About Helen Kelly
Helen Kelly is a professional genealogist and a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland (APGI) www.apgi.ie. She has been involved in genealogy and tourism since the 1980s and holds an extra-mural certificate in genealogy from University College Dublin (1992), a diploma in Local History from the National University of Ireland - Maynooth (1998) and a National Tour Guide Certificate from CERT (2002).
She has been a member of APGI since 1995, has been on the Council of that Association since 1996. She was Honorary Secretary of APGI from 1997 to 2000 and is their current Vice-President.
Together with colleagues from APGI, she has served as an APGI consultant at the Genealogical Office in Dublin from 1995 – and continued to serve as a consultant when that service transferred to the National Library of Ireland in 1998-2007. She also engages in consultancy work at the internationally renowned genealogy advisory service in the National Archives, which was established in 2003.
In June 2007, she was appointed Genealogy Butler to the prestigious and historical 5 star Shelbourne Renaissance Hotel on St. Stephen’s Green. In this unique role, she has commanded the attention of the international media, featuring in magazine and newspaper articles in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland, and on radio and TV in Ireland and New Zealand.
In addition to genealogy consultancy work, Helen carries out all-Ireland research on behalf of clients. She is particularly interested in the midland counties of Westmeath and Longford, and in the descendants of emigrants from those counties who settled in Argentina.
With APGI colleague Francis Dowling, she co-edited and produced the video Searching for your Ancestors in Ireland – a professional guide.
Helen travels extensively in Ireland, England, the United States and Argentina in the course of her work. Since the year 2000 she has delivered lectures on genealogy to various visiting tour groups to Ireland and has also broadcast on Radio and TV in Ireland, England and the United States, including the US coast-to-coast channel Out of Ireland. In 2001 she was a guest lecturer at the 4th Irish Genealogical Congress at Trinity College, Dublin.
Together with Irish broadcaster and film maker Angie Mezzetti (www.ocarina.ie), she has given annual lectures at the Family Records Centre for a number of years – until its closure in March 2008.