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.