A biography is a history of a person's life. In a biography, you may find the individual's birth, marriage, and death information as well as information about parents, spouse, children, and other family members. Verify information from biographies because it may be inaccurate.

You can locate individual or family biographies in the Surname Search of the catalog under the surname you are looking for. For information on biographies of royalty, nobility, and those with coats of arms, see the “Nobility” section of this outline.

Two sources listing published biographies are:

Grenham, John. “Family Histories.” In Tracing Your Irish Ancestors: The Complete Guide. (See “For Further Reading.”)

MacLysaght, Edward. Bibliography of Irish Family History. 2d ed. Blackrock, Ireland: Irish Academic Press, 1982. (FHL book 941.5 D23m; computer number 493660.)

Thousands of biographies have been gathered and published in collections that are sometimes called biographical encyclopedias or dictionaries. These usually only include biographies of well-known people. Some contain biographies of people belonging to specific groups, such as ministers, artists, scholars, or martyrs.

The following collections are important sources for biographies of prominent businessmen, political leaders, and religious and historical figures:

British and Irish Biographies. London: Chadwyck- Healey, 1986-. This is a major and still growing microfiche collection of biographical dictionaries. A large portion of the collection is indexed in Index to British and Irish Biographies, 1840-1940 ([Manchester: Chadwyck-Healey, 1987]; FHL fiche 6342001; computer number 0466588). The biographical dictionaries included in the collection, together with their Family History Library call numbers, are listed in the Author/Title Search of the microfiche catalog under BRITISH AND IRISH BIOGRAPHIES.

Crone, John S. A Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography. 1937. Reprint. Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1970. (FHL book Ref 941.5 D3cr 1970; computer number 0036018.) This dictionary contains short biographical summaries of famous Irishmen who lived between A.D. 350 and 1970.

Lee, Sir Sidney, et. al., eds. Dictionary of National Biography. 63 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1885-. (FHL book Ref 920.042 D561n; fiche 6051261; computer number 0261150.) This series includes biographies of noteworthy British subjects who lived between a.d. 500 and 1985.

Sieveking, Paul, ed. The British Biographical Archive. New York, New York: K. G. Sauer, 1986. (FHL fiche 6029709-35, 6066966; computer number 0460188.) This collection contains biographies from 324 printed sources dating from 1600 to 1900.

If your ancestor played an important part in a group, occupation, or event, such as the clergy, painters, or the Boer Wars, search for biographical collections that may include your ancestor. Biographies available at the Family History Library are listed in the Locality Search of the catalog under the following localities and subject headings:

Localities	Subject Headings
GREAT BRITAIN	BIOGRAPHY
IRELAND	GENEALOGY
IRELAND, [COUNTY]
IRELAND, [COUNTY], [PARISH OR CITY]