Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Extra time for World Cup bonus

With England through to the knockout stage of the World Cup, www.findmypast.co.uk will repeat their free access offer on Sunday 27 June.

Kick off on the football pitch is at 3pm, while free access to the website's records starts 30 minutes earlier.

The findmypast site includes birth, marriage and death records 1538-2006, census records including 1911, and the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 (see my post of 3 June).

Normally you would need a subscription or PayAsYouGo credits to view these records, some of which normally cost 30 credits each, so to be able to see them for free is a rare opportunity.

You'll need to register.

Should the England team proceed further in the competition, I'll post the times of free access accordingly.

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Church records for Carlow, Cork, Dublin and Kerry now online, free

A second tranche of church register entries, fully transcribed and indexed, has today been added to IrishGenealogy.ie, a website launched by the Department of Tourism, Culture & Sport late last year.

The records now available are as follows:
  • Carlow – Church of Ireland register entries
  • Cork – Roman Catholic register entries for the diocese of Cork & Ross only
  • Dublin City – Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic register entries
  • Kerry – Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic records.
Easy to use, the website comes with free access to both the transcriptions and the digital images of the original register pages. For anyone with Irish ancestors from the above counties, Irish genealogy research just got a whole lot easier. Want to know how to trace family history through Irish church records?

Saturday, 12 June 2010

World Cup bonus to Irish genealogy!

If some of your Irish ancestors emigrated to England or Wales, this amusing short-term offer could save you a packet! Be quick, though, as it will only last as long as the English football team remains in the World Cup competition.

Whenever England are playing a match, all records on www.findmypast.co.uk will be free. This free access starts 30 minutes before kick-off and continues for three hours. With the England team certain to play in at least three matches, this offer could allow you a minimum of nine hours of free genealogy research.

The findmypast site includes birth, marriage and death records 1538-2006, census records including 1911, and the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 (see my post of 3 June).

Normally you would need a subscription or PayAsYouGo credits to view these records, some of which normally cost 30 credits each, so to be able to see them for free is a rare opportunity.

You'll need to register.

In the initial phase of the World Cup competition, England matches are due to kick-off at the following times, so the free access will begin half an hour earlier:

19.30hrs Saturday 12 June
19.30hrs Friday 18 June
15.00hrs Wednesday 23 June

Should the England team proceed further in the competition, I'll post the times of free access accordingly.

Thursday, 3 June 2010

More 19th century military records released

The next batch of Chelsea Pensioners records has been released (see 9 May 2010 post), adding almost 100,000 new British Army Service Records to the existing collection on www.findmypast.co.uk.

This latest tranche of records covers 1855-1872 and includes 96,434 records and 437,825 images for the period.

Many Irish soldiers served in the British Army in this period, so you could find information on relatives that you can't find elsewhere.

Most other military collections contain only records of officers. This collection, however, relates to other ranks where most Irish served.

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

1901 census of Ireland is online

A day earlier than was advertised, the 1901 census of Ireland is now available online and free on the website of the National Archives of Ireland.

This is a fantastic bonus for Irish genealogy researchers around the world, and may well help knock down some brickwalls.

The official launch is tomorrow (3rd June) at 6pm, and is being supported by reports on RTE, so if you can get online before then, you'll be among a select few. If not, be prepared for the site to be a bit slow over the next week or so. This release has been long-anticipated, so it is likely to be very busy initially.

Enjoy!