Tuesday 14 February 2012

Some snippets of interest

There's a certain 'lull before the storm' feel to the flow of Irish genealogy news just at the moment with all the main databases and repositories holding back their new collections and announcements until WDYTYA?, which kicks off in 10 days time.

In the meantime, a few snippets:

Genes Reunited.co.uk
GenesReunited.co.uk, the UK records database supplier and social genealogy site, is offering a 10% discount on ALL its membership subscriptions. This is a first for the site, as it usually offers any discounts only on its Platinum subscription.

In addition to its free family tree builder, the GR site offers searchable census records for England and Wales from 1841 to 1911 (in other words, the full set), birth, marriage and death records from 1837 to 2006, plus overseas bmds from the 18th century, passenger lists, military records and a host of other collections. Access to these records requires a subscription.

Platinum subscribers also get very healthy discounts on packages to the British Newspaper Archives.

The 10% discount now offered will be available up to and including 26 February. You need to quote the promotion code: GRFEB10.

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The National Archives of the UK has launched a new blog. It looks lively and unstuffy, and seems to have a lot of promise, and it could be very useful for Irish genealogy researchers as the TNA holds many manuscripts and collections relating to Ireland pre-Independence. Plus, of course, it is the main repository of British military records, which contain details of so many Irish men and women.

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The Society of Australian Genealogists have announced that full free access to FindMyPast Ireland is now available in the Library at 379 Kent Street, Sydney.

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You may have heard about the new £90m Titanic Belfast attraction which is due to open in Belfast at the end of March. I understood that it was to offer some minor genealogical slant and I've now had this clarified by the operators.

It seems one of the galleries will hold four interactive databases (via touchscreens) which can be searched by visitors. The database will hold the details of all passengers and crew on the ship: their name, age, gender, port of embarkation, destination port, job and nationality and whether the individual survived or not. No other information will be available.

I believe this information is already fairly readily accessible elsewhere. It certainly is for the Irish folk on board. If you want an indepth study of the Irish men and women who set sail on her, either as passengers or crew, see Senan Malony's book 'The Irish on board Titanic', which I can personally recommend.

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If you missed the PRONI/OU lecture on Religion at the end of last month, it's now available to watch on You Tube, in a series of videos. Go to PRONI online.

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And, similarly, if you misssed the History Ireland Hedge School at the National Library on 12 January. The subject was 'The War of Independence: four glorious years or squalid sectarian conflict' and the debate can now be viewed online here.

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