Research
Research sources describing the breadth and depth of Fitzpatrick history are listed below.
- Descendants of Bryan Fitzpatrick, Lord and First Baron of Upper Ossory (2nd Edition) Book - A fully-sourced roll of nearly 1,000 individuals descended through the Fitzpatrick line from the 1st Baron, born Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig.
- The Collection of Fitzpatrick Research – A computer program updated in 2026 containing the research of over 130 researchers around the world and containing over 14,000 Fitzpatrick events. This free program is available on our website and searchable by name, place, and year.
- Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive (FMA) V3.0 – A searchable archive of multimedia sources documenting Fitzpatrick history from the time of the MacGillaPatrick surrender and regrant by Henry VIII in 1541. This free program is available on our website and includes maps, documents, heraldry, and many descendancy charts; some up to 15 generations.
- Getting the Most Out of Carrigan – Describes a method to rapidly review one of Rev. Carrigan’s most influential works and other digital documents.
- Illustrated Sources for the Fitzpatrick Nation – A two-volume work of nearly 900 pages providing a companion to the Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive (FMA) and available in libraries around the world in both hardback and online digital format.
If you have questions about these new resources, you can email Steve at szalewski2000@yahoo.com.
The Collection of Fitzpatrick Research
If you are searching for Fitzpatricks within the past 100 years, we have a new method that allows you to make connections with another researcher that has submitted your search-person. The Collection of Fitzpatrick Research is a database of Fitzpatrick names, events, dates and places contributed by over 130 Fitzpatrick researchers worldwide and currently contains over 14,000 Fitzpatrick events. These events include, but are not limited to, births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials. The Collection standardizes the format of the information submitted and organizes the resultant data into sorted lists to facilitate searching. A PC application will be provided that makes searching by given name and/or location easier. The Collection is designed to augment your own research and is expressly forbidden to be published on the internet or reproduced in any publication or in any electronic media.
The objective of The Collection is two-fold: The first objective is to consolidate the Fitzpatrick research of all participants into a single location and make this research available to all users. The second objective is to facilitate the sharing of genealogical information by providing leads for users to contact each other when there is a likelihood of a common ancestor. These leads are achieved by comparing each entry in The Collection with all other entries in The Collection and reporting on the matches. The methodology involves collecting the research submitted and converting it into a common format. Placing a person in a known location at a known date is the goal for each event entry. Names, events, dates, locations, and the contributor’s name are the primary data items for each entry. In some cases, sources and comments may also be included.
Click the MS Access icon above to download a .zip file of the Collection.
Click the video above to watch The Collection of Fitzpatrick Research V.3 Tutorial.
To provide a higher probability for a match between entries of different contributors, as well as a providing a workable searching mechanism, a standard format is required. Files may be submitted in GEDCOM, CSV, TXT, or spreadsheet format and each file will be converted into the standard format. This format will contain a surname, given name, event, date, and location. All items must be present to be included in The Collection. In addition, the following criteria must also be met:
Surname: Must be a Fitzpatrick surname or close variant.
Given name: Must be a viable name or an initial. Cannot be blank, “Unknown”, “?”, “child”, “son”, “daughter” or similar names.
Event: An event in a person’s life that creates a document that can corroborate the name, date and location of the event. Common events are births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials but may also include immigration, christenings, censuses, court proceedings, et. al.
Date: The date of the event with the right-most 4 characters indicating the year.
Location: The place of the event. The location may have up to four jurisdictional levels separated by commas. The smallest jurisdiction is at the left, larger jurisdictions to the right. A maximum of 30 characters per jurisdiction is permitted.
A minimum of 4 complete Fitzpatrick name, date, event, and location groups must be submitted by a contributor in order to be included in the database. Each entry satisfying the screening criteria will then be added to The Collection along with the name of the person submitting that entry. Files may be submitted in GEDCOM, spreadsheet, or document format. Currently, the submission window is closed, but join the List to learn more details on The Collection and future research.
Thank you for all your contributions of your Fitzpatrick research for the new release of The Collection of Fitzpatrick Research. Unlike prior versions, this version will be available to the general public as long as individual data events are over 100 years old. Currently, there are in excess of 14,000 Fitzpatrick events in The Collection.
Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive (FMA) V3.0
Are you a Fitzpatrick? Have you Fitzpatricks in your family tree? Are you interested in Fitzpatrick history? If you answer yes, then it is no longer necessary to travel to some of the most significant libraries in the world to view Fitzpatrick records. No longer is it necessary to search for the insights of many of the most reputable Fitzpatrick authors, including their handwritten field notes. No longer is it necessary to try to piece together many generations of Fitzpatrick families because the Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive (FMA) can now answer many of your questions. Three hundred seventy-five documents, photographs, and slideshows of Fitzpatrick history are instantly available on your computer. They include items from the time of the Macgilpatrick ennoblement by Henry VIII in 1541 to current Upper Ossory maps of churches, chapels, and Fitzpatrick castles, letters, heraldic achievements, memorials, paintings and so much more. There has never been a single Fitzpatrick resource available anywhere with these capabilities until now.
The Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive (FMA) is an electronic resource containing the works of Shearman, Carrigan, O'Hart, Lodge, and Carew as well as manuscript, family, and unpublished sources from private collections not available in the public domain. These resources can be viewed in full colour and printed from your own computer. The FMA has been 20 years in the making and has evolved from the work of Steve Zalewski and Ronan Fitzpatrick as part of their collaborative research for their publication, The Descendants of Bryan Fitzpatrick, Lord and First Baron of Upper Ossory (2013). The Archive merges all of these resources into a single text-searchable program for easy access, viewing and printing. Over one dozen Fitzpatrick descendancy charts are also included with branches containing up to 15 generations of documented descendants. So, no more searching for hundreds of Fitzpatrick sources because they are instantly available in the FMA. And it is yours for free.
The FMA consists of two parts – the Descriptions and the Sources. All of the items in the FMA have unique descriptions and access a variety of electronic formats including electronic scans, photographs, documents, portraits, engravings, presentations, and similar multimedia.
These are selectable by you through a combination of search options. You can search by name, location, Fitzpatrick branch, multimedia type, and any text you can think of. Each Description has its own buttons for easy viewing and printing. Another button gives access to the second part - a Description’s Source. Typically, each Source includes the author’s name, year, title, publisher, repository, call number and a link to the location where it can be accessed. The FMA Descriptions and Sources complement each other and are powerful companions for The Descendants of Bryan Fitzpatrick volume.
Exciting new additions to the FMA are over a dozen Fitzpatrick family descendancies which show over 1100 Fitzpatrick descendants and family members, hundreds with dates and places of birth, death, marriage, and residence. Several of these descendants have documented connections to Bryan Fitzpatrick, Lord and First Baron of Upper Ossory.
The Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive currently consists of 375 items and will grow as new content is discovered and added. To help you to get the most from this valuable resource, an Installation Manual and a User Manual are available on the Research tab of The Fitzpatrick - Mac Giolla Phádraig Clan Society website at Research – The Fitzpatrick – Mac Giolla Phádraig Clan Society (fitzpatricksociety.com). The website also contains a Full Catalogue of the items in the Archive.
The FMA needs three programs to run:
- Microsoft 365
- Irfanview (free for personal use)
- Foxit PDF Reader (free for personal use)
Instructions that come with the FMA explain how to download and install these programs. All three programs work together as part of the magic of the Archive and may be installed on either a laptop, standalone or networked PC. (Foxit requires a muti-user license for networked PCs.)
We invite you to download and use the Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive as your main resource and constant companion for all things Fitzpatrick. And remember, it's free. Get started here:
Microsoft Word - Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive-SIngle PC Installation (fitzpatricksociety.com)
(Click on images below for PDFs.)
Referencing This Work:
Zalewski, Steve & Fitzpatrick, Ronan (2023) Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive V3.0: an electronic resource of the Manuscript, Family, and Published Sources for the Fitzpatrick Nation, Bend, Oregon : Upper Ossory Press, instructions for free download available at: https://fitzpatricksociety.
Click to watch video on the FMA.
Getting the Most Out of Carrigan
It is often difficult to locate Carrigan's view about a specific topic in his four volume series, The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory. Steve Zalewski has now made this process much easier for the Clan. Use this process with any PDF file that originates from Carrigan's text to help you quickly locate where he mentions a subject in any of his four volumes. Click the image above to view PDF.
Illustrated Sources for the Fitzpatrick Nation
Since our last Gathering in 2024, we had our "Illustrated Sources for the Fitzpatrick Nation" book printed and distributed to several libraries and to purchasers. We are currently making arrangements with other international libraries to receive digital copies of the book that will be made available online. These digital versions include the sources available in the Fitzpatrick Multimedia Archive (FMA) on our website and will also be available at several library internet websites. The first library to make the book available is the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. You can find the digital version of the book at https://www.genealogycenter.info/familydb_fj.php
Future libraries with the online digital version will include the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Family History Library in Salt Lake City, among others. The contents of these online versions are identical to the hard-cover copy version of the book but lack the search ability of the digital FMA application on the website. In addition, the format of the large descendancy charts were changed to better accommodate the online format but all of the contents have been retained.