With comprehensive indexing and 22 black & white illustrations, this revised standard paperback edition explores the genealogical traditions of the O'Brien family of Thomond for centuries BEFORE they took the surname Ó Briain. Once considered lost, these are the genealogical secrets of the Celtic Iron Age and Migration Period. To tell this story, the author accessed the mass of information preserved in the Irish Language since the 7th century in Ireland's most important genealogical manuscripts. These manuscripts had been hidden away in a handful of collections since the physical and cultural genocide of the Gaeil in the 17th century, and were therefore inaccessible until recently to almost all Irish, their diaspora, and their genealogists. Happily, these Irish Language manuscripts have finally been set in type and published after waiting between 350 and 850 years. Because this book uses and translates into English this ancient but newly-available genealogical tradition, it is the first of its kind in the modern era about this kinship group. Physical description: the Standard Paperback Edition of 222 pages, 7 X 10 inch format, including 22 black & white illustrations and comprehensive indexing.