Wednesday 31 January 2018

Trinity College Dublin Secondhand Booksale, 20-22 Feb

Thousands of books – novels, academic books, journals, guides and reference books – will be on sale at Trinity College Dublin's Secondhand Booksale from noon on Tuesday 20 February to lunchtime on Thursday 22 February.

The annual event, now in its 29th year, is the largest charity booksale in Ireland and has raised half a million euros since it was first held.

Books are generously donated throughout the year to the Booksale Office by staff, students, alumni and friends of Trinity College Dublin.

They include books given by several recently retired members of staff in English, French, history, economics, and art history, among many others.

As part of the annual Booksale an auction of rare books will take place at 5.30pm on Tuesday 20 February. Admission charge for this day only is €3. You can view the preliminary auction catalogue online.


Tuesday 30 January 2018

40% discount on Fold3 annual subscription

Fold3, Ancestry's sister site specialising in military records, is celebrating its 11th anniversary with a hefty 40% discount on its annual subscription.

http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-5737308-10934994The site is principally known for its US records, making it a popular database for Irish family historians researching ancestors who emigrated to North America and subsequently joined the forces, but it also holds British, Canadian, Australian military records (browse through the 'international' list here) and more.

The discount reduces the cost of a 12-month subscription from US$79.95 to US$47.95. The offer expires on Wednesay 31 January at 11:59pm MST.

Monday 29 January 2018

Personnel Register of Dublin Metropolitan Police released

Details for each officer are spread over two pages.
Click for an enlarged view of a page one sample.
University College Dublin's Digital Library has published the first 252 pages of the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) General Register as a free to access, image-only online collection.

These pages hold the personnel records of some 12,567 police officers who served from 1837 to 1925 (later pages are currently sealed for data protection reasons) and provide considerable information about each individual across two pages. On the first page are recorded warrant number, name, age, height, previous trade or occupation, county, parish, post town, previous public service, and the name of the person who recommended the officer.

On the second page are details of the divisions the officer was attached to, service details (dates, rank, promotions etc.), good service pay, date and cause of removal from the force, reappointment details, and general observations. Religion was added from 1858.

The entries are presented in numerical order by warrant number. They have not been indexed by surname*. However, an alphabetical listing is available in Jim Herlihy's book 'The Dublin Metropolitan Police: a complete alphabetical listing of officers and men, 1836-1925', which was pubished by Four Courts Press in 2001.

Researchers will now be able to view details of prisoners in the online DMP Prisoners Books (also on the UCD Library's site) and then look up details of the arresting officer in the DMP General Register.

IMPORTANT UPDATE, 30 Jan: There is an online index! See goo.gl/X1oXNk. In fact there are two, both accessible from this link. One is for the DMP General Register, the other from the Civic Guard (Garda Síochána) temporary register, which covers the last years of the stated timeframe. Public access has been restricted to this link since it was published here.

Even MORE important update, 4 March 2019: Since the above 'important update', UCD has contacted Irish Genealogy News to advise that while Google won't allow you to view the index via the above link (which was not intended by UCD), an excel document has been prepared and is available, free, to download and filter as you wish. This is the link: https://n2t.net/ark:/87925/h1ft8j2k.

Irish genealogy events & history lectures, 29 Jan-11 Feb

Monday 5 February: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures are to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service operating as normal. Details.

Monday 29 January: Square Ringforts – a square peg in a round hole? with Dr Michelle Comber. Host: NUI Galway's Natural and Human Heritages Spring Lunchtime Lectures Series. Venue: The Stuido, Town Hall Theatre, Woodquay, Galway. 1:10pm to 1:50pm. Free. No booking required.

Monday 29 January: Ag Digitiú Béaloideas: Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann agus Dúchas/The story of the digitization of the National Folklore Collection and the birth of Duchas.ie, with Dr Criostóir Mac Cárthaigh. Lecture will be presented in the Irish language and will delve into the story of the digitisation of the National Folklore Collection. Hosts: Folklore Society of Ireland and NLI. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. All welcome. 7pm. Booking not required.

Tuesday 30 January: Kith and Kin – Scotch Irish in America, with Alistair Reynolds. North of Ireland Family History Society, Causeway Coast and Glens Branch. Venue: Guide Hall, Terrace Row, Coleraine, Co Londonderry. 8pm. All welcome. Free.

Tuesday 30 January: The Vandeleur Family of Kilrush, with Dr. Ciarán Ó Murchadha. Host: Kilrush and District Historical Society. Venue: Teach Ceoil, Grace Street, Kilrush, Co Clare. 8pm. All welcome. Members free/€5 non-members.

Tuesday 30 January: Agrarian Secret Societies and the Land War in late 19th-century Ireland, with Laurence M Geary. Host: The Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. 6pm. All welcome. Free.

Tuesday 30 January: The origins and early development of Cork City, with Maurice Hurley. Part of the 'Cork: Origins of a City' public talks series. Host and venue: St Peter's Cork, North Main Street, Cork City. 5pm. All welcome.

Thursday 1 February: 'Lesser lights'? The Moloneys of Tipperary town and the Irish Revolution, 1916-1923, with Professor Eunan O'Halpin. Host: Glasnevin Trust and Trinity College Dublin Winter Lecture Series 2018. Venue: Glasnevin Musum's Milestone Gallery, Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11. 7pm. All welcome. €10. Booking required.

Monday 5 February: Newspapers, Journalism, and Special Collections, with Dr Mark O'Brien. A free lunchtime lecture hosted by the Library Association of Ireland's Rare Books Group. Venue: Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2. 1pm. All welcome. No booking required. 

Tuesday 6 February: Archaeological excavations at South Main Street, with Rose Cleary. Part of the 'Cork: Origins of a City' public talks series. Host and venue: St Peter's Cork, North Main Street, Cork City. 5pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 6 February: Suffrage and Society: Then and Now – Reflections on the Representation of the People Act, 1918, a full-day conference. Hosts: Queens University Belfast, the Ulster Society of Irish Historical Studies, and PRONI. Venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 10am to 4pm. Free, but booking required.

Tuesday 6 February: Irish Women at Work in 1918: the impact of WWI on life outside the home, with Maeve Casserly, marking the centenary of the Representation of the People Act on 6th February 1918 and the start of women’s suffrage in Ireland and Great Britain. Host and venue: Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Free. All welcome. 6:30pm.

Wednesday 7 February: Celebrating the life of Constance Markievicz - the Rebel Countess, with Elizabeth Gillis. Hosted by Connolly Association. Venue: McNamara Suite, London Irish Centre, 50-52 Camden Square, NW1 9XB London, UK. 7pm. Free. No need to register. All welcome.

Wednesday 7 February: Dublin since 1922, with Tim Carey. Host: Rathmichael Historical Society. Venue: Rathmichael National School, Stonebridge Road, Shankill, Co Dublin. 8pm. All welcome. €4 at the door.

Thursday 8 February: Waterford’s Quaker heritage , with Joan Johnson. Host: Dunhill History Lectures, Series XII, 2018. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre (opposite GAA grounds), Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm. Admission €5, includes light refreshments. All welcome.

Thursday 8 February: Review the Revisionist: a reconsideration of the Shot At Dawn controversy, with Mike Jackson. Host: Western Front Association, Antrim and Down branch. Venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast BT3 9HQ. 6:30pm. All welcome. Free.

Thursday 8 February: Lost medals and old photographs: Relatives in the British Army during WW1, with Neil Richardson. Host: Glasnevin Trust and Trinity College Dublin Winter Lecture Series 2018. Venue: Glasnevin Musum's Milestone Gallery, Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11. 7pm. All welcome. €10. Booking required.

Thursday 8 February: Stacking the coffins: the 1918-19 influenza pan-epidemic in Ireland, with Dr Ida Milne. Host and venue: Maynooth University, An Foras Feasa Seminar Room (First Floor, Iontas), Maynooth, Co Kildare. 6pm. Free. Open to all.

Friday 9 February: Training Kitchener’s New Army 1914-18: Perspectives on the Irish Experience, with Heather Montgomery. Part of the National Monuments and Buildings Record NI lecture series. Host and venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 1pm–2pm. Free. No booking required.

Saturday 10 February: Finding an Immigrant's Place of Origin, with Tom Rice. Host: Irish Genealogical Society International. Venue: Minnesota Genealogical Society Center, 1385 Mendota Heights Rd, Mendota Heights, Minnesota, USA. 10:30am. $15 for members, $20 for non-members. Walk in on day of class, or register online.

Saturday 10 February: Irish Study Group. Monthly gathering. Host: New England Historical Genealogical Society. Venue: NEHGS, 99-101 Newbury Street, Boston, MA,USA. 9:30am to Noon. Free. All welcome. Participants are invited to stay and use the library resources afterwards. No registration necessary.

Saturday 10 February: Family Research on the Internet, with Vincent Brogan. Host: NIFHS Tyrone Branch. Venue: Seminar Room, First Floor, Omagh Library, Dublin Road, Omagh, BT78 1HL. 10am to noon. All welcome.

Sunday 11 February: Follow your family through their chain migration, with Kevin Cassidy. Host: Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society. Venue: Walt Branch Library, 6701 S 14th St, Lincoln, NE, USA. 2pm–4pm. Free. All welcome. Details.

Friday 26 January 2018

Limerick - City of Churches released as a free e-book

A book published by Limerick Archives to accompany a travelling exhibition during the 2014 City of Culture programme, has been released as a free pdf.

Click to download the free e-book
Researched and written by architectural historian Emma Gilleece, Limerick – City of Churches examines all known places of worship that still stand or once stood in Limerick. There are 57 of them.

From the Gothic Revival RC St John's Cathedral with its soaring spire (the tallest in Ireland), and the medieval Church of Ireland St Mary's Cathedral with its leper squint, to the 19th-century Dutch barn style Pentecostal Abundant Life church in Post Office Lane and the abandoned ruins of Kilrush Church in Old Church, this beautifully illustrated 88-page book explores the history of each site, its architectural context and decorative features, as well as the changing uses of these sites over time.

There is also an extensive glossary of architectural terms.

If you have ancestral connections to Limerick City, or just know the city and want to learn more about its architectural heritage, you'll enjoy dipping into this e-book.


FindMyPast combines British Overseas bmd collections

FindMyPast has combined some of its British Forces and Overseas record sets into new collections and added more records to them. They are as follows:

British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms
This newly created collection brings together records held by the General Register Office and The National Archives and consists of birth records of children born to those working within the armed forces, merchant navy, and consular forces, as well as civilian ship passengers.

The collection consists of records previously available in three record sets – British nationals born overseas 1818-2005, British nationals armed forces births 1761-2005, and Births at sea, 1854-1960. Having been combined into one collection, it has been enhanced with an additional 92,000 records from the National Archive to create a total of nearly two million records. Each search result provides a transcript with the vital details recorded from the original source, plus an image of the original record.

British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages
This newly combined collection of nearly half a million records from the General Register Office and The National Archives holds details of marriages to military pesonnnel, British Consul staff, and other British nationals working overseas. Most of its records were previously available in sets called British nationals married overseas 1818-2005, British nationals armed forces marriages 1796-2005, British overseas marriages, and Marriages at sea, 1854-1972, but an additional 35,000 records have now joined them from the National Archives.

The records provide a combination of information containing the bride/groom's birth year, banns year, marriage year, marriage place, occupation, organisation, marital status, father's name, father's occupation, the names of witnesses and spouse's details.

British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials
To create this collection, which, like the others above, are a mix of records from the General Register Office and National Archives, the following three record-sets have been combined: British nationals died overseas 1818-2005, British nationals armed forces deaths 1796-2005, and Deaths at sea. Some 193,000 additions have also joined from The National Archives to create a collection of more than 2.4million records.

Thursday 25 January 2018

Ulster Historical Foundation's North America Lecture Tour 2018

The Ulster Historical Foundation has announced the programme for its North American Lecture Tour 2018 (click for full details). In previous years, many of these workshops have sold out long before the date, so book early to ensure you have a place at your preferred location.

A summary is below. The 'city location' link takes you to the host's website.

Saturday 3 March Augusta Genealogical Society Augusta GA (9am–4:30pm)
Sunday 4 March Heinz History Centre Pittsburgh PA (9am-4:30pm)
Monday 5 March NEHGS Boston MA Full day/
times TBC
Tuesday 6 March Filson Historical Society Louisville KY 1pm–4:30pm
Wednesday 7 March The Newberry Chicago IL 9:15am–3pm
Thursday 8 March Wisconsin Historical Society Madison WI 9am–5pm
Saturday 10 March Ben Franklin Place Ottawa ON 8:30am–4:30pm
Sunday 11 March Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Philadelphia PA Full day/
times TBC
Monday 12 March Andrew Jackson's Hermitage Nashville TN 5:30pm–9pm
Tuesday 13 March Andrew Jackson's Hermitage Nashville TN 9am–5pm
Wednesday 14 March St Louis County Library St Louis MO 1pm–5pm &
6pm–9:30pm
Thursday 15 March Greater Omaha Genealogical Society Omaha NE 12:30pm–4pm &
5:30pm–9:30pm
Saturday 17 March Sacramento Genealogical Society Fair Oaks CA 9am–4:45pm
Sunday 18 March Irish Heritage Club Seattle WA 9am–5pm
Tuesday 20 March St Andrew Society of Hawaii Honolulu HI 9am–4pm

Wednesday 24 January 2018

John Grenham launches RC baptism maps by surname

Up to 1880, all Santry baptisms were in County Cork
Genealogist John Grenham’s Irish Ancestors site has developed a Catholic baptism mapping service, which shows the numbers of baptisms of a particular surname in each Catholic parish overlaid onto a Google map of Ireland.

You can see, right, a map of Santry baptisms. Darn clever!

John told Irish Genealogy News: “It’s based on FindMyPast’s transcripts of the National Library microfilms, which they generously shared with me. It has all the flaws of the microfilms, in particular the 1880 cut-off point, and of course the inevitable mistranscriptions, but I think it gives a useful bird’s-eye-view of what families were recording baptisms where." He calls it 'informative eye-candy'.

To use the mapping service, type a surname into the box on the Irish Surnames page and click 'Go'.

Like most of the site, the service is free to light users, with heavy users asked to pay a small subscription.



Irish-Genealogy-Toolkit.com receives a green padlock

This is just a little note to advise that my website, Irish-Genealogy-Toolkit.com, now has a security certificate. This reassures visitors that all communications between their browser and the site are encrypted.

It also means that the url has changed to https://www.Irish-Genealogy-Toolkit.com.


Web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer display a small green padlock icon in the address bar to visually indicate that you have a secure HTTPS connection.

For a time, the old http:// url will automatically redirect to the https:// url, but I'm not sure for how long, so if you have bookmarks to the site, or you link to it in publications or online, please make a note of this change.

Meanwhile, the url of this blog, www.irishgenealogynews.com, does not yet have a security certificate. (Nor does any other custom domain url hosted on Google. Apparently Google is working on facilitating this, but again, I don't know how long it will take.) I'll let you know when it does.

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Skibbereen's Famine Soup Kitchen to be restored

I'm pleased to hear that Skibbereen’s Old Steam Mill building is (finally) to be restored.

It's been a bit of an eyesore for many years, with its numerous For Sale and To Let signs, and a host of other hoardings and posters, all growing tattier while the building has grown increasingly derelict in its prominent position on the banks of the River Ilen, next door to the town's excellent Heritage Centre.

Built in the 1780s as a mill, the large, stone building went on to house one of the first large-scale Famine Soup Kitchens in Ireland. It opened as such on 7 November 1846 and at its height of operation, some 8,600 starving people were fed daily from its kitchen.

Despite years of trying to find an investor willing to turn the much-neglected four-storey property into retail units, workshops or even residential apartments, no buyer came forward. Now, Cork County Council has bought the historic building and it will be protected and restored.

With thanks to Skibbereen Heritage Centre.

Three free online courses from FutureLearn start soon

https://www.futurelearn.com/
FutureLearn is owned
by The Open University
Starting soon via FutureLearn, The Open University's digital education platform, are three free online courses which may be of interest to researchers of Irish heritage.

In each case, the courses are open to all and are presented using videos, online discussions (active engagement is optional) and, sometimes, the preparation of written assignments.

There are no formal qualification criteria for joining, just an interest in the subject to be studied.

The three courses are:

Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland's History 1912-1923

This course is presented by Trinity College Dublin. Looking beyond the familiar names and famous faces, it explores how the events that shaped the nature of modern Ireland – the Great War, the Easter Rising, the Irish War of Independence and civil war – were experienced by the people who lived through them or in spite of them.

No formal qualifications are required, just a basic interest in Irish and modern European history as well as a curiosity about how conflict shapes civil society. It runs over six weeks and a commitment of six hours per week is suggested for participants. The course is starting now. Details.

Irish 101: An Introduction to Irish Language & Culture

This three-week course aims to introduce the basics of the Irish language and explores Ireland’s culture of dance, Gaelic games, music, storytelling and literature. Created by Dublin City University, it starts on 29 January.

No formal qualifications are required; the course is aimed at anyone interested in Irish language and culture. A commitment of three hours per week is suggested for participants to get the full benefit from the teaching materials and optional online engagement with other learners. Details.

Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree

This free MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) from the University of Strathclyde's Genealogy team is aimed at beginner family historians. It isn't an Irish genealogy course. It's a more general course that aims to help the researcher develop an understanding of basic genealogy techniques and how to communicate their family history – valuable skills no matter where your heritage originates.

It starts on 29 January and runs for 6 weeks. Four hours of study per week is suggested. More than 57,000 students have previously taken this online course, which has been updated to include more information on autosomal DNA testing and will include ‘live’ updates from the RootTech conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Details.

Emerald Ancestors adds 1852 Church Census for Christchurch, Belfast

Located in College Square North in central Belfast,
Christchurch was built in 1833, deconsecrated in
the early 1990s, and badly damaged by fire in 1996.
It has since been  restored.
Photo Albert Bridge via Wikipedia.
Emerald Ancestors has added an 1852 census of the Church of Ireland congregation of Christchurch, in central Belfast.

The record lists more than 4,000 names and notes all members within a household including children, along with age, relationship to the Head of Household and the street name or townland in which the family resided. Frequent annotations such as occupation are provided for some individuals.

Copies of the census extracts are available to subscribers through the Emerald Ancestors Look Up facility. They can also be found at PRONI, Document reference CR/1/13/D/1.


NOTE: Emerald Ancestors recently improved its Birth Records Search options. The database can now be searched using only the Mother's Maiden name.

Registry of Deeds Index Project: latest update

The Registry of Deeds Index Project has been updated and now makes available, absolutely free to all Irish genealogy research, precisely 263,959 index entries from 29,318 memorials of deeds.

As we're still in January, there's still time to set a New Year Resolution or Intention, so why not consider helping the Index Project with occasional or even regular contributions in 2018?

The Project is run entirely by volunteers, most of whom submit details transcribed from online images (free at FamilySearch.org) of memorials of deeds, or the Townland or Grantor Indexes. They work at their own pace and submit entries as and when they can. All submissions potentially provide the nugget that breaks down a brickwall for another Irish family historian.

Details of how to get involved are on the Project's Home Page – scroll down to How To Help.

Monday 22 January 2018

GRO (Eng & Wales) extends PDF pilot scheme

The General Register Office (GRO) of England and Wales is to extend its 'PDF pilot scheme' until at least July*.

Paper copies cost £9.25 while the pdf copies are £6.
The online-only scheme, which delivers PDF copies of historical birth and death register entries at a reduced price, has seen abot 80,000 applications processed since the pilot started in October last year. Such popularity is hardly surprising given that each PDF costs £6 rather than the regular standard service price for a print copy is £9.25. (For Irish family historians more accustomed to free access to historical bmd records, UK prices come as a bit of a shock!)

Only records from the following periods are included in the scheme:
  • Births: 1837–1917
  • Deaths: 1837–1957
All applications have to include a GRO index reference, and marriage records are not included in the pilot.

*UPDATE, 3 July: The scheme has been extended indefinitely.

An Post proposes stamps celebrating Ireland's diaspora

Each year An Post produces a programme of special and commemorative stamps on behalf of the Irish Government. The programme comprises of around 30 such stamps covering up to 13 different topics.

A proposal for the 2020 programme is the production of a set of stamps celebrating Ireland’s diaspora.

The Global Irish team (Department of Foreign Affairs) is now seeking input from Irish communities worldwide for stamp suggestions which celebrate and reflect the contribution of Irish emigrants or represent their contribution globally.

Ideally the topic or suggestion should adhere to the following criteria:
  • Celebrate significant events, organisations or anniversaries of famous Irish people or topics, both locally and internationally, preference should be given to the 50th, 100th, 200th year anniversaries
  • Reflect noteworthy aspects of Irish emigrant life, or contribution to the US, Britain, Australia etc.
  • Reflect the Irish contribution to world affairs
  • Topics that have popular and commercial appeal or are somehow representative of Irish life abroad
  • Irish involvement in major events in their host country
  • Reflect the diversity of the Irish diaspora and in particular minority groups within the Irish diaspora.
If you have any suggestions for stamp ideas, contact Global Irish by email with a brief outline of the suggestion. The closing date for submissions is Friday 16 March.

RootsIreland adds RC records for North Tipperary

Roots Ireland has added new church records to its database for the Moyne/Templetuohy Roman Catholic parish, which is in County Tipperary (North) and in the Diocese of Killaloe.

Transcriptions from the following registers are now available:
  • Baptisms: 1809 – 1899
  • Marriages: 1804 – 1897
Transcriptions link to the NLI registers images up to 1881/82. (The later registers are not on that site, nor any other, as far as I'm aware.)

To see the full list of North Tipperary record sets available to search on RootsIreland, see the online sources page.

FMP's British & Irish Roots Collection: still free

https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=5947&awinaffid=123532&clickref=&p=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.findmypast.ie%2Fsearch-world-Records%2Fbritish-and-irish-roots-collection
You may remember that five weeks ago FindMyPast launched its British & Irish Roots Collection.

This is not a new set of records; it is a variety of records already available on the supplier's Local and World databases gathered into a distinct collection spanning 400 years and focussing on migration between Ireland & Britain and North America.

I had a high ol' time during December mining the collection for emigrants in my extended ancestral family, and rather assumed the free access would have ended with the New Year, but today when I checked, I found that the free access is still live.

I've no idea for how much longer this will be the case – no expiry date was ever set by FindMyPast – but it seems worth a reminder to Irish family historians to get digging while the door remains open.

The collection holds some 98 million records. The free access allows you to view all transcription and some (but not quite all) images.

For a fuller description, see my blogpost from 11 December.

Irish genealogy, history & heritage events, 22 Jan-4 Feb

Monday 22 January: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures are to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service, operating as normal. Details.

Monday 22 January: Roscommon Abbey, with Dr Kieran O'Conor. Host: NUI Galway's Natural and Human Heritages Spring Lunchtime Lectures Series. Venue: The Stuido, Town Hall Theatre, Woodquay, Galway. 1:10pm to 1:50pm. Free. No booking required.

Tuesday 23 January: The Tanner's Tale, with Paul Duffy. Host: More Tales of Medieval Dublin lecture series. Venue: Wood Quay Venue, Dublin City Council, Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8. 1:05–1:55pm. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 23 January: Gerald of Wales: his invasion of Ireland, with Darrel Rooney. Host and venue: Tallaght/County Library, Library Square, Dublin 24. 7pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 23 January: Using Newspaper Archives, with Mike McKeag. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Belfast Branch. Venue: C. S. Lewis Room, Holywood Arches Library, 4-12 Holywood Road, Belfast, BT4 1NT. All welcome. 7:30pm. Free.

Tuesday 23 January: The other minority: Southern Protestants and the early years of the Northern Ireland conflict, with Brian Hanley. Host: Modern Irish History Seminar Series 2018 - Religion and Identity, University of Edinburgh. Venue: The Old Medical School – Room G.13, William Robertson Wing, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, UK. All welcome. 6pm.

Tuesday 23 January: What might St Finbarr's monastery have looked like? with Tomas O Carragain. Part of the 'Cork: Origins of a City' public talks series. Host and venue: St Peter's Cork, North Main Street, Cork City. 5pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 23 January: National Photographic Archive, Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 will be closed for essential maintenance.

Wednesday 24 January: The rise and fall of Protestant power and culture in Bandon, with Kieran Doyle.  Host: Kilmurry Historical Association. Venue: Independence Kilmurry Museum, Kilmurry, Co. Cork. 8pm. All welcome. Members free/non-members €5.

Thursday 25 January: ’My ancestor was sent to Gaol – Horray!” The Petty Sessions Court and prison records as genealogical sources, with Tony Hennessy MAGI. Host: Dunhill History Lectures, Series XII, 2018. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre (opposite GAA grounds), Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm. Admission €5, includes light refreshments. All welcome.

Thursday 25 January: Shops and shopkeepers in Clonakilty, 1870–1920, with Carmel Flahavan. Host: Duchas Clonakilty Heritage. Venue: The Parish Centre, Clonakilty, Co Cork. 8pm. All welcome.

Thursday 25 January: National Photographic Archive, Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 closed for essential maintenance.

Thursday 25 January: Women and the First World War, with Carol Walker. 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. All welcome.

Friday 26 January: Niall Byrne’s contribution to forging medieval Waterford’s historical identity, with Dr Michael Byrne. Host: Waterford Historical Society. Venue: St Patrick's Gateway Centre, Patrick Street, Waterford City. 8pm. All welcome. Members free/non-members €5/students €2.50.

Sunday 28 January: Free genealogy help session. Host and venue: Library of the Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Avenue, Chicago, IL 60630, USA. From 1pm to 4pm. Free. All welcome.

Monday 29 January: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures are to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service, operating as normal. Details.

Monday 29 January: Square Ringforsts – a square peg in a round hole? with Dr Michelle Comber. Host: NUI Galway's Natural and Human Heritages Spring Lunchtime Lectures Series. Venue: The Stuido, Town Hall Theatre, Woodquay, Galway. 1:10pm to 1:50pm. Free. No booking required.

Monday 29 January: Ag Digitiú Béaloideas: Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann agus Dúchas/The story of the digitization of the National Folklore Collection and the birth of Duchas.ie, with Dr Criostóir Mac Cárthaigh. Lecture will be presented in the Irish language and will delve into the story of the digitisation of the National Folklore Collection. Hosts: Folklore Society of Ireland and NLI. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. All welcome. 7pm. Booking not required.

Tuesday 30 January: Kith and Kin – Scotch Irish in America, with Alistair Reynolds. North of Ireland Family History Society, Causeway Coast and Glens Branch. Venue: Guide Hall, Terrace Row, Coleraine, Co Londonderry. 8pm. All welcome. Free.

Tuesday 30 January: The Vandeleur Family of Kilrush, with Dr. Ciarán Ó Murchadha. Host: Kilrush and District Historical Society. Venue: Teach Ceoil, Grace Street, Kilrush, Co Clare. 8pm. All welcome. Members free/€5 non-members.

Tuesday 30 January: Agrarian Secret Societies and the Land War in late 19th-century Ireland, with Laurence M Geary. Host: The Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. 6pm. All welcome. Free.

Tuesday 30 January: The origins and early development of Cork City, with Maurice Hurley. Part of the 'Cork: Origins of a City' public talks series. Host and venue: St Peter's Cork, North Main Street, Cork City. 5pm. All welcome.

Thursday 1 February: 'Lesser lights?@ The Moloneys of Tipperary town and the Irish Revolution, 1916-1923, with Professor Eunan O'Halpin. Host: Glasnevin Trust and Trinity College Dublin Winter Lecture Series 2018. Venue: Glasnevin Musum's Milestone Gallery, Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11. 7pm. All welcome. €10. Booking required.

Friday 19 January 2018

Irish News Archive: new titles, more content and big discounts

Click to learn more
Irish Newspaper Archives, the Dublin-based database of historical papers published in Ireland, has added two new titles – The Irish Daily Independent and The Limerick Chronicle – and uploaded significant amounts of additional content from two other titles already represented in the online archive.

The new titles:

Irish Daily Independent 1893–1904
The Irish Daily Independent was first published at the end of 1891. It went on to absorb the Daily Nation from September 1900.

Limerick Chronicle 1994–2001
Established in 1768, the Limerick Chronicle was first published by John Ferrar, a prominent bookseller and printer in Limerick.

Updated Content:

Waterford News & Star 1980–1999
With this update,the holding of the online archive now spans 169 years offering insight into local and the national events.

The Sligo Champion 1916–1949
First published in 1836, The Sligo Champion is one of Ireland’s oldest and leading regional newspaper titles. On the day of its first publication, crowds gathered outside the premises from 8am, even thought the paper not due for release until 1pm.

Discounts on offer

To mark the arrival of the new titles and content, Irish Newspaper Archives has two discount options available until 31 January 2018:
  • A 30% discount on an annual subscription, reducing the price from $/£/€149 to $/£/€104.30 : use promotion code IDI30,
  • A 25% discount on a monthly subscription, reducing the price from $/£/€29 to $/£/€21.75: use promotion code ISI25



Mayo mountain burial chamber: human remains are 5,000 years old

Scientific anaylsis of ancient human remains found by hillwalkers on Ben Gorm in County Mayo has revealed that the bones are more than 5,000 years old.

View from Ben Gorm.  Photographer Robert Bone. Source Wikipedia.
View from Ben Gorm.
Photographer Robert Bone. Source Wikipedia.
The discovery in August 2016 was made by local hillwalker Michael Chambers, who came accross some massive boulders and a cave-like space on the mountain in the northwest of the county. Human bones were scattered over the rock floor. Once it had been determined that the remains were ancient, the National Monuments Service of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, in consultation with the National Museum of Ireland, commissioned a rescue excavation which was carried out by excavation director Dr Marion Dowd of IT Sligo.

“Large pieces of quartz had been placed in and around the bones, Dr Dowd explains. "When the radiocarbon dates came through it was very exciting. Not only were the bones Neolithic, but the dates showed the site had been used for over 1,000 years." At least 10 individuals – adults, adolescents and children – were placed in the chamber. One of the adult bones dated to 3,600 BC while a bone of a child skeleton dated to 2,400 BC.

The research has suggested that bodies were brought into the cave chamber and laid out in a pit. At some later point, the skulls might have been deliberately broken as part of a complex burial ritual and the larger bones removed.

Dr Linda Lynch, the osteoarchaeologist who examined the human bones, said this was not a burial place as such. “It was a ritual place where bodies were placed to decompose. Only a very small proportion of each skeleton was found, with the majority of bones apparently deliberately removed. The discovery indicates highly complex processing of the dead.”

Josepha Madigan TD, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, praised the local hillwalkers for reporting their find: “This is a fascinating archaeological discovery and I want to thank the community of hill walkers for reporting it to us. Such vigilance is extremely important to us in helping to protect and understand our archaeological heritage.

"The excavation has provided a glimpse into prehistoric Ireland over 5,000 years ago. Such discoveries show the enduring capacity of archaeology to enthral and demonstrate how advances in scientific research are affording us a better understanding of Ireland’s ancient past and its people."

Wednesday 17 January 2018

British Newspaper Archive sub: 30% discount available

https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=5895&awinaffid=123532&clickref=&p=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk%2Faccount%2Fsubscribe%3FPromotionCode%3DBNASAVE30
The British Newspaper Archive is offering a 30% discount on a 12-month subscription.

With some 150+ titles from across the island of Ireland, and a vast number of papers published in Great Britain, the British Newspaper Archive offers access to millions of historical newspaper pages. With the discount, you'd have one year of unlimited access to this huge database for just £55.97 for the year.

To take advantage of the discount, click the image. You'll find the promotion code is already entered when you arrive at the subscription page.

The discount expires at 11:59pm on Sunday 28 January.

Tuesday 16 January 2018

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: first 2018 update

Burrishoole Abbey, Mayo. Click for larger image.
Photo courtesy of Bernie McCafferty & IGP Archives
The files below have been added to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives.

They have been submitted by volunteers and are free to view by all Irish family historians.

CLARE Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Clooney Graveyard

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Drumkeerin Presbyterian Graveyard

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Stranorlar Famine Graveyard
Stranorlar Parish Church (CoI) Graveyard - Part 2

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Deansgrange, St. Anne's Section Pts 9 & 10

LONGFORD Genealogy Archives - Wills
Edgeworth, William Jan 20, 1827 - Will (names sister Maria)

MONAGHAN & FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Clones Parish Registers, Burials 1815-1816 (E. Div.)

MAYO Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Burrishoole Abbey, Part 3

WATERFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Dunmore East, Lost at Sea Plaques

WESTMEATH Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Street, St. James (CoI) Graveyard

WEXFORD Genealogy Archives - Newspapers
Workhouse Entries - Assorted Dates (Updated)

Monday 15 January 2018

5-day Irish Genealogy Essentials courses: 2018 dates

Ulster Historical Foundation is based at
the Corn Exhange Building in central Belfast
The Ulster Historical Foundation will run its intensive Irish Genealogy Essentials course on the following dates this year:
  • 5 February to 9 February
  • 30 April to 4 May
  • 13 to 19 June
The course is delivered by the Ulster Historical Foundation’s experienced staff and includes a week of intensive learning with practical demonstrations using relevant websites and other electronic resources, and one and a half days of guided research in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).

It is ideal for those who are relatively new to Irish family history and wish to get to grips with research techniques, archives and genealogical sources in Ireland, but will also benefit those with more experience in genealogy who will learn about lesser-known sources, many of them not online and available only in archives.

Participants have full access to the UHF's research and newspaper library and electronic resources, and the expertise of its staff, and receive an orientation tour at PRONI.

The classroom-based elements of the course are held in the Corn Exchange Building, 31 Gordon Street, Belfast, BT1 2LG. For full details see UHF's website.

Irish genealogy and history events, 15-28 January

Monday 15 Jan: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures are to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe and Genealogy Service operating as normal. Details.

Monday 15 Jan: The Clontarf Atlas (Irish Historic Towns Atlas series from RIA), with Professor Colm Lennon. Host: Clontarf Historical Society. Venue: Resource Centre, St John the Baptist Church, Clontarf Road, Dublin 3. Plus AGM. Members free / non-members €5. All welcome. 7:30pm.

Monday 15 January: Newspapers, books and eBay for genealogy, with Michael McKeag. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Foyle branch. Venue: Lecture Room of Derry City’s Central Library, 35 Foyle Street, Londonderry, BT48 6AL. Lecture cancelled due to weather warnings.

Monday 15 January: Queen Victoria’s Gene, with Jenning Cumming. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Larne branch. Larne Bowling & Lawn Tennis Club, 112-120 Glenarm Road, Larne, BT40 1DZ. Free. 7:30pm.

Monday 15 January: The Rise & Fall of Lord Dunkellin (1827-1867), with John Joe Conwell. Host: Birr Historical Society. Venue: County Arms Hotel, Birr, Co Offaly. 8pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 16 January: The Quakers of County Tipperary, 1655–1924, with Dr Michael Ahern. Host: Tipperary People & Places Lecture Series. Venue: Tipperary Studies, The Source, Cathedral Street, Thurles, Co Tipperary. 7:30pm. Admission free. All welcome. Details.

Tuesday 16 January: Disturbing Remains: Death in the Great Famine, with Dr Breandán Mac Suibhne. Host: Irish Historical Society. Venue: Centre for Irish Programmes, Boston College, 43 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. Free. 7.00pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 16 January: From 2RN to RTÉ, with Harry Bradshaw, and (short talk) The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, with Pádraig Laffan. Host: Foxrock Local History Club. Venue: Foxrock Pastoral Centre (at rear of Foxrock Church), Dublin 18. 8pm. All welcome. Members free/non-members €5.

Wednesday 17 January: The Tavener Family, with Tom Mason. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, North Armagh branch. Venue: Bleary Community Centre, 1 Deans Road, Bleary, Craigavon, Co Armagh, BT66 7AS.

Wednesday 17 January: Tudor Marshals of Leinster, with Diarmuid Wheeler. Host: Carlow Historical & Archaeological Society. Venue: Leighlinbridge Parish Centre, Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow. Admission is free and all welcome. 8pm. 

Wednesday 17 January: The Corless Family, with Anna Bruzzi. Also AGM. Host: Western Family History Association. Venue: Parish Centre, Lackagh, Co Galway. 8pm. All welcome.

Wednesday 17 January: Philip Barron, Man of Mystery, with Áine Uí Fhoghlú. Host: Waterford County Museum. Venue: Clubhouse, Dungarvan Harbour Sailing Club, Davitt's Quay, Dungarvan, Co Waterford. 8pm. All welcome. €5 admission. Details.

Thursday 18 January: London's Derrie: The background to the building and financing of the early Londonderry plantation, with Professor James Stevens Curl. Host: Ulster Historical Foundation. Venue: The Corn Exchange Building, 31 Gordon Street, Belfast BT1 2LG. 12:15pm to 2pm. Free to Guild members. £5 to non-members. Need to register. Details.

Thursday 18 January: From war to wine, from shipping to sport: Irish-French links over 300 years, with Kieran Walsh. Host: Dunhill History Lectures, Series XII, 2018. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre (opposite GAA grounds), Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm. Admission €5, includes light refreshments. All welcome.

Thursday 18 January: Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877–1946)– suffragette and nationalist, wife of martyred radical activist Francis and co-founder of Irish women's Franchise League, with Dr. Margaret Ward. First of the Rebel Irish Women lecture series. Host and venue: GPO Witness History Visitor Centre, O'Connell Street, Dublin 1. Free. 5:40pm sharp. Booking is essential to guarantee your space.

Saturday 20 January: Investigating Offaly's casualties of the Great War, with Stephen Callaghn. Host: Western Front Association. Venue: Museum of Decorative Arts and History, Collins Barracks, Benburb's Street, Dublin 7. 2:30pm. All welcome. €3.

Saturday 20 January:What can DNA Testing do for you? with Anne Johnston, project administrator for the North of Ireland DNA Project, established by the NIFHS. Host: Cape Town Family History Society. Venue: St John's Church, Wynberg, Cape Town, 7800, South Africa. 2:15pm for 2:30pm. Cost: R20 for visitors. Details.

Saturday 20 January: Moving into Intermediate Research, with Audrey Leonard. Host: Irish Genealogical Society International. Venue: Celtic Junction Arts Center, Celtic Junction, 836 Prior Avenue, St Paul, MN 55104, USA. 10:30am to Noon. Cost: $15 for members/$20 for non-member. Register here.

Monday 22 January: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures are to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service operating as normal. Details.

Monday 22 January: Roscommon Abbey, with Dr Kieran O'Conor. Host: NUI Galway's Natural and Human Heritages Spring Lunchtime Lectures Series. Venue: The Stuido, Town Hall Theatre, Woodquay, Galway. 1:10pm to 1:50pm. Free. No booking required.

Tuesday 23 January: The Tanner's Tale, with Paul Duffy. Host: More Tales of Medieval Dublin lecture series. Venue: Wood Quay Venue, Dublin City Council, Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8. 1:05–1:55pm. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 23 January: Gerald of Wales: his invasion of Ireland, with Darrel Rooney. Host and venue: Tallaght/County Library, Library Square, Dublin 24. 7pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 23 January: Using Newspaper Archives, with Mike McKeag. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Belfast Branch. Venue: C. S. Lewis Room, Holywood Arches Library, 4-12 Holywood Road, Belfast, BT4 1NT. All welcome. 7:30pm. Free.

Tuesday 23 January: The other minority: Southern Protestants and the early years of the Northern Ireland conflict, with Brian Hanley. Host: Modern Irish History Seminar Series 2018 - Religion and Identity, University of Edinburgh. Venue: The Old Medical School – Room G.13, William Robertson Wing, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, UK. All welcome. 6pm.

Tuesday 23 January: What might St Finbarr's monastery have looked like? with Tomas O Carragain. Part of the 'Cork: Origins of a City' public talks series. Host and venue: St Peter's Cork, North Main Street, Cork City. 5pm. All welcome.

Thursday 25 January: ’My ancestor was sent to Gaol – Horray!” The Petty Sessions Court and prison records as genealogical sources, with Tony Hennessy MAGI. Host: Dunhill History Lectures, Series XII, 2018. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre (opposite GAA grounds), Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm. Admission €5, includes light refreshments. All welcome.

Thursday 25 January: Shops and shopkeepers in Clonakilty, 1870–1920, with Carmel Flahavan. Host: Duchas Clonakilty Heritage. Venue: The Parish Centre, Clonakilty, Co Cork. 8pm. All welcome.

Thursday 25 January: Family connections using DNA, with Martin McDowell. 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.

Friday 26 January:
Niall Byrne’s contribution to forging medieval Waterford’s historical identity, with Dr Michael Byrne. Host: Waterford Historical Society. Venue: St Patrick's Gateway Centre, Patrick Street, Waterford City. 8pm. All welcome. Members free/non-members €5.

Sunday 28 January: Free genealogy help session. Host and venue: Library of the Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Avenue, Chicago, IL 60630, USA. From 1pm to 4pm. Free. All welcome.

Friday 12 January 2018

NLI RC Registers will be offline from 9am Monday 15th

https://registers.nli.ie/
It's good to receive advance warning of sites being offline, and all the more so when the site is as important to Irish genealogists as the NLI's Roman Catholic Parish Registers images database.

The National Library of Ireland has advised that the database will be offline from 9am on Monday 15 January. This is to facilitate essential maintenance to the site (there were problems with access earlier this week, so the two are probably connected).

It is expected that the database will be back online during Monday afternoon.

UPDATE, 15 January, 8pm: Looks like things didn't quite work out as anticipated. This evening, the entire nli.ie site is offline. There doesn't seem to have been any official comment about this, so I can't provide any further information at present.

UPDATE, 15 January, 9:30pm: Registers site is back up and running.

New book explores the lives of Bandon gentry

A new book from historian and genealogist Catherine FitzMaurice – The Sealy, Cornwall and Allin Families of County Cork: Merchants and Bandon Gentry – will be of interest to researchers with ancestral connections to the town of Bandon or to these named families.

These three families arrived in Bandon as English Protestant settlers and are not thought to have arrived in the first influx. Their descendants became influential merchants and made significant contributions to the economic boom of the 1700s and prospered well into the 1800s. They built up significant landholdings as a result of their business activities and, in the early 1800s, through marriages.

Like many prominent Protestant families in County Cork, they were all faced with considerable challenges from the mid-1800s, and this book provides an insight into the life – the highs and the lows – of the gentry in the area throughout this period.

The 234-page book is split into three parts, each concentrating on one of the named families, and appendices follow each section with details of interest to researchers of the particular family.

Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (ISBN-10: 1543295452 / ISBN-13: 978-1543295450), the book can be ordered via Amazon €12.91. All proceeds will be donated to the Allin Institute Restoration project, which seeks to repair and restore a community building bequeathed to the community by James Allin in 1867.

Catherine FitzMaurice has undertaken detailed research into Bandon family history over the past ten years and is the author of Bandon County Cork: A Social History of North Main Street and Kilbrogan Hill and The Tresilian Family of County Cork: Landowners and Bandon Merchants.





Galway Genetic Genealogy Conference, Saturday 5 May

My Heritage rolls out improved DNA Matching service

MyHeritage has announced major updates and improvements to its DNA Matching Service.

Anyone who has taken a MyHeritage DNA test, and anyone who uploaded DNA data from another testing service, will now receive even more accurate DNA Matches; more plentiful matches (about 10 times more); fewer false positives; more specific and more accurate relationship estimates; and indications on lower confidence DNA Matches to help focus research efforts.

Matches are updated daily, and users are notified by a weekly email about the best new matches ie those sharing the largest amount of DNA.

The company also also added an initial release of a long-awaited chromosome browser.

These developments are explained in an in-depth blogpost from MyHeritage.

AmericanAncestors adds parish registers, 1869-1900, for Irish RC community in Marlborough, MA

https://catholicrecords.americanancestors.org/
The New England Historic Genealogical Society's website, AmericanAncestors.org, has updated its searchable database of parish records from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

In this update, ten new volumes covering 1854 to 1900 from the Immaculate Conception in Marlborough, Massachusetts have been added.

This church largely served Marlborough's community of immigrant Irish Roman Catholics, although there may be some French Canadian Catholics included in the earlier records.

The ten new volumes are linked below. I was able to view images with my free Guest Account.

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Baptisms, 1854-1861

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Baptisms, 1861-1869

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Baptisms, 1861-1869 Index

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Baptisms, 1869-1896

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Baptisms, 1875-1886

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Baptisms, 1897-1900

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Baptisms and Marriages, 1854-1869

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Confirmations, 1897-1900

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Marriages, 1854-1869

Immaculate Conception (Marlborough) Marriages, 1869-1896

Thursday 11 January 2018

Cork Genealogical Society Conference, 24 March 2018

Cork Genealogical Society (CGS) will hold its bi-annual Family History Conference on Saturday 24 March at the Silverspring's Clayton Hotel in Tivoli, Cork, which is less than 3km from the city centre.

The event's theme is Bridging the Past & Future, and four well-known Irish genealogists have been lined up to present talks, as below:

  • Where are we? And how did we get here? An overview of online research resources, with John Grenham MAGI.
  • Tracing your Irish roots and finding family using DNA, with genetic genealogist Margaret Jordan MAGI.  
  • The Chief Secretary's Office Registered Papers (CSORP), with Nicola Morris MAGI.
  • Cork's School Collection in the National Folklore Collection, with Jill Williams FIGRS

Tea/coffee refreshments and a light lunch are included in the conference cost of €25pp. You can purchase your ticket via the Society's website using PayPal. Click the CGS logo above and scroll down..

Wednesday 10 January 2018

NLI's RC parish registers collection offline due to fault

The National Library of Ireland has confirmed that its Roman Catholic Parish Registers collection is currently offline due to a technical problem. This may or may not be the same problem that was causing intermittent loss of access earlier in the week, which seemed to have been corrected.

The techies are working on it and hope to restore access soon.

I'll update here, as and when.

Update, 7pm: Site is back up and running, but it carries a message saying: 'Please note: that due to maintenance a small number of registers are currently unavailable.

Update, 12 January: See advance warning of site being offline on Monday 15 January.

Registry of Deeds Index Project: first update of 2018

Nick Reddan FIGRS, founder and manager of the Registry of Deeds Index Project, has uploaded the first update of the year to the free, online, volunteer-led database. It now holds 262,178 entries from 29,134 memorials of deeds.

He has also provided Irish Genealogy News with a review of recent developments to the site.

"Now at a new url, the site has a different look and feel, and search facilities have been expanded making the data more accessible," he says. "In addition, the secondary index transcriptions have many more entries — the townland index transcriptions number nearly 45,000 and the grantor index just over 17,000 — making them ever more valuable resources. It’s worth noting that even inexperienced transcribers will find it easy to add to these online resources.

"This past year has seen other important changes, too, starting with FamilySearch.org uploading some of the microfilms of the grantors and townland indexes for public access. The numbers of films available has grown to the extent that almost all are now available instantly. Since mid-December it is necessary to have a FamilySearch account in order to view films online but this is not a big issue as the accounts are free. (If you previosuly ordered physical microfilms using FamilySearch.org you can continue to use the same account.)

"To take advantage of the instant availability of the images through FamilySearch, many Index entries now link directly to the digital image. At the very least, there will be a link to the beginning of the relevant film.

"The Index Project site also holds many useful guides; they have been created with direct links to the virtual films they describe.

From every page of the Index Project site
you can link to FamilySearch's virtual
microfilms by typing the volume number
(and image number) you want to view.
"Another development is the inclusion of a link to FamilySearch's Registry of Deeds virtual microfilms catalogue at the bottom of every page on the Index Project site; if you know the number of the memorial volume you are interested to view, simply enter it (and the page number, if known), and click enter. Alternatively, you can use this link – https://irishdeedsindex.net/search/link_get.php?my_vol=1 – and change the volume number accordingly ie vol=200.

"To continue growing this useful online resource, which is free to all researchers, please consider contributing some index entries to the project.
You can enter them using the form at https://irishdeedsindex.net/search/make_abstract.php."

Many thanks to Nick for his useful update on this important site.

Monday 8 January 2018

Irish genealogy and history events, 8-21 January

Monday 8 January: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, incl. Genealogy Advisory Service operating as normal.

Monday 8 January: Practical workshop, presented by branch members. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Newtownabbey Branch. Venue: Drama Theatre, Glengormley High School, 134 Ballyclare Road, Newtownabbey, BT36 5HP. 7–9pm.

Monday 8 January: My experience with familly history, with George Busby. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Killyleagh Branch.Venue: Masonic Hall, 50 High Street, Killyleagh, Co Down, BT30 9QF 8pm. Free. All welcome.

Monday 8 January: Celebrating Irish nurses and Irish women in nursing in the UK; part of the Illuminate Herstory Light Festival – Ireland’s annual new global light festival. Host: Irish Diaspora Foundation and Irish World Heritage Centre. Venue: Irish World Heritage Centre, 1 Irish Town Way, Manchester M8 0AE, UK. 6:30pm–8pm. Free but need to register. Find out more.

Tuesday 9 January: Pre-1800s records, with Dr William Roulston. North of Ireland Family History Society, Lisburn Branch. Venue: The Bridge Community Centre, 50 Railway Street, Lisburn, BT28 1XP. 7:30pm. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 9 January: Newspapers, with Georgina Scally MAGI. Host: Genealogical Society of Ireland. Venue: Dun Laoghaire Further Education Institute, Cumberland St, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin. 8pm. All welcome. €3.

Wednesday 10 January: Land Wars in Ireland 1876-1909, an 8-week course starts with Brian Casey. Host: UCC Lifelong Learning. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Fee: €195. 10:30am to 1pm on Wednesdays. Details.

Wednesday 10 January: Using family and local history resources online, a practical workshop. Host and venue: Public Reocrd Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 11am to 1pm. Free. Booking is full, but you can join the waiting list in case there's a cancellation.

Thursday 11 January: Opening delayed until 11am at National Library of Ireland's sites in Dublin to facilitate a staff meeting.

Thursday 11 January: Despicable jackals, gallant submariners, and Waterford in the WW1 U-boat campaign, with Julian Walton. Host: Dunhill History Lectures, Series XII, 2018. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre (opposite GAA grounds), Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm. Admission €5, includes light refreshments. All welcome.

Saturday 13 January: The Stewart, Mountjoy and Blessington Family Connections, with Frank Collins. Host: NIFHS Tyrone Branch. Venue: Seminar Room, First Floor, Omagh Library, Dublin Road, Omagh, BT78 1HL. 10am to noon. All welcome.

Saturday 13 January: Tour of the Jacob's Factory exhibition. Host and venue: Dublin City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2. Exhibition developed by Dublin City Archives. Free. 1pm to 1:45pm. Need to register.

Monday 15 Jan: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures are to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service operating as normal. Details.

Monday 15 Jan: The Clontarf Atlas (Irish Historic Towns Atlas series from RIA), with Professor Colm Lennon. Host: Clontarf Historical Society Venue: Resource Centre, St John the Baptist Church, Clontarf Road, Dublin 3. Plus AGM. All welcome. Members free / non-members €5. 7:30pm.

Monday 15 Jan: Newspapers, books and eBay for genealogy, with Michael McKeag. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Foyle branch. Venue: Lecture Room of Derry City’s Central Library, 35 Foyle Street, Londonderry, BT48 6AL. Cancelled due to bad weather.

Monday 15 Jan: Queen Victoria’s Gene, with Jenning Cumming. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Larne branch. Larne Bowling & Lawn Tennis Club, 112-120 Glenarm Road, Larne, BT40 1DZ. Free. 7:30pm.

Monday 15 Jan: The Rise & Fall of Lord Dunkellin (1827-1867), with John Joe Conwell. Host: Birr Historical Society. Venue: County Arms Hotel, Birr, Co Offaly. 8pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 16 January: The Quakers of County Tipperary, 1655–1924, with Dr Michael Ahern. Host: Tipperary People & Places Lecture Series. Venue: Tipperary Studies, The Source, Cathedral Street, Thurles, Co Tipperary. 7:30pm. Admission free. Tea served. All welcome. Details.

Tuesday 16 January: Disturbing Remains: Death in the Great Famine, with Dr Breandán Mac Suibhne. Host: Irish Historical Society. Venue: Centre for Irish Programmes, Boston College, 43 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. Free. 7.00pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 16 January: From 2RN to RTÉ, with Harry Bradshaw, and (short talk) The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, with Pádraig Laffan. Host: Foxrock Local History Club. Venue: Foxrock Pastoral Centre (at rear of Foxrock Church), Dublin 18. 8pm. All welcome. Members free/non-members €5.

Wednesday 17 January: The Tavener Family, with Tom Mason. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, North Armagh branch. Venue: Bleary Community Centre, 1 Deans Road, Bleary, Craigavon, Co Armagh, BT66 7AS.

Wednesday 17 January: Tudor Marshals of Leinster, with Diarmuid Wheeler. Host: Carlow Historical & Archaeological Society. Venue: Leighlinbridge Parish Centre, Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow. Admission is free and all welcome. 8pm. 

Wednesday 17 January: The Corless Family, with Anna Bruzzi. Also AGM. Host: Western Family History Association. Venue: Parish Centre, Lackagh, Co Galway. 8pm. All welcome.

Wednesday 17 January: Philip Barron, Man of Mystery, with Áine Uí Fhoghlú. Venue: Clubhouse, Dungarvan Harbour Sailing Club, Davitt's Quay, Dungarvan, Co Waterford. 8pm. All welcome. €5 admission. Details.

Thursday 18 January: London's Derrie: The background to the building and financing of the early Londonderry plantation, with Professor James Stevens Curl. Host: Ulster Historical Foundation. Venue: The Corn Exchange Building, 31 Gordon Street, Belfast BT1 2LG. 12:15pm to 2pm. Free to Guild members. £5 to non-members. Need to register. Details.

Thursday 18 January: From war to wine, from shipping to sport: Irish-French links over 300 years, with Kieran Walsh. Host: Dunhill History Lectures, Series XII, 2018. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre (opposite GAA grounds), Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm. Admission €5, includes light refreshments. All welcome.

Thursday 18 January: Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877–1946)– suffragette and nationalist, wife of martyred radical activist Francis and co-founder of Irish women's Franchise League, with Dr. Margaret Ward. First of the Rebel Irish Women lecture series. Host and venue: GPO Witness History Visitor Centre, O'Connell Street, Dublin 1. Free. 5:40pm sharp. Booking is essential to guarantee your space.

Saturday 20 January: Investigating Offaly's casualties of the Great War, with Stephen Callaghn. Host: Western Front Association. Venue: Museum of Decorative Arts and History, Collins Barracks, Benburb's Street, Dublin 7. 2:30pm. All welcome. €3.