Thursday 31 March 2016

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: latest updates

Jane Barrett - Hannah d 30 June 1861.
Sligo Town Cemetery, Old Part.
Photo courtesy Kev Murray / IGP-web
Below are the files, photos and transcriptions added to Ireland Genealogy Projects (IGP-web) Archives in the last two weeks of March. All were donated by family historians:

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Drung Old Cemetery (partial)

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Vital Records
Death Certs 1869 (updated)

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Marriages in Aghavea CoI 1815-1879

LEITRIM Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Jamestown Abbey Graveyard

MAYO Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Aughavale Old Cemetery (partial)
Cloghans Cemetery
Crossboyne New Graveyard (WALSH)
Crossboyne Old Graveyard (WALSH)

SLIGO Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Sligo Town Cemetery: Middle Part – Sections J&K, and Old Part – Part 1 (A-Fe)
St Mary's, Kilmacshalgan

Monday 28 March 2016

GRONI introduces new fee tariff from 4 April

The General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRONI) will be introducing a new fees tariff from next Monday, 4 April. Usually, fee changes go only in one direction (up!), but on this occasion that's not the case. Instead, there's an up, a down and a no-change in store.

Online GENI database: Apart from a basic index search, which remains free, the cost of using the online GENI facility will rise. It uses a credit system, and the price of a credit will increase by 25% from 40p to 50p each. This will push up the price of viewing a digitised copy of a birth, marriage or death certificate image from £2 to £2.50, and the price of an 'enhanced index record' to 50p.

Certificates: Seeing no change in cost (they're expensive enough!) are copies of certificates ordered at GRONI's Search Room. They will remain at £8 a throw. If you order them by telephone or email, the cost is an eye-watering £15, and this won't be increased this year, either.

Belfast Search Room: The best news is the abolishing of a fee – currently £7 – for use of GRONI's Search Room in Belfast.

Alistair Butler, Assistant Registrar General, also tells me that GRONI will be relocating by the end of this year from Oxford House in Chichester Street, a stone's throw from City Hall and at the heart of the city centre, to Colby House, Stranmillis. The move is part of a plan for all staff of NISRA (the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) to be located in the one building. A new GRONI Search Room will be opened to the public at this new address.

Irish genealogy & history events: 28 March to 10 April

Monday 28 March: Reflecting the Rising, 'the biggest public history and cultural event ever staged in Ireland'. Hosts: RTÉ and Ireland 2016. A free family event taking over Dublin City from 11am to 6pm. Events range from talks and exhibitions, live music and theatrical performances, special films, interactive activities and family entertainment. Details.

Monday 28 March: Reflecting the Rising at the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. The NLI will present a free programme of exhibitions, readings, talks and music, revolving around the year of 1916 as part of the Dublin event. There is no need to book for the exhibitions, readings and music sessions. The talks, however, are now fully booked.

Monday 28 March: Dublin Easter 1916: what was it like? a HistoryIreland Hedge School with editor Tommy Graham chairing the debate. Panel: John Gibney, Lucy McDiarmid, Mary McAulliffe and Joe Connell. Part of the Reflecting the Rising programme. Venue: Thomas Davis Theatre (Room 2043), Trinity College, Dublin 2, 5pm. Free. Booking essential.

Tuesday 29 March: "This is the size of your apples, they are scarce this year and the robbers plentiful": Businesswomen in provincial Ireland, the letters of Flo Clancy, 1938-1948, with Paul O'Brien.  Host: Kilrush Historical Society. Venue: Teach Ceoil, Grace Street, Kilrush, Co Clare. 8pm. Members free; €5 for non-members. All welcome.

Wednesday 30 March: Open genealogy consultations, with Lisa Dougherty. Host: Irish American Heritage Museum, 370 Broadway, Albany, New York 12207 USA. 11am to 2pm. Free.

Thursday 31 March: Free Genealogy evening, with Paul MacCotter MAGI exploring the basics of Irish genealogy and some famous Irish surnames, plus the history of stout in Cork. Venue: Franciscan Well brewpub, North Mall, Cork City. 8.30pm start. Free. Spaces limited; come early.

Thursday 31 March: What were your family doing in 1916? An afternoon of genealogy with Eneclann and FindMyPast. Host and venue: Tullamore Library, O'Connor Square, Tullamore, Co Offaly. 12pm to 4pm. Free. Talks and one-to-one consultations. Booking may be required: T 057 93 46832.

Thursday 31 March: Untangling, Births, Deaths & Marriages, with Committee members. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Ballymena Branch. Venue: Michelin Arts Workshop, Braid Arts Centre 1-29 Bridge Street, Ballymena, BT43 5EJ. 7:15pm. Free. All welcome.

Saturday 2 April: The Poet's Rebellion. Two talks: Ireland 1916: a tale of two Thomases, with Dan Mulhall, Irish Ambassador to the UK, and 1916, what did it all mean? with Dr Ivan Gibbons. Also musical performances and Easter 1916 art exhibition by Declan Kerr. Host: Luton Irish Forum (LIF). Venue: The Hat Factory (THF), 65-67 Bute St, Luton, Bedford, UK LU1 2EY. 1:30pm to 5:30pm. Tickets £8: LIF-01582 720447; THF-01582 878100.

Saturday 2 April: Gaelic and Anglo Norman Ireland: different foods, different identities? with Regina Sexton. Part of the Power & Privilege – the Butlers of Ormond lecture series. Host: Tipperary County Museum. Venue: Clonmel Library, Mick Delahunty Square, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. €5, includes refreshments. 10am–12noon. To book: T: Julia on 076 106 5564 or email julia.walsh@tipperarycoco.ie.

Sunday 3 April: Gleanings from Ireland's Griffith's Valuation, a workshop with Krista J Ozyazgan. Host and venue: Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME 04112 USA. 1pm. $5 members/$10 non-members. Bookings: irishhc@maine.rr.com.

Monday 4 April: South Dublin and the 1916 Rising in Oral Histories, with Maurice O'Keefe. Host: South Dublin County Council. Venue: Lucan Library, Unit 16, Superquinn Shopping Centre, Newcastle Rd, Lucan, Co. Dublin. 7pm. All welcome.

Monday 4 April: Central Library's historical holdings, with Linda Ming. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Foyle branch. Venue: Derry City’s Central Library, 35 Foyle Street, Londonderry, BT48 6AL. 7pm. Free. All welcome.

Monday 4 April: The Strangford Stone, with Martin Todd. Plus AGM. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Killyleagh branch. Venue: Killyleagh Masonic Hall, 50 High St, Killyleagh, Co Down. BT30 9QF. 8pm. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 5 April: Sean Connolly, City Hall and the 1916 Rising, with Conor McNamara. Host: 'Dublin City Council and the 1916 Rising' City Hall Lunchtime Lecture Series. Venue: Council Chamber, City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2. 1:10pm. Free. No booking required but arrive early to ensure you get a seat.

Thursday 7 April: The 1916 Rising and its aftermath, with Philip Orr. Plus AGM. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Belfast branch. Venue: Holywood Arches Library, Holywood Road, Belfast, BT4 1NT. 7:30pm. Free. All welcome.

Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 April: WDYTYA?Live, Venue: NEC, Birmingham, UK. Three-day family history exhibition with packed programme of lectures and workshops. Irish contingent includes the Irish Genealogical Research Society, National Archives of Ireland & National Library of Ireland, IrishAncestors4U, Ireland XO. FindMyPastIreland/Eneclann, the Irish Family History Society and the North of Ireland Family History Society. Details.

Friday 8 April: Supplying the IRA: gunrunning from Britain 1919–1923, Gerard Noonan. Host: Military History Society of Ireland. Venue: Griffith College, South Circular Road, Dublin 8. 8pm. Non-members welcome.

Saturday 9 April: Finding the Source: A Survey of Irish Genealogical Websites and Databases, with Miles Davenport. This workshop is aimed at Intermediate level researchers. Venue: Norton Room, McClelland Library & Irish Cultural Center, 1106 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA. $15 Library/ICC members; $20 non-members. 10:30am&12:30pm. Details.

Sunday 10 April: Glasnevin in 1916; 1916 in Glasnevin, a HistoryIreland Hedge School, with editor Tommy Graham chairing a panel consisting of Conor Dodd, Joe Duffy, John Gibney and Liz Gillis. Venue: Glasnevin Cemetery Museum, Finglas Road, Dublin 11. 2pm. Free and no booking required but arrive early to be sure of a place. Details.

Saturday 26 March 2016

Irish Family History Foundation publishes special issue of Clann to mark the Easter Rising 1916 centenary

Click to reach free download page
To mark the centenary of the Easter Rising of 1916, a special edition of CLANN, the free quarterly online newsletter of the Irish Family History Foundation (IFHF), has been released.

It features the results of painstaking genealogy research on the families of the seven signatories to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, the declaration read out by Patrick Pearse at the beginning of the insurrection on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916.

The seven signatories, Ceannt, Clarke, Connolly, Mac Diarmada, MacDonagh, Pearse and Plunkett came from very different backgrounds. Their stories touch on twenty counties of Ireland and reveal the diverse strands of 19th-century Irish society.

The research was conducted over several months on behalf of the IFHF by Paul Gorry, a Member of Accredited Genealogists Ireland.

The records used are indicated throughout the 52-page newsletter and illustrate the wide range of sources now available for Irish genealogical research. The various county databases on RootsIreland.ie, the online records* service provided by the IFHF, played a central role in tracing the seven families, but the research involved other online sources as well as original records and printed material.

The special issue is now available for free download from RootsIreland - Clann.


*RootsIreland's records cover baptisms, marriages and deaths of various religious denominations, many civil records and gravestone inscriptions. The database covers most of the RC registers in the National Library of Ireland (NLI) collection, as well as many registers not microfilmed by the NLI. While the end-date of the NLI collection is 1881, many of the registers in the RootsIreland database extend well into the 20th century.

Friday 25 March 2016

Ancestry offers free Easter access to its Irish, UK, and Commonwealth collections

http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-5329468-10819001-1408706803000
Ancestry UK is offering a free long weekend of access to its Commonwealth collections, which includes records for Australia, Canada, the UK and New Zealand, and some other nations. This free access is now live and will continue until 23:59 BST on Monday 28 March.

See the full list of record sets included in the free weekend here.

Ireland is not part of the Commonwealth but Ancestry's Irish Collection is also freely available this weekend. It will remain free until 31 March.

You don't need a current Ancestry subscription to view any of these records but you will need to have an account.

You can register for free with Ancestry.co.uk with your name and email address (no financial details are requested when you register) and will then receive a username and password to access the records. See the full conditions on the site.

Thursday 24 March 2016

Free Irish, UK and Commonwealth records on Ancestry

UPDATE: A day after publication of the blogpost below, Ancestry added its entire Commonwealth collection of records to the free access weekend. 


While the details below are correct, please go to Friday's post:
 Ancestry offers free Easter access to its Irish, UK, and Commonwealth collections to take advantage of additional free records.



Australian Immigration collection free until 28 March
Ancestry.com.au has announced a weekend of free access to its collection of immigration records.

The Immigration Collection includes Convict Transportation Registers, Convict pardons and tickets of leave, Assisted and Unassisted passenger lists, Registers of Seamen, Naturalisation records and a specifically Irish collection recording wives and children of Irish convicts arriving in New South Wales between 1825 and 1840.

There are many more, as you can see in this Immigration Collection list.

Access to the records will be free until 11:59pm AEDT* on Monday 28 March.

Entire Irish collection free until 31 March
To view this collection, you'll need to have an account with Ancestry.com.au. You don't need a current Ancestry subscription. You can register for free with Ancestry.com.au with your name and email address and will then receive a username and password to access the records. See the full conditions on the site.

This weekend freebie to the Australian/NZ Immigration Collection is a timely reminder that Ancestry's Irish Collection is also still free until 31 March, and now includes some never-before-online Easter Rising records.

Enjoy!


*If you're in the EU, don't get caught out by our change of clocks this weekend. Australia doesn't change its clocks until the first weekend in April.

Consultation begins on major changes for PRONI users

The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) has opened a public consultation on proposals to improve access to records held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).

The proposed draft Statutory Rules will, among a variety of changes, remove copy fees and allow visitors to PRONI to photograph documents free of charge using their own equipment, or cheaply by using PRONI equipment. PRONI users will also be able to purchase high quality digital and paper copies of many records.

A DCAL spokesperson said: “It is important that PRONI users get the best value from the archives and these proposed new procedures, if implemented, will help achieve that while also ensuring the ongoing safety and preservation of the records.

“The proposed new system will help PRONI become more sustainable in the long term and also deliver more options to help make PRONI more accessible for users.

“We want to hear from anyone with views on these proposals to submit a response to the consultation and make their voice heard. All responses will be taken into consideration.”

The proposals and details of how to submit a response are available here on the DCAL website.

The consultation opens today and will run until 9am on Monday 23 May 2016.

How did your ancestor's county experience the Rising?

Every single county in Ireland has a connection with the 1916 Rising. In an effort to explore these connections and stories, RTÉ, in partnership with Ireland 2016, embarked on an ambitious project to produce a series of one-minute films: one for every county.

The one-minute films explore the individual connections with the events of 1916 in each county or a particular story around the county’s commemoration of Easter 1916. The film-makers have allowed each county to tell its own story about how it was touched by this momentous turning point in Ireland’s history.

The films have been specially commissioned as part of Ireland 2016, the State programme to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising. They are available to view on RTÉ Player and on RTÉ’s YouTube channel.

Speaking about the films Adrian Lynch, Channel Controller, RTÉ One, said: “We initially commissioned six films for our Road to the Rising series but when we saw how strong the films were we wanted to expand them to include every county in Ireland. Each film is different and gives a unique insight into the counties’ connection to 1916.”

Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys said: “These short films provide a very personal and intimate look at how the Rising affected communities right across this country. While the Rising is often seen as a Dublin-based event, the reality is that families from every county were caught up in the dramatic events of Easter Week 1916. These short videos help to tell their story.”

Filmed over the past six months by five Irish directors, the films feature local people reflecting on the Easter Rising. Choose your county below to watch the films on YouTube.

Antrim         Derry        Kerry        Longford        Roscommon        Wexford
Armagh        Donegal        Kildare        Louth        Sligo        Wicklow
Carlow        Down        Kilkenny        Mayo        Tipperary
Cavan        Dublin        Laois        Meath        Tyrone
Clare        Fermanagh        Leitrim        Monaghan        Waterford
Cork        Galway        Limerick        Offaly        Westmeath

State's Rising centenary focus this weekend

This weekend's Easter Sunday parade and a series of 1916 centenary events will be the largest commemoration ever staged in the history of the State.

State ceremonial events will begin on Easter Saturday, with a ceremony in the Garden of Remembrance, and will culminate on Easter Monday night with Centenary, a TV spectacular to be broadcast at home and abroad, produced by RTÉ in collaboration with the State’s Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme.

Easter Sunday's Parade will stretch for 4.5km and will involve more than 3,700 members of the Defence Forces, Emergency Services and Army veterans, while on Monday, RTÉ's Reflecting the Rising will be the most ambitious public cultural event that Dublin's City centre has seen.

Minister of the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys TD described the weekend ahead as the focal point of the State's 1916 commemorations. “Each day of the weekend is anchored in a respectful commemorative ceremony, to remember those who lost their lives in the pursuit of self determination and democracy," she said. "While Sunday will be a day of solemn reflection, on Monday we will celebrate our Irishness, our diversity and our national identity in an incredible array of artistic, historical and culture events.

“The scale of this weekend’s programme of events is unprecedented, and I would like to acknowledge the huge amount of preparation and hard work which has been done by all arms of the State, including the Defence Forces and the Gardaí, as well as staff working right across Government.

“100 years on from 1916, Ireland is a democracy which has stood the test of time, despite considerable challenges. This weekend we will honour the courage and ideals that characterised the events and people of 1916, while also reflecting on our entire history and the diverse national identity which makes us Irish today.”

Event highlights over the weekend include:
  • State Ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance (Saturday 26 March, Noon) to remember and honour those who gave their lives for Irish freedom.
  • State event for relatives of participants in the 1916 Rising (Saturday 26 March, RDS, 6pm), which will include a keynote address by President Michael D. Higgins and a special performance of the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Macalla 1916
  • State Ceremony in three parts at Glasnevin Cemetery (Sunday 27 March, 9.30am), which includes a wreath-layings at the Sigerson Monument, the grave of Edward Hollywood and the grave of Peadar Kearney.
  • State Ceremonial event at the Stone Breakers Yard in Kilmainham on the site where the 1916 leaders were executed in Kilmainham Gaol.
  • The Easter Centenary Parade (Sunday 27 March). The State Ceremonial will take place at 12 noon at the GPO, where President Michael D. Higgins will lay a wreath on behalf of the people of Ireland.
  • The major public event for Easter Monday is RTÉ's Reflecting the Rising in partnership with Ireland 2016, at multiple locations around Dublin. It will include more than 500 free talks, exhibitions, debates, film, performances and dramatizations, with six outdoor stages and lots of activities for children and families, in more than 200 venues spanning both the north and south sides of Dublin City Centre. The events are happening in five distinct zones around the city between 11am and 6pm.
  • Synchronised wreath-laying ceremonies on Easter Monday (28 March, 1.15pm) at seven 1916 garrison locations around Dublin including Boland’s Mill, Jacob’s Factory (Bishop Street), Dublin Castle/City Hall, The Four Courts, The Royal College of Surgeons, Moore Street and St. James’ Hospital (South Dublin Union). At the same moment, there will also be four wreath-layings in Athenry, Cork, Enniscorthy and Ashbourne.
Large viewing screens will be in place at the Garden of Remembrance and Glasnevin Cemetery for the public. The ceremony at Stonebreakers Yard will be screened on these as well as there is extremely limited capacity in Kilmainham. The public are also welcome to attend the synchronised wreath-layings in Dublin on Easter Monday. Full event details of all events and FAQ’s.

Gathering the Gleesons, Gleasons and Glissons

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8CKk5xlSy8o9-LHgHKwojjy0npwakQgI5WipQFhZrE4QG7GByqAIHPKxu_9U3IKiH9SO_zOpjELiQKowMZ_-kB7UPY71ssh6RtmQ3EvU1qewUihjsqp_S0fcUHDty3oJCo5eE7k4CO-SZ/s1600/Gleeson.jpg
A Gleeson Gathering, featuring lectures, tours and excursions, will be held this summer in County Tipperary, 19-24 August.

The programme will get underway in Nenagh on Friday 19 August with genealogy consultations, dna testing, a keynote address by author and local historian Danny Grace, and a cheese and wine reception. Saturday will see a full day of lectures highlighting the impact of the Gleesons on history, and the impact of history on the Gleesons, a tour of Nenagh Castle and an informal social event.

From Sunday to Wednesday the programme includes walking tours, visits to local heritage attractions, guided tours of cemeteries, genealogical consultations, accompanied visits to Thurles Local Studies and Archives, and many more 'pick and mix' options for learning and socialising in Nenagh, Thurles and Silvermines.

Most of the events and activities are free. Others attract a modest fee. They all need to be booked in advance, however, so that numbers can be anticipated.

You can see the full programme on the dedicated Gleeson Clan Gathering website.

Easter closures of main repositories in IE, NI & UK

IRELAND


National Archives of Ireland 
The Reading Room of the National Archives will close at 5pm on Thursday 24 March and will reopen at 9:15am on Tuesday 29 March.  

Registry of Deeds
The Registry of Deeds will close at 4:30pm on Thursday 24 March and reopen at 10am on Tuesday 29 March.  

General Register Office, Dublin Research Room
The Werburgh Street Research Room will close at 4:30pm on Thursday 24 March and reopen at 9:00am on Tuesday 29 March.  

Dublin City Library and Archives
The main DCL&A on Pearse Street, along with all Dublin City's public libraries, will be closed on Friday 25 March until Easter Monday 28 March inclusive. All libraries will return to normal hours on Tuesday 29 March.  

RCBL
The Reading Room of the Representative Church Body Library will close at 5pm on Thursday 24 March and reopen on Tuesday 29 March.

National Library of Ireland
  • All Library buildings will be closed on Friday 25 March.
  • The Reading Rooms will close at 4.45pm on Thursday 24 March and will reopen at 9.30am on Tuesday 29 March.
  • Library exhibitions in both Kildare Street and the NPA sites will be open on Saturday and Sunday (both days 1pm to 5pm) and on Monday 28 March (10am to 7pm).
  • The Library will additionally be hosting a number of free events on Monday 28 March as part of the Reflecting the Rising programme. Details.

NORTHERN IRELAND


PRONI
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland will be open from 9:00am to 4:45pm on Friday 25 March but will be closed on both Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 March. It will reopen on Wednesday 30 March at 9am.

GRONI
The Public Search Room of the General Register Office of Northern Ireland will be open normal hours (9:30am–4:00pm) on Friday 25 March. It will then be closed until Wednesday 30 March, reopening at 9:30am.

Linen Hall Library 
Open normal hours (9:30am to 5:30pm) on Friday 25 March and on Saturday 26 March (9:30 to 4pm). Closed Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 March. Reopening  9:30am on Wednesday 30 March.

NIFHS Research Centre
Normally open on Tuesday from 2pm to 8pm, the North of Ireland Family History Society's Research Centre will not open on Tuesday 29 March.

ENGLAND


Irish Genealogical Research Society's Library, SOG, London
Closed on Saturday 26 March. Reopening Saturday 2 April.  

Society of Genealogists (SOG), London
The Society will close at 6pm on Thursday 24 March and reopen at 10am on Tuesday 29 March.  

The National Archives, Kew, London
Closing at 5pm on Thursday 24 March; remaining closed until 9am on Tuesday 29 March.

Wednesday 23 March 2016

National Archives of Ireland: 1916 centenary events

The National Archives of Ireland has published its programme of events to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising 1916. Among its plans is the publication of a 'simple online guide to genealogical research'.

This guide will be aimed at secondary school students and will take them through the process of tracing their own family history. The National Archives say that newly available sources such as the Bureau of Military History and the Military Service Pensions Collection will be highlighted to help the students trace ancestors who were involved in Ireland's revolutionary decade.

Other plans for the year will see the launch of a range of the NAI's digitised records – among them images of 6,500 files from the Property Losses (Ireland) Compensation (PLIC) files 1916, which deal with compensation for damage to property during the Rising – and a new exhibition, Jacob’s Garrison 1916, which will include accounts of those in the garrison and a history of Jacob's biscuit factory, a major employer in the city.

For more details of the NAI's plans, download the programme of events.

County Tipperary folklore joins Schools' Collection

http://www.duchas.ie/
The National Folklore Commission's online platform Dúchas.ie has published the Schools' Collection material for County Tipperary.

More than 200 schools across the county took part in the folklore project back in 1937–1939, which saw pupils gather folklore and local history stories from their parents and grandparents and other members of their local communities.

The Schools' Collection consists, in total, of more than half a million pages of folklore material recorded by about 50,000 primary school children across the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. The entire collection will be available at D̼chas.ie by the end of the year but more than half of it Рfrom Counties Dublin, Mayo, Donegal, Waterford, Galway, Leitrim, Kildare, Kerry, Sligo, Limerick, Monaghan, Laois, Kilkenny and Louth, and now Tipperary Рis already online. The collections are free to access.

The site is of interest to many specialist researchers including genealogists (the children had to record the name, address and age of their 'informant', many of whom were born in the second half of the 19th century), local historians, archaeologists and linguists, and any general historian exploring traditional life in Ireland.


Eneclann buys Irish Lives Remembered magazine

Dublin-based genealogy services provider Eneclann has bought Irish Lives Remembered magazine from Millennium Media. The digital-only magazine, which launched as a monthly in June 2012 and stepped down to bi-monthly in early 2015, ceased publication after its 32nd issue in December.

Under Eneclann (whose owners also run FindMyPast Ireland), the title is to become the house magazine of the Irish Family History Centre. This Centre, organised and run by Eneclann, is to open on 6 May at the new Diaspora-themed tourist attraction called Epic-Ireland in the basement of the CHQ building on Dublin's North quays.

If I've correctly understood Eneclann's confirmation of this development, Eneclann will, at this point, rebrand itself as the Irish Family History Centre.

The revived magazine will be co-edited by Eileen Munnelly (the previous owner) and Shane Fitzsimons. While some previous contributors will write for the magazine under Eneclann's ownership eg Fiona Fitzsimons (director of Eneclann and FindMyPast Ireland) and Jayne Shrimpton (historical photo specialist), new writers have also been lined up including professional genealogist and medieval historian Paul McCotter MAGI and conflict archaeologist Damien Shiels.

The first issue of the new magazine will be published this Friday, 25 March.

Friendships split by the Easter Rising: PRONI's Document of the Month

The Document of the Month for March from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is a set of personal reminiscences of the Easter Rising by a former Dublin civil servant and Red Cross volunteer, Ronnie Whelan.

During the Uprising, Whelan temporarily served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. His papers, written in 1963, reveal vivid details of the events as they unfolded in Dublin.

Stephen Scarth, Head of Public Services at PRONI, said: “What I like about Ronnie Whelan’s account is that this is a very human story. Whelan is a civil servant who gets caught up in one of the most seismic events of Irish history. While serving temporarily in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he vividly describes the disruption and chaos of the events, whilst at the same time recounting how he found childhood friends involved in the rising.”

In the account, Whelan writes: “Some-one told me that Jimmie and Paddy Dunne – two earlier playmates of mine – were with the rebels behind a barricade in the centre of Annesley Bridge, Fairview. I decided during my release period to go along and try to contact them. I got to the end of Clonliffe Road, and worked my way in the shelter of a warehouse wall until I came in sight of the bridge, and waited my chance got across the road, and over some furniture into the rebel stockade. There were my old pals, sure enough. We carried on an argument as quietly as possible under the circumstances."

He continues to describe how he failed to convince his friends to desist and that a ‘Commandant’ approached him and asked him to leave before the barrier was blown up.

Ronnie Whelan was born in Dublin in 1894 and died in October 1974. He joined the Irish Civil Service at the age of 14, and moved to the North in 1922, continuing his career in the Civil Service. Amongst his papers are typescript memoirs, which recall some boyhood experiences in Dublin at the beginning of the 20th century, and his observations on the Easter Rebellion 1916.

Of particular interest is his account of the capture by members of the Republican Army of the Custom House in which Whelan worked, and of the subsequent 'firing' of the building.

See PRONI's Document of the Month.

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Ancestry debuts key Revolutionary collections, free

As we approach Easter and the peak of events from the 1916 centenary commemorations programme, Ancestry has released two key record collections: the Courts Martial Files, 1916–1922 and the Intelligence Profiles, 1914–1922.

Neither set of records has been online before, and Ancestry is publishing them as permanently free-to-access collections.

Ireland, Courts Martial Files, 1916-1922: This collection of Field General Courts Martial Records holds nearly 2,000 searchable names as well as additional names found within the images. Each record contains evidence against the defendants, their statements and proclamations. Among the reoords is intelligence data on Éamon on de Valera and Michael Collins.

Beyond the leaders, the records relate to individuals suspected of being involved with the Nationalist movement in Ireland. Arrests were made under Martial Law for conspiracy, murder, treason, and securing and publishing secret government information.

Also contained is these files are an alphabetical roll of prisoners and detailed individual prisoner cases of those imprisoned as a result of Court Martial Proceedings.

In its Source Information, Ancestry mentions that the foliation of some files in this collection can be out of sequence; this is because the Courts Martial files were chronologically ordered.

You can read a blogpost by Mike Mulligan, a Principal Product Manager based at Ancestry's Dublin office, for more about the historic context and national importance of this collection.

Ireland, Intelligence Profiles, 1914-1922: This collection opens up the records of the British Intelligence Forces who were keeping a close eye on the movements and meetings of Irish nationalists. Most of the records date from 1917 but include some people who were involved in the Independence cause prior to that date. They relate to activities across the entire island.

In addition to the nearly 800 names now searchable, the collection includes more than 22,000 browseable images.

The original files for both these collections are held by The National Archives in Kew, London. Ancestry notes full details for both collections in its Source Information.

PRONI: Practical workshops in April and May

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has announced two more dates for its popular Practical Workshops for beginners. They will be held on Thursdays 21 April and 26 May, starting at 2pm.

The workshops cover PRONI's online resources and how to explore them; how to use microfilm machines; a presentation of documents; and a tour of research areas within the building. They are free to attend but spaces are limited so you need to book a place. They book up quickly – don't delay.

Booking: by email to proni@dcalni.gov.uk or by telephone to 028 9053 4800.

Monday 21 March 2016

And the winner of the Best RC Register Collection is...

No, you're not gonna draw me into that one, thanks all the same! For a start, I haven't done any genealogy research since the two big beasts – Ancestry and FindMyPast – launched their transcriptions of the NLI's parish registers images at the beginning of the month.

But John Grenham has 'gone there', and you can read what he has to say on the matter after carrying out an experiment: How good are the new Ancestry/FindMyPast Catholic transcripts?

I know researchers are interested in this issue. I've had emails, and I've seen the question asked repeatedly in social media in the last few weeks. If you want to explore the matter further, you might want to drop in at Boards.ie's Genealogy forum, where there's been an interesting discussion on the topic over the last three weeks.




The Newry Reporter joins British Newspaper Archive

More than 110 titles are in the Irish collection
The British Newspaper Archive has added The Newry Reporter, the oldest title in the Newry & Mourne region, to its online database. Editions available span November 1867 to December 1871.

Although the newspaper continued to be published after this end date, and is still published weekly, the BNA does not anticipate adding any more editions for this title.

The BNA's holding of this publication has also joined FindMyPast's Irish Newspapers collection.

Its addition means there are now 30 historical newspapers for Northern Ireland in the BNA and FMP collections. The total number of Irish newspapers in each of the collections is now 114.

How do you feel about your criminal ancestors?

Have you discovered some of your ancestors were on the wrong side of the law? If so, a Dublin-based PhD student would like to know how you feel about that discovery. The reason for your family's brush with the criminal justice system doesn't matter – it could be non-payment of a dog licence, squabbling with the neighbours, politically-motivated involvements or for acts more likely of hardened or violent criminals.

As part of the Digital Panopticon project, Aoife O Connor wants to hear from family historians across the globe who have found ancestors who were connected to a crime and is conducting short anonymous online surveys at http://acriminalrecord.org/surveys/ to explore our response to the discovery.

Says Aoife: "The digitisation of the records of the criminal justice system and newspapers are bringing to light a side of our ancestors that may have previously been kept secret.

"The documents which record their crimes often have amazingly rich details not found in birth, marriage, or even census records. From prison registers we can get physical descriptions of someone who lived long before the invention of photography; we can learn their height, weight, eye and hair colour, and whether they had any distinguishing scars or features such as tattoos. From newspaper accounts of trials, we can hear their voices as they give evidence.

"But how do we feel when we come across an ancestor who broke the law?  And how do they shape how we view our family’s history? Is a criminal ancestor someone to be ashamed of, to celebrate, or part of a larger story?  What do their crimes, and the punishments they received tell us about them as people, and about the time and society they lived in?  You can help provide the answers."

Aoife is studying for her PhD part-time with the University of Sheffield. Her own family history includes one ancestor aged 18 imprisoned in 1821 for thirteen days on suspicion of stealing a frame saw (the same ancestor was also fined for excise duty evasion to the tune of £12 10 shillings in 1838), and another who was fined two shillings at the Petty Sessions Court on 24 December 1855 for driving a horse and cart with no reins.

Genealogist vacancies: Irish Family History Centre, Dublin

A new tourist attraction – Epic Ireland – will be opening at the CHQ building on Dublin's Custom House Quay in May. Aimed at the Diaspora, it will incorporate an Irish Family History Centre (IFHC), which will be operated by genealogy services provider Eneclann.

Eneclann is now looking for experienced genealogists to take up positions at the new IFHC.

Interviews will take place in early April and the positions are expected to have been filled by the end of that month. You can find job and person specs for the role of Genealogy Expert, along with details of how to apply, here.

The deadline for applications is this Thursday, 24 March.

Irish genealogy & history events, 21 March to 3 April

Monday 21 March: Order, Counter-order, and Disorder: Easter 1916 in Cork, with Gerry White. An event to launch a new exhibition. Host: Cork Libraries. Venue: Library Building, Carrigrohane, Road, Cork City. 1:30pm. To book, email localstudieslibrary@corkcoco.ie or phone 0214546499.

Monday 21 March: The Easter Rising: 1916–2016 – the second 50 years, with Eddie Walsh. Part of the 1916 and Beyond lecture series. Host: Nottingham Irish Studies Group. Venue: Five Leaves Bookshop. 14a Long Row, Nottingham, NG1 2DH, UK. Admission £3. Refreshments available. 7pm–8:30pm. Book by email.

Monday 21 March: Genealogy information sessions, with Margaret Bonar and Elizabeth Craven. Morning and afternoon sessions. Morning venue: Raheny Library, Howth Rd, Dublin 5 from 10:30am to 11:45am. Afternoon venue: Donaghmede library, Donaghmede Shopping Centre, Dublin 13 from 2:30pm to 4pm. Free. Bookings to 085 1444883 or impossibleancestors@gmail.com. Cancelled.

Tuesday 22 March to 27 April: Southern Echoes of 1916, an exhibition. Venue: Cork Libraries HQ, Library Building, Carrigrohane Road, Cork. Free. 9:30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. The exhibition focuses on four different subject areas and four important Cork figures, examining their involvement in the 1916 Rising and the role played by particular organisations in activities of the time. Figures included are Thomas Kent, Michael Collins, Diarmuid Lynch and Sean Hurley. The exhibition is both educational and thought provoking and has been compiled using the resources of Cork County Library's Local Studies library.

Tuesday 22 March: Belfast Corporation and the management of public health, 1880-1914, with Stuart Irwin. Last of the Surviving the City: Lunchtime Lecture Series. Host and Venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 1pm. Free. Booking recommended: E: proni@dcalni.gov.uk / T: 028 90534800.

Tuesday 22 March: Finding your Irish ancestors online, with John Grenham MAGI. Host: Libraries NI. Venue: Larne Library, 36 Pound St, Larne, Co. Antrim BT40 1SQ. 1:30pm to 3:00pm. Free, but booking is advised. Phone: 028 2827 7047.

Tuesday 22 March: Recovering marginalised narratives of Revolutionary Ireland: the Kilmainham Gaol Graffiti project, with Dr Laura McAtackney. Part of the Modern Irish History Seminar Series. Host: School of History, University of Edinburgh, Room G13, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh. Free. All welcome. 6pm.

Tuesday 22 March: Finding your Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors - a day conference, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia. Venue: The Debert Hospitality Centre, 130 Ventura Dr, Debert, NS B0M 1G0, Canada. Cost CAN$50.00 members / CAN$65.00 non-members. Lunch and refreshments included. Programme and booking details.

Wednesday 23 March: Finding your Irish ancestors online, with John Grenham MAGI. Host: Libraries NI. Venue: Coleraine Library, Queen Street, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1BE. 1:30pm to 3:00pm. Free, but booking is advised. Phone:028 7034 2561.

Thursday 24 March: Introduction to PRONI, a practical workshop covering online sources, use of microfilm, a guided tour and presentation of documents. HOst and venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 2–4pm. Spaces limited. Free. Need to book by email to proni@dcalni.gov.uk, or telephone: 02890 534800.

Thursday 24 March: Easter 1916: Two MacDermotts, Sean and Frank &ndash and two visions of Ireland, with Julian Walton. Host: 10th series of Julian Walton Winter Lectures series. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre, Dunhill Ecopark, Ballyphilip, Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm, followed by Q&A and light refreshments. €5. No need to book. Enquiries: T (0)51 396 934.

Thursday 24 March: Irishmen in the British Army, Dublin, Easter 1916, with Neil Richardson. Host and venue: Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street, Dublin 2. Starts at 6:30pm. Free. No booking required but it's advised to arrive early to ensure your place.

Monday 28 March: Reflecting the Rising, 'the the biggest public history and cultural event ever staged in Ireland'. Hosts: RTÉ and Ireland 2016. A free family event taking over Dublin City from 11am to 6pm. Events range from talks and exhibitions, live music and theatrical performances, special films, interactive activities and family entertainment. Details.

Monday 28 March: Reflecting the Rising at the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. The NLI will present a free programme of exhibitions, readings, talks and music, revolving around the year of 1916 as part of the Dublin event. There is no need to book for the exhibitions, readings and music sessions. The talks, however, are now fully booked.

Wednesday 30 March: Open genealogy consultations, with Lisa Dougherty. Host: Irish American Heritage Museum, 370 Broadway, Albany, New York 12207 USA. 11am to 2pm. Free.

Thursday 31 March: Free Genealogy evening, with Paul MacCotter MAGI exploring the basics of Irish genealogy and some famous Irish surnames, plus the history of stout in Cork. Venue: Franciscan Well brewpub, North Mall, Cork City. 8.30pm start. Free. Spaces limited; come early.

Thursday 31 March: What were your family doing in 1916? An afternoon of genealogy with Eneclann and FindMyPast. Host and venue: Tullamore Library, O'Connor Square, Tullamore, Co Offaly. 12pm to 4pm. Free. Talks and one-to-one consultations. Booking may be required: T 057 93 46832.

Thursday 31 March:
Untangling, Births, Deaths & Marriages, with Committee members. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Ballymena Branch. Venue: Michelin Arts Workshop, Braid Arts Centre 1-29 Bridge Street, Ballymena, BT43 5EJ. 7:15pm. Free. All welcome.

Saturday 2 April: Gaelic and Anglo Norman Ireland: different foods, different identities? with Regina Sexton. Part of the Power & Privilege – the Butlers of Ormond lecture series. Host: Tipperary County Museum. Venue: Clonmel Library, Mick Delahunty Square, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. €5, includes refreshments. 10am–12noon. To book: T: Julia on 076 106 5564 or email julia.walsh@tipperarycoco.ie.

Sunday 3 April: Gleanings from Ireland's Griffith's Valuation, a workshop with Krista J Ozyazgan. Host and venue: Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME 04112 USA. 1pm. $5 members/$10 non-members. Bookings: irishhc@maine.rr.com.

Saturday 19 March 2016

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: March update 1

In the first half of March, the volunteers at Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives have gathered, donated and uploaded the following files and images to the free online archive:

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Annagh Cemetery - Old
Drung Cemetery (CoI) (partial)

DONEGAL
Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Bundoran, St. Ninnidhs Graveyard (Left Side) Pt 2

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Mt Jerome Cemetery - Parts 122-125

MAYO Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Addergoole Cemetery (Updated)
Ballindine New Cemetery (McHUGHs)
Ballynew, Castlebar Cemetery
Meelick Cemetery, Swinford
St. Joseph's Church Graveyard, Ballindine (McHUGHs)
Turlough Abbey Cemetery
Turlough Church of Ireland

MONAGHAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Carrickmaclim Headstones
St. Patrick's Church Cemetery Ardragh Parish

ROSCOMMON Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Taughmaconnell Cemetery (partial)
Tibohine (CoI) Cemetery, Frenchpark, (Douglas HYDE)

SLIGO Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Sligo Cem - Middle Part, Section G

Any policemen among your Irish ancestors?

FindMyPast has added three Royal Irish Constabulary record-sets to its Ireland and World collections, and they'll be of certain interest to anyone whose pre-Independence ancestors were policemen.

The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was the police force in Ireland from its establishement by the British Government in 1836 until it was disbanded in 1922. It was an armed force, responsible for keeping the peace, preventing crime and suppressing rebellions and the regular agrarian disturbances of the time. These records are held by the National Archives in Kew, London.

Here are some brief details of each of these record sets:

Royal Irish Constabulary Pensions 1873-1925 contains more than 125,000 records from a variety of sources: pension registers, registers of deceased pensioners, pension rolls upon disbandment (1922), and registers of widows and children. Depending on the source, the details in the records may contain name, birth date, rank and RIC number, date of pension entitlement, date of discharge, amount paid and where collected, and names and birth dates of the policeman's children. Some of the records also confirm whether the policeman paid into the Constabulary Force Fund (aka the Reward Fund), which paid out to recognise significant achievement and/or bravery.

The Irish Revenue Police was formed in 1830 to work as an armed escort to the Customs and Excise Service. The main duties of its officers were to enforce the prohibition of illegal distillation of spirits or poitín. This collection – Irish Revenue Police 1830-1857 – contains more than 38,000 records of men who served in this short-lived force (it was disbanded in 1857 and its duties taken over by the RIC). Among the documents held in this collection are appointment registers, dismissal records and transfers of privates between stations.

The third record set – Royal Irish Constabulary History & Directories – is a collection of published works. If your ancestor was a policemen you can find out a lot more about the history of the organisation, explore its training manual, and find your ancestor’s name on a list of commendations. These are the publications included in the collection:
  • Royal Irish Constabulary List & Directory for The Half-Year Commencing 1 Jan 1910
  • Royal Irish Constabulary List & Directory For Half-Year Commencing 1 July 1889
  • Royal Irish Constabulary List & Directory, January 1915
  • Royal Irish Constabulary List & Directory, January 1920
  • The History Of The Royal Irish Constabulary
  • The Royal Irish Constabulary Manual/Guide To The Discharge Of Police Duties, 6th ed.


Wednesday 16 March 2016

'New Irish Genealogy Records 2011-2015' published

All the records in one handy ebook: €5.99
Today I've published an 82-page e-book called 'New Irish Genealogy Records 2011-2015', a title that should leave you in little doubt as to what lies in its pages.

Basically, I collated all my blogposts over that five-year period (all 2,497 of them), omitted any that didn't relate to either brand-new resources or significant updates to Irish family history collections, and rearranged the remaining by theme – birth, marriage and death records; land records; wills and so on – and, when appropriate, by county. These county pages then present purely localised resources, or draw attention to the local area's contribution to larger regional or island-wide record sets.

I confess this has been a mammoth task, and putting it together became very fraught over the last week to 10 days, which is why this blog has been a tad quiet of late.

I'm hoping researchers will find the resulting ebook useful both as a reminder of some of the smaller niche records now available and as a handy reference tool.

As you'd expect, most of the resources are online, and there are links to help you quickly find those that you want to explore. In some cases I've also included links to the original blogpost, if I felt this would help the researcher get a better description of the resource or to learn of some idiosyncracy in the record set.

Last year I prepared a not dissimilar booklet of just 20 pages covering only the 2014 resources; it was free and was downloaded in huge numbers. This time, I'm breaking with tradition and putting a price on New Irish Genealogy Records 2011-2015.

As it's St Patrick's Day tomorrow, you can take advantage of a special discount offer that brings the price down to just €5.99. That's about US$6.65 / £4.70 / AUS$8.95 / CAN$8.90, according to today's exchange rates. I've set up a safe payment facility that allows you to pay via PayPal, credit or debit card.

For more details about the ebook and to download a sample, see the dedicated page on my website: Irish Genealogy Toolkit.

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Irish culture and heritage: under the research spotlight

To mark St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish Research Council has today released details of research projects currently underway that focus on issues of relevance to the national holiday.

Research topics range from the impact of ‘Darby O’Gill’ on Americans’ perceptions of Ireland, to Ireland’s influence on Shakespearean performances, and the way in which the figure of St. Patrick evolved in writings from the 7th to the 12th Centuries.

Commenting today, Dr. Eucharia Meehan, Director of the Irish Research Council, said: “There is a wealth of research underway in Ireland on topics relating to our culture and heritage and, indeed, on issues of direct relevance to the life and legacy of St. Patrick. To mark St. Patrick’s Day this year, the Irish Research Council is celebrating researchers who are contributing in these areas.

“From investigating how traditional singing is adapting in the 21st century to analysing news production for the Irish diaspora, the range of research being undertaken will enrich our understanding of Irish culture and what it means to be Irish.”

Researchers being celebrated by the Irish Research Council this week include:
  • From Kavanagh to Disney: Darby O’Gill and the Construction of Irish Identity – Brian McManus, Postgraduate Scholar, Trinity College Dublin

    The fictional world of Darby O’Gill is the main focus of this research: Brian McManus is examining the role the character played in the construction of Irish identity since its creation in 1901. The research proposes to re-evaluate the reputation of Darby O’Gill as a by-word for negative racial stereotyping of Irish people, and a promoter of a sort of “Americanised inauthentic Irishness”.
  • Irishness and Shakespearean Performance: Theatre, Culture, National Identity – Emer McHugh, Postgraduate Scholar, NUI Galway

    This research project is investigating how social, political and cultural influences – such as the Troubles, Europeanisation and globalisation – have impacted on the performance of Shakespearean plays.
  • The Evolution of Patrick as a Patron Saint from the 7th to 12th Century – Elizabeth Dawson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Royal Irish Academy

    Through this research project, a thorough account is being constructed of the ways in which the figure of St Patrick evolved, through his associated hagiography, from the 7th to the 12th Century.
  • Engendering and Safeguarding the Social Life of Irish Traditional Singing – Carrie Dike, Postgraduate Scholar, University of Limerick

    This research focuses on how traditional singing in Ireland is being brought into the 21st Century, and aims to answer how the Irish model for engendering and safeguarding heritage can apply to the broader world of sustaining intangible cultural heritage.
  • Diasporic Mediations: The Influence of Cultural Identities on Irish Diasporic News Production – Niamh Kirk, Postgraduate Scholar, Dublin City University

    How is Irish heritage and culture represented by diaspora journalists? This is the question at the heart of this research project, which aims to enhance communications between Ireland and the diaspora press and better understand the role played by diaspora media in amplifying Ireland‘s voice on the global stage.
  • Hyphenating Irishness: Performing Irish Identity in an Intercultural Ireland – Justine Nakase, Postgraduate Scholar, NUI Galway

    This research focuses on identity formation at individual and collective levels, in an increasingly intercultural Ireland. By studying the intersection of race, identity and performance in contemporary Ireland, the research is exploring what it now means to be Irish.
  • Saint Brigit's Cult in Ireland and Europe: A Comparative Investigation into the Adaptation, Growth and Success of Medieval Female Sanctity – Shane Lordan, Postdoctoral Fellow, University College Dublin

    This project is exploring St. Brigit’s cult and its European dimension, with the aim of providing a better understanding of women’s place in medieval Christianity.

The work of these Irish researchers is being highlighted by the Irish Research Council as part of the #LoveIrishResearch initiative, which aims to increase public awareness of the important research being conducted in higher education institutions throughout the country.

Further information is available at: www.research.ie.

Monday 14 March 2016

Irish genealogy & history events: 14–26 March

Monday 14 March: Guided tour of Cork City and County Archives services, focussing on resources relating to the 1912–1922 revolutionary period. Venue: Seamus Murphy Building, 32 Great William O'Brien St, Cork City. Free. Contact for time and booking: Email archivist@corkcity.ie; Phone:+353 21 450 5886.

Monday 14 March: The Easter Rising and the Great War, with Michael Robinson. Part of the 1916 and Beyond lecture series. Host: Nottingham Irish Studies Group. Venue: Five Leaves Bookshop. 14a Long Row, Nottingham, NG1 2DH, UK. Admission £3. Refreshments available. 7pm–8:30pm. Book by email.

Monday 14 March: Researching your Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Lewis County Genealogical Society. Venue: Bethel Assembly of God Church, 132 Kirkland Road, Chehalis, WA 98532, USA. 9am to 4:40pm. Download Programme. Details: wa.lcgs@hotmail.com

Tuesday 15 March: Using newspapers for family history research, a workshop with Mike McKeag. Host, North of Ireland Family History Society, Unit C4, 67, Valley Business Centre, Church Rd, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim BT36 7LS, UK. 11am to 12:30pm. NIFHS Members £5; non-members £10 - payable on the day. Email to enrol.

Tuesday 15 March: What were your family doing in 1916? An afternoon of genealogy with Eneclann and FindMyPast. Host and venue: Sean Lemass Public Library, Shannon, Co Clare. 2pm to 6pm. Free. Talks and one-to-one consultations. Booking may be required: T (0)61 364 266.

Tuesday 15 March:  Finding your Irish ancestors online, with John Grenham MAGI. Host: Libraries NI. Venue: Armagh City Library, Market St, Armagh BT61 7BU. 1:30pm to 3:00pm. Free, but booking is advised. Phone: 028 3752 4072.

Wednesday 16 March: Irish Genealogy – Resources for Success, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: The Plainfield Public Library and the Fountaindale Public Library. Venue: Fountaindale Public Library, 300 West Briarcliff Road, Bolingbrook, IL 60440, USA. 9:30am to 5:30pm. Light refreshments included. Email: ddudek@fountaindale.org. Fully booked.

Thursday 17 March: Tracing your Irish ancestors, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Tennessee Genealogical Society. Venue: Pickering Center, 7771 Poplar Pike, Germantown, Tennessee, USA. 12:30–8pm. Programme & booking (pdf). $30 TnGS members/$35 non-members. Includes BBQ dinner and light refreshments.

Saturday 19 March: Researching your Irish family history from this side of the Pond, with Ruth Blair. Host: Ontario Genealogical Society, Kingston Branch. Venue: Seniors Centre, 56 Francis Street, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. 10am. All welcome. Details.

Saturday 19 March: Finding your ancestors, a day conference. Hosts: Irish Genealogical Research Society and Cork Genealogical Society. Venue: Clayton Hotel, Silversprings, Cork City. Three lectures, a workshop, IGRS AGM, book launch, table stands. 9:20am to 5pm. €20 including a light lunch, for members and non-members alike. Need to book. Details.

Sunday 20 March: Fundamentals of Irish Genealogical Research, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host:South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society. Venue: Meeting Hall, York County Heritage Trust, 250 East Market St, York, PA 17403, USA. Details. 1:30pm to 5pm.

Monday 21 March: The Easter Rising: 1916–2016 – the second 50 years, with Eddie Walsh. Part of the 1916 and Beyond lecture series. Host: Nottingham Irish Studies Group. Venue: Five Leaves Bookshop. 14a Long Row, Nottingham, NG1 2DH, UK. Admission £3. Refreshments available. 7pm–8:30pm. Book by email.

Monday 21 March: Genealogy information sessions, with Margaret Bonar and Elizabeth Craven. Morning and afternoon sessions. Morning venue: Raheny Library, Howth Rd, Dublin 5 from 10:30am to 11:45am. Afternoon venue: Donaghmede library, Donaghmede Shopping Centre, Dublin 13 from 2:30pm to 4pm. Free. Bookings to 085 1444883 or impossibleancestors@gmail.com. Cancelled.

Tuesday 22 March: Belfast Corporation and the management of public health, 1880-1914, with Stuart Irwin. Last of the Surviving the City: Lunchtime Lecture Series. Host and Venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 1pm. Free. Booking recommended: E: proni@dcalni.gov.uk / T: 028 90534800.

Tuesday 22 March: Finding your Irish ancestors online, with John Grenham MAGI. Host: Libraries NI. Venue: Larne Library, 36 Pound St, Larne, Co. Antrim BT40 1SQ. 1:30pm to 3:00pm. Free, but booking is advised. Phone: 028 2827 7047.

Tuesday 22 March: Recovering marginalised narratives of Revolutionary Ireland: the Kilmainham Gaol Graffiti project, with Dr Laura McAtackney. Part of the Modern Irish History Seminar Series. Host: School of History, University of Edinburgh, Room G13, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh. Free. All welcome. 6pm.

Tuesday 22 March: Finding your Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors - a day conference, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia. Venue: The Debert Hospitality Centre, 130 Ventura Dr, Debert, NS B0M 1G0, Canada. Cost CAN$50.00 members / CAN$65.00 non-members. Lunch and refreshments included. Programme and booking details.

Wednesday 23 March: Finding your Irish ancestors online, with John Grenham MAGI. Host: Libraries NI. Venue: Coleraine Library, Queen Street, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1BE. 1:30pm to 3:00pm. Free, but booking is advised. Phone:028 7034 2561.

Thursday 24 March: Introduction to PRONI, a practical workshop covering online sources, use of microfilm, a guided tour and presentation of documents. HOst and venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 2–4pm. Spaces limited. Free. Need to book by email to proni@dcalni.gov.uk, or telephone: 02890 534800.

Thursday 24 March: Easter 1916: Two MacDermotts, Sean and Frank &ndash and two visions of Ireland, with Julian Walton. Host: 10th series of Julian Walton Winter Lectures series. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre, Dunhill Ecopark, Ballyphilip, Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm, followed by Q&A and light refreshments. €5. No need to book. Enquiries: T (0)51 396 934.

IGRS adds free index to Wilson's Dublin Directory 1803

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5-KQnqDiArgOHJBNlE4VXNXWVk/view?usp=sharing
Click image to view a sample 'Merchants' page
To mark St. Patrick's Day 2016, the Irish Genealogical Research Society is pleased to announce the launch of another free resource on its website.

It's a database index to Wilson’s Dublin Directory, forming part of the 1803 edition of The Treble Almanac, published during the years 1787 to 1837.

As its name of the Almanac suggests, it comprised three separate directories:
  • The first was John Watson Stewart’s Almanac, which noted a wide variety of information relating to Ireland, encompassing details about mail and stage coach timetables, establishment lists for the army and navy, schools etc.
  • The second was the English Court Registry, listing royalty, nobility, parliamentarians, military and naval lists, the civil establishment and judiciary lists and etc;
  • The third, and by far the most useful to genealogists, is Wilson’s Dublin Directory.
Wilson's Dublin Directory includes a very comprehensive list of Dublin’s barristers, attorneys, medical practitioners, merchants, pawnbrokers, grocers, shoemakers, tanners, upholsters, auctioneers, brewers, painters, ironmongers, drapers, butchers, bakers, tailors etc. It also includes a list of the capital city’s streets, lanes and alleyways.

The database notes for each entry the name of the person, their occupation, street address and provides a link to a map taken from the Statistical Survey of the County Dublin, (Dublin, 1802).

It currently comprises just over 4,000 entries. This will increase to 7,500 as transcription continues.

In launching the new resource, Steven Smyrl, the Society's chairman, said: "This is another valuable resource being added to the IGRS website. Trade directories can allow the researcher to quickly identify where in a large town their merchant or tradesman ancestor lived and worked, opening up further access to guild records, parish registers and freeman rolls.

"I would like to thank Nick Reddan, the Society's webmaster, and Jan Vagg, for their hard work in compiling this valuable database. Both Nick and Jan are based in Australia, proving that distance is no barrier to assisting the Society through volunteer indexing and transcribing."

The database is a free resource: search here.

Thursday 10 March 2016

Easter Monday: Reflecting the Rising at the NLI

On Easter Monday, 28 March, the National Library of Ireland will offer a free programme of exhibitions, readings, talks and music, based around the year of 1916, as part of the Dublin City-wide Reflecting the Rising event from RTÉ and Ireland 2016.

In Kildare Street, you'll be able to meet the seven signatories of the Proclamation and the women who worked alongside them, as part of an exhibition in the Library’s magnificent front hall. There will be a selection of period music and readings of WB Yeats’ Easter 1916 in the Library’s domed Reading Room, and the original manuscript of that great poem will be on display.

Talks will explore personal testimonies of 1916, eyewitness diaries and what the newspapers of 1916 had to say as events unfolded. These talks need to be booked.

None of the other events at the NLI require booking.

At the National Photographic Archive in Dublin's Temple Bar, the Rising exhibition will offer a visual journey back in time through the National Library’s photographs, and all the Library’s exhibitions will be open throughout the Easter weekend: Easter Saturday, 26 March 1-5pm; Easter Sunday, 27 March 1-5pm; Easter Monday, 28 March 10am-7pm.

All of the NLI's events are free.



Library & archive closures: St Patrick's Day 2016

With St Patrick's Day fast approaching, here's a timely reminder that all the island's major institutions and archives (and, indeed, the minor ones) will be closed on Thursday 17 March.

They should all be operating to their normal timetables on Wednesday and Friday. (I can't help thinking staff attendance might be a bit light on Friday!)

Wednesday 9 March 2016

FindMyPast discount offers until St Patrick's Day

FindMyPast is gearing up for St Patrick's Day with some special discounts for new subscribers.

A 20% discount is available to researchers taking out a new 12-month subscription to the World package, which (as it's name suggests) offers you access to the entire database of records from all FindMyPast territories.

This database includes the entire collection of Irish and British newspapers (600 titles and growing), the 1939 Register of England and Wales, and, of course, a vast range of records to help you discover your Irish ancestors, whether they remained in Ireland or wandered to the farthest shores on the globe.

To claim your discount, click one of the flags or currencies below.


FindMyPast Ireland
Usually €179.52 for 12 months
With discount: €143.60

FindMyPast USA
Usually US£239.52 for 12 months
With discount: US$191.60
FindMyPast UK
Usually £156 for 12 months
With discount: £124.76

FindMyPast Australia/NZ
Usually AUS£239.52 for 12 months
With discount: AUS$191.60

The discount offer will expire on Thursday 17 March.

(If you'd rather try just a one-month World subscription, there's a discount offer for you, too. See the Special Offers page of Irish Genealogy Toolkit.)

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Newry Commercial Telegraph joins BNA database

http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=5895&awinaffid=123532&clickref=&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk%2F
The British Newspaper Archive has added the Newry Commercial Telegraph to its database.

The archive plans to digitise editions spanning 1813 to 1871. For now, all editions of the three-times-weekly title published in 1841 to 1851 are available, along with 112 other Irish newspapers, in the database.

As always, this new British Newspaper Archive title now joins the Irish newspaper collection of FindMyPast (included in Ireland and World subscriptions).

Monday 7 March 2016

Family Search: four Irish genealogy webinars in March

Family Search will be holding four Irish genealogy webinars next week. They're free, and anyone can 'attend' them on their computer.

You don't need to book. Just go to this link – Irish family history webinar – at the time stated below to connect to the class.

Thursday 17 March: Where is That? Finding and Understanding Places in Ireland. Starts 11am MST; 6pm GMT.

Thursday 17 March:
Ireland & Census and Census Substitutes. Starts 1pm MST; 8pm GMT.

Friday 18 March: Ireland Catholic Church Records. Starts 11am MST; 6pm GMT.

Friday 18 March: Irish Protestant Records. Starts 1pm MST; 8pm GMT.

Irish genealogy and history events, 7–19 March

Monday 7 March: The road to 1916, with Pat Murphy. Part of the 1916 and Beyond lecture series. Host: Nottingham Irish Studies Group. Venue: Five Leaves Bookshop. 14a Long Row, Nottingham UK, NG1 2DH. Admission £3. Refreshments available. 7pm–8:30pm. Book by email.

Tuesday 8 March: What were your family doing in 1916? Host and venue: Mountmellick Library, O'Moore St, Mountmellick, Co. Laois. 11am to 4pm. Free. Talks and one-to-one consultations, with Eneclann and FindMyPast. Booking may be required: T (0)57 864 4572.

Tuesday 8 March: Celebrating Your Irish & Scots-Irish Ancestors, with the Ulster Historial Foundation. Host: The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. Venue: Moriarty's Pub and Restaurant, 1116 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.. 4pm8pm. $60 in advance for members; $65 at the door and for non-members; buffet dinner and cash bar included. Details.

Tuesday 8 March: History of Police Records, with Hugh Forrester. North of Ireland Family History Society, Lisburn branch. Venue: Bridge Community Centre, 50 Railway Street, Lisburn, BT28 1XP. 7:30pm. Free.

Tuesday 8 March: Cumann na mBan and the 1916 Rising, with Ann Matthews. Host: South Dublin Libraries. Venue: Lucan Library, Unit 16, Superquinn Shopping Centre, Newcastle Rd, Lucan, Co. Dublin. 7pm. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 8 March: Book Launch: Richmond Barracks 1916: We were there; 77 women of the Easter Rising, by Mary McAuliffe and Liz Gillis. Host: Dublin City Council. Venue: The Chapel, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin 8. 5pm.

Tuesday 8 March: The role of women in the Irish revolution, 1916&nash;1923, with Dr Marie Coleman. A special lecture to mark International Women's Day. Host and venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. 7pm. Free. No booking required.

Wednesday 9 March: Emigration to Australia in the mid-19th Century, with Michael Martin. Host: Western Family History Association. Venue: Lackagh Parish Centre, Lackagh, Co Galway. 8pm. Free. All welcome.

Wednesday 9 March: Explore the Easter Rising, with Dr Brian Hanley. Last of a three-part lecture series examining the lead up, events and impact of the Rising. Venue: Rathmines Library, 157 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6. 6:30pm. Free, but booking essential: rathmineslibrary@dublincity.ie or telephone (0)1 497 3539.

Wednesday 9 March: Finding your Irish ancestors online, with John Grenham MAGI. Host: Libraries NI. Venue: Holywood Library,Sullivan Building, 86-88 High St, Holywood, Co. Down BT18 9AE. 2pm to 3:30pm. Free, but booking is advised: T 028 9042 4232.

Wednesday 9 March: Married to a soldier: Irishwomen and the Separation Allowance, with Ann Matthews. Host: Malahide Historical Society. Venue: Presbyterian Church Hall, Dublin Road, Malahide, Co Dublin. 8pm. All welcome. €4.

Wednesday 9 March: Tracing Irish ancestors, with Ulster Historical Foundation. Host and venue: Thomas Balch Library, 208 W Market St, Leesburg, VA, 20176, USA. Tickets: In advance: $15 for members of the Friends of Thomas Balch Library and $25 for non-members. At the door: $30. Details. 9am to 4pm.

Thursday 10 March: Tracing Irish ancestors, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host and venue: Venue: The Newberry Library, 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA. Details. Noon to 4pm. Free. No registration required. Tel: +1 312-943-9090 (ask for the Genealogy and Local History department).

Thursday 10 March: Researching Your Irish family history from Canada, with Ruth Blair. Host: Oakville Public Library. Venue: Oakville Public Library, 120 Navy Street, Oakville, Ontario L6J 2Z4, Canada. 7pm to 8:30pm. Details.

Friday 11 March: Born Ireland... What next...?, a full day workshop with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Heritage Journeys. Venue: Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, 122 S Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA. Details. $55 per ticket, or $75 at the door.

Friday 11 March: Personalities of the decade, 1912–1922, exploring the people who helped shape the political and social landscape of contemporary Ireland. Host and Venue: Derry Central Library, 35 Foyle Street, Londonderry BT48 6AL. Free. Tea/coffee/refreshments provided. 1:30–4pm. To register, email mhetherington@thejunction-ni.org or T: 02871 361942.

Saturday 12 March: Problems with Irish ancestors? with Audrey Leonard. Host: Irish Genealogical Society International. Venue: Minnesota Genealogical Society (MGS) Library, 1185 Concord St N, S St Paul, Minnesota, MN 55075. USA. $15 to members/$20 to non-members. 10:30am to Noon. $8. Register.

Saturday 12 March: Family History Day. Host and venue: Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2. 9:45am to 5pm. No booking required. All welcome. Free.

Saturday 12 March: Discover your Irish roots, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Genealogical Forum of Oregon. Venue: Milwaukie Center, 5440 SE Kellogg Creek Drive, Milwaukie, Oregon 97222, USA. Details (pdf download). 9am to 4:30pm. $45 members; $55 non-members.

Saturday 12 March: 20th National Irish Studies Conference. Host: Manchester Irish Edutcation Group, and part of the Manchester Irish Festival. Venue: Irish World Heritage Centre, 1, Irish Town Way ( next to Queen's Road Metrolink stop), Cheetham, Manchester UK M8 0AE. £20 in advance or £25 on the door; includes lunch and refreshments, lectures and workshops. Details: ManIrishEdGroup@gmail.com.

Sunday 13 March: Irish land records workshop, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Genealogical Forum of Oregon, 2505 SE 11th Ave., Suite B-18, Portland, Oregon 97202, USA. 9:30am to 12:30pm. Details.

Monday 14 March: Guided tour of Cork City and County Archives services, focussing on resources relating to the 1912–1922 revolutionary period. Venue: Seamus Murphy Building, 32 Great William O'Brien St, Cork City. Free. Contact for time and booking: Email archivist@corkcity.ie; Phone:+353 21 450 5886.

Monday 14 March: The Easter Rising and the Great War, with Michael Robinson. Part of the 1916 and Beyond lecture series. Host: Nottingham Irish Studies Group. Venue: Five Leaves Bookshop. 14a Long Row, Nottingham, NG1 2DH, UK. Admission £3. Refreshments available. 7pm–8:30pm. Book by email.

Monday 14 March: Researching your Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Lewis County Genealogical Society. Venue: Bethel Assembly of God Church, 132 Kirkland Road, Chehalis, WA 98532, USA. 9am to 4:40pm. Download Programme. Details: wa.lcgs@hotmail.com

Tuesday 15 March: Using newspapers for family history research, a workshop with Mike McKeag. Host, North of Ireland Family History Society, Unit C4, 67, Valley Business Centre, Church Rd, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim BT36 7LS, UK. 11am to 12:30pm. NIFHS Members £5; non-members £10 - payable on the day. Email to enrol.

Tuesday 15 March: What were your family doing in 1916? An afternoon of genealogy with Eneclann and FindMyPast. Host and venue: Sean Lemass Public Library, Shannon, Co Clare. 2pm to 6pm. Free. Talks and one-to-one consultations. Booking may be required: T (0)61 364 266.

Tuesday 15 March:  Finding your Irish ancestors online, with John Grenham MAGI. Host: Libraries NI. Venue: Armagh City Library, Market St, Armagh BT61 7BU. 1:30pm to 3:00pm. Free, but booking is advised. Phone: 028 3752 4072.

Wednesday 16 March: Irish Genealogy – Resources for Success, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: The Plainfield Public Library and the Fountaindale Public Library. Venue: Fountaindale Public Library, 300 West Briarcliff Road, Bolingbrook, IL 60440, USA. 9:30am to 5:30pm. Light refreshments included. Email: ddudek@fountaindale.org. Fully booked.

Thursday 17 March: Tracing your Irish ancestors, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Tennessee Genealogical Society. Venue: Pickering Center, 7771 Poplar Pike, Germantown, Tennessee, USA. 12:30–8pm. Programme & booking (pdf). $30 TnGS members/$35 non-members. Includes BBQ dinner and light refreshments.

Saturday 19 March: Researching your Irish family history from this side of the Pond, with Ruth Blair. Host: Ontario Genealogical Society, Kingston Branch. Venue: Seniors Centre, 56 Francis Street, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. 10am. All welcome. Details.

Saturday 19 March: Finding your ancestors, a day conference. Hosts: Irish Genealogical Research Society and Cork Genealogical Society. Venue: Clayton Hotel, Silversprings, Cork City. Three lectures, a workshop, IGRS AGM, book launch, table stands. 9:20am to 5pm. €20 including a light lunch, for members and non-members alike. Need to book. Details.