - $15 a year

*Upcoming Presentations
October 25
The Great Hunger - with Elizabeth Stack
Between 1846 and 1851, approximately one million people in Ireland died due to famine-related causes. Most deaths were due to diseases like typhus rather than starvation per se, although diseases like dysentery and scurvy are related to lack of food.

Elizabeth Stack will discuss the conditions that led to the failure of the potato crop and the devastating consequences for Ireland's population. She will examine the response of the British government and the landlords, as well as testimonies from eyewitnesses. American charity in Ireland and the mass migration, including life on board the so-called coffin ships, will also be covered.

Elizabeth Stack, Ph.D., who is the executive director of the American Irish Historical Society in New York City, was previously executive director of the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany, New York. At Fordham University, she taught Irish and Irish American history and was associate director of Fordham’s Institute of Irish Studies. She is a frequent guest on podcasts and radio shows about Irish America.

November 15
Old Irish Surnames - with Irene Morgan
Your brick wall could be a modern-day blind spot in surname pronunciation or spelling. Old Irish surnames are living, breathing entities that have shape-shifted and evolved across generations. Discover how to navigate mysterious spelling variants and aliases to trace elusive family names back to Ireland.
Irene Morgan, a native Irish speaker, is the resident genealogy writer for Ireland Reaching Out and the founder of Irish Quest. In January, she spoke to the Forum about Irish forenames and nicknames.

December 14 - At the Irish Coffee Pub
Christmas Party, save the date

January 17
Researching with Census Records - with Kerri Tannenbaum
Unlock your family's past by digging into census records. We'll explore the fundamentals of using census records, including federal, state, and other censuses. You'll learn how census records have evolved over time, how to locate and interpret the records, and how to use the information to build your family tree and trace ancestors across multiple generations.
Forum member and professional genealogist Kerri Tannenbaum is a graduate of Boston University’s Certificate Program in Genealogical Research and the ProGen Peer Study Groups. A recipient of many awards from the National Genealogical Society, she serves as contributing editor of the Forum Newsletter. She also runs her own genealogy company, Family Dot Connector.

February 21
The 1926 Irish Census - with Noel Carolan
On April 18, the 1926 Irish census, the first enumeration conducted by the Irish Free State, will be released by the National Archives of Ireland. To prepare us for this event, Dr. Noel Carolan will highlight the unique insights that the 1926 census will provide into Irish families and their neighbors, employers, and living conditions. The talk will outline the stark political and economic contexts of the census, the information it contains, how it was collected, and what we will discover, free of charge, when the census becomes available. Dr. Carolan will provide a set of digital handouts with selected online links and resources to help you kickstart your family history research in the eight weeks before the census release.
Dr. Carolan is a historian with a focus on national, local, and family history. His Ph.D. dissertation dealt with the political history of Ireland’s food supply from 1895 to 1923 and resulted in his delivery of conference papers in Ireland, Northern Ireland, the U.K., and the Czech Republic. For decades, he has been an active member of Raheny Heritage Society in Dublin, which divides its interests between local history and family history.

March 21
The Orphan Train - with Frank McKenna
Information to come

Members, thank you for your support, 30+ years and counting!
Members with email addresses on file will receive a MailChimp Zoom Invitation email about one week before the presentation.
Members, if you can’t find your MailChimp Zoom Invitation email, don't worry. You can access an invitation by visiting the ifhf.org website, clicking "Member Resources," and then selecting "Monthly Meeting Link." When you do, you will see an "Invitation Link" to register for the Zoom Webinar.