Tom Coughlan - Genealogy Biography
Tom attained the National University of Ireland’s Certificate in Genealogy and Family History in 2008, but had already been engaged in personal research for almost a decade before that.
He began professional research in 2008, and in 2009 completed his studies and attained the National University of Ireland’s Diploma in Genealogy and Family History.
Since 2008, Tom has worked for many hundreds of clients, from around the globe, and has conducted research into families from almost every county of Ireland. From about 2016 he limited his scope to research into County Leitrim families.
Between 2009 and 2013 Tom taught Genealogy/Family History as an Adult Education class in Newpark College, offering both a beginners and an advanced course.
Between 2012 and 2014 Tom was part of the panel providing the Genealogical Advisory Service to the National Archives of Ireland and to the National Library of Ireland. Also in 2013, Tom was part of the team providing the free advisory service "The Kerry Genealogy Roadshow".
Having as had several articles published in family history magazines such as Irish Roots, Family Tree Magazine and the Journal of the Genealogical Society of Ireland, around 2016 Tom, using his general experience and local knowledge, began work on his Tracing Your Leitrim Ancestors, which was published in 2018 as part of the Flyleaf Press series of research guides.
Since the publication of that book, Tom has combined part-time professional research (into Leitrim families) with the gathering and collation of data on many families hailing from parts of South County Leitrim. He has now discontinued his research service in order to concentrate solely on preparing the findings of that research for publication. In 2019 he launched the free website Your Leitrim Ancestors which provides some 'bare-bones' data on the thousands of people he has conducted some research into.