Friday 29 January 2021

England, Scotland & Wales: latest genealogy updates

Below is a summary of new and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales released by the major genealogy databases over the last 12 days (for the previous summary, see 18 January blogpost).

This regular summary of releases and updates relating to British collections is designed to help family historians whose Irish ancestors migrated, temporarily or permanently, to England, Scotland or Wales.

By default, it will also be useful to anyone carrying out research in those three nations, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

The figures in parenthesis in the New Collections section are the numbers of records/images in the new record set.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parenthesis in the Updated Collections section reflect the number of records added to the collection in the recent update. In some instances, the supplier has not made this figure available. Where two figures are given, the first is the number of additions, the second is the new total.

Please note that I don't usually include updates of fewer than 1,000 records.


NEW COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

BritishNewspaperArchive

FamilySearch

Fold3


UPDATED COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

FamilySearch


Some of the above content contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you buy via these links. This does not affect the price you pay as a consumer, but it does contribute to keeping Irish Genealogy News online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.


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Wednesday 27 January 2021

Lockdown extended across Ireland to 5 March

Both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have extended their Lockdown restrictions until 5 March. Incoming travel restrictions have also been tightened and further curbs on movement around the island are being considered.

These moves have been implemented against the backdrop of increased public pressure to suppress virus rates in both jurisdictions.

For genealogists, this means they cannot make in-person visits to repositories, museums and similar institutions providing advice/materials/expertise until the restrictions are lifted.

In most cases, repository staff are trying to help researchers by answering emailed queries (often from home), but they may have limited access to resources until they and their colleagues return to regular working patterns. Where they are able to access resources, the service may be somewhat slower than you would normally experience.

You should find details of the email address to use on the home or contact pages of each institution’s website.

See my Toolkit website for listings of the major repositories across the island. It includes some specialist centres, too, but not regional archives.

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Tuesday 26 January 2021

New MyHeritage feature restores colour to faded photos

MyHeritage has released another photo enhancement process to its popular and free MyHeritage In Color feature. This time, it's a colour restoration enhancement for faded colour photos.

Unlike colourization, which simulates the colours of black and white photos, the new colour restoration feature is ideal for restoring both original or scanned colour photos from the 1950s to the 1990s that have faded over the years. If my own photo albums are anything to go by, you're likely to have many of these! Over time, the once bright and vibrant hues have turned different shades, mainly due to UV light affecting the chemical makeup of printed photos and causing them to turn grungey yellow and fade.

Without guessing the original colours, the new technology 'revives' them. As a bonus, MyHeritage's colour restoration feature also sharpens photos and improves their level of detail. I've experimented with it on a few of my own 50-year-old pictures, and the improvements are remarkable.

You can see an example of the results below, in a photo of my grandmother and two of her sisters in 1974.

(When MyHeritage's photo enhancment process is applied, the original photo is left intact and a separate copy is created with the restored colours.)

Check out MyHeritage's new colour restoration feature here.


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Tipperary Archives releases Clonmel Corporation's Minute Book, 1687-1718

Tipperary County Archives has digitised the Minute Book of the Corporation of Clonmel from 1687 to 1718. The book can now be viewed and downloaded, free of charge, in four separate pdfs.

The minute books record the town’s administrative history. For example they record: 

– elections of Mayors, Councillors and Bailiffs
– appointments and resignations to positions and committees
– quarterly meetings attendances
– freemen of the area
– details of oaths of allegiance
– declarations on appointments as auditor and assessor
– a wide variety of resolutions as well as issues relating to the day to day functioning of the town - for example issues of Trespass, details of Boundaries and Common Areas, Markets and Commerce, and Roads.

The 30-years recorded in the book covered a particularly interesting period in the history of Clonmel. Doors were being created in the town walls, and roads and bridges were being built, as the town began to evolve into a commercial centre.

Both Quakers and (with some restrictions) Catholics were allowed to trade, even if most urban dwellers were more likely to be British Protestants. Street hygiene was being improved and Fair Days were being held regularly.

To find out more and download the Book, click the image, right.

The Archives team plans to prepare transcriptions of the minute book over the next couple of months and these will be published on the website in due course. Whether this will be a full transcription of the books or selected sections of it, we will have to wait and see.

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Friday 22 January 2021

USA genealogy collections: new and updated since 1 Jan

Below is a summary of US family history collections that have been released or updated by the major genealogy databases in the last three weeks. (The previous summary list was published on 31 December, see blogpost).

My regular summaries are designed to help family historians whose Irish ancestors emigrated, temporarily or permanently, to the United States.

By default, they should also be useful to anyone carrying out research in the US, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

The figures in parenthesis in the New Collections section are the numbers of records/images in each new record set, if provided by the database.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parenthesis in the Updated Collections section reflect the number of records added to the collection in the recent update, if a number has been clearly noted by the supplier. I do not include updates of fewer than 1,000 records.


NEW COLLECTIONS

Ancestry


FamilySearch


UPDATED COLLECTIONS


AmericanAncestors

Ancestry

FamilySearch

FindMyPast

Some of the above content contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you buy via these links. This does not affect the price you pay as a consumer, but it does contribute to keeping Irish Genealogy News online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

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Tuesday 19 January 2021

Online Irish genealogy and history events, Jan-Feb 2021

With Ireland still well and truly locked down, even the number of online events on offer is still much reduced. Maybe the numnbers will pick up again in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, please find below a brief run through of online tours, lectures and workshops that may help you keep the grey matter functioning.

Tuesday 19 January: 'Searching for a ‘normal Irish person': metrics and race in 19th-century Ireland, an online lecture with Dr Ciaran O'Neill. Host: Society for the Study of 19th-century Ireland. 7pm. Free. Need to register. Details.

Wednesday 20 January: Breaking through blocks in your family history, with Brid Higgins. Part of AGM session. Host: Western Family History Association. 8pm. All welcome. Details.

Thursday 21 January: From Turmoil to Truce: Photographs of the War of Independence, a virtual exhibition tour. Host: National Library of Ireland. Free. 11am. Details.

Thursday 21 January: Researching Workhouse Ancestors during the Famine; A case study of Gort Poor Law Union, Co. Galway & Clare 1845-1851 by Eamonn Healy. Host: Clare Roots Society. 8pm. All welcome. No registration required. Details.

Saturday 23 January: Irish Family History for Beginners & Refreshers, an online workshop with Roz McCutcheon FIGRS and Jill Williams FIGRS. Host: Society of Genealogists. 2-5pm with mid-way tea break. £20. Details and booking.

Tuesday 26 January: The Public History of Slavery in Dublin, with Dr. Ciaran O'Neill. The 24th annual Sir John T. Gilbert commemorative lecture will be delivered online. Host: Dublin City Library and Archive. Free. 7pm. Need to register.

Tuesday 26 January: From Newry to Norway, how my mother survived the Holocaust, with Lill Fanny Saether. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 7pm. Free. Book your place.

Wednesday 27 January: DIY Irish: How to learn the Irish Language for free online, an online workshop with Úna-Minh Kavanagh. Suitable for beginners and those wanting to brush up their skills. Host: National Library of Ireland. 7pm. Free. Need to book ticket. Details.

Wednesday 27 January: Terence MacSwiney and the Cork/Brixton Hunger Strikes in context, with Dr John Borgonovo. Host: Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. Free onliine talk. 7:30pm. Need to register.

Thursday 28 January: The Castles of West Cork, an online lecture with Finola Finlay. Host: Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage. 8pm. Free. Registration on Zoom now open, here.

Thursday 28 January: Exploring the Archives 1910-1921, an online panel discussion with Catriona Crowe, Stephen Scarth, Elizabeth McEvoy and Michael Keane. Host: Tower Museum Derry-Londonderry's 'Dividing Ireland - The Origins, Impact and Legacy of Partition' programme. 7pm-8pm. Free. All welcome. Register for details.

Monday 1 February: Family History and DNA, with Martin McDowell. An online talk from Libraries NI. Free. For details and link, email heritage.talks@librariesni.org.uk. 2:30pm to 3:30pm.

Tuesday 2 February: Connelly and the struggle for women's emancipation, Dr Sinead McCoole. Host: James Connolly Visitor Centre in Belfast. 8pm. Free on Facebook. All welcome.

Monday 8 February: The Ballycarry DNA project, with Martin McDowell. An online talk from Libraries NI. Free. For details and link, email heritage.talks@librariesni.org.uk. 2:30pm to 3:30pm.

Wednesday 10 February: Irish Women and the Great War, with Dr Fionnuala Walsh. Hosts: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the Antrim & Down branch of the Western Front Association. 8pm. Free. All welcome. Book your place.

Wednesday 10 February: New York and the Great Hunger in Ireland, with Dr Harvey Strum. Host: New York State Library. 18:00hrs UTC. Free. Register for zoom, here.

Wednesday 10 February: Exploring the Elder Family of East Donegal, with Dr William Roulston. An online family history talk from Libraries NI. Free. For details and link, email heritage.talks@librariesni.org.uk. 2:30pm to 3:30pm

Friday 12 February: Burials and Society in Early Bronze Age Ireland, with Dr Cormac McSparron. Part of the annual HeroNI Lecture Series. Host: DfC Historic Environment. 1pm. Free. Details.

Tuesday 16 February: Key sources for genealogy: census records, an online lecture via zoom. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 2-3pm. Free, but need to register.

Thursday 18 February: Clare and the War of Independence, with Dr Joe Power. Host: Clare Roots Society. 8pm. Free. All welcome. No need to register.Details.

Thursday 25 February: Wolfe Tone and the Hibernian Catch Club: Sociability in Revolutionary Ireland, with Professor Martyn Powell. Hosts: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and Ulster Society of Irish Historical Studies (USIHS). 7pm. Free. Need to register.


NOTE: I'll add any other January events that I think might be of interest, as I find them. I'll probably start a fresh listing for February, but I'll include a link from this page.

UPDATE: All February listings are on a dedicated Events list, here.

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What's new in Canadian genealogy: 2-month summary

Below is a summary of Canadian family history collections that have been either newly released or updated by the major genealogy databases during the last two months. The last summary list was published on 18 November, see blogpost).

These regular listings of additional sources are designed primarily to help family historians whose Irish ancestors emigrated to Canada, but you don't have to have heritage from Ireland!

They may prove useful to any researcher looking for a brief update of what's been recently made available for tracing ancestors in Canada.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parenthesis reflect the number of records in a new collection, or the total number in a topped-up collection (if provided by the database owner). I don't usually include updates of less than one thousand records.


NEW COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

MyHeritage

UPDATED COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

FamilySearch

Some of the above content contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you buy via these links. This does not affect the price you pay as a consumer, but it does contribute to keeping Irish Genealogy News online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

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Monday 18 January 2021

National Library of Ireland launches Advanced Sources in Irish Genealogy course

The National Library of Ireland is to host an eight-week course in Advanced Genealogy Research. It will be held on Wednesday afternoons (2-4pm) via Zoom, due to the current health situation, and Sean Murphy will be the tutor. It starts on Wednesday 27 January and will run until 27 March (there will be no class on 17 March).

The NLI course will be held on Zoom
Participants are expected to have experience of using computers, and some prior knowledge of Ireland's genealogical sources, the latter possibly acquired on the NLI (or other supplier's) beginner-level family history course.

The topics covered include the National Library Manuscripts Collection; Estate Papers at the NLI and other repositories;  occupational records; medieval and early modern sources; Gaelic genealogical collections, the annals and state papers; DNA analysis and genetic genealogy; Genealogical Office Manuscripts; heraldry and coats of arms; published sources for landed families; testamentary records and memorials of deeds; writing skills and critical analysis; compilation of pedigrees; and much more. 

Visits to record repositories and fieldwork in graveyards may be included if current public health guidelines allow. Otherwise, the course will be held entirely online.

Places are limited, and only a few remain. The course fee is €100.

To book or request more details, contact bosullivan@nli.ie or see the NLI site.

NOTE: The NLI expects to run its beginner level course again in Autumn 2021.

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England, Scotland & Wales: 2-week genealogy update

Below is a summary of new and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales released by the major genealogy databases in the last ten days (for the last summary, see 8 January blogpost).

This regular summary of releases and updates relating to British collections is designed to help family historians whose Irish ancestors migrated, temporarily or permanently, to England, Scotland or Wales.

By default, it will also be useful to anyone carrying out research in those three nations, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

The figures in parenthesis in the New Collections section are the numbers of records/images in the new record set.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parenthesis in the Updated Collections section reflect the number of records added to the collection in the recent update. In some instances, the supplier has not made this figure available. Where two figures are given, the first is the number of additions, the second is the new total.

Please note that I don't usually include updates of fewer than 1,000 records.


NEW COLLECTIONS


Ancestry
BritishNewspaperArchive (shared with FindMyPast)

UPDATED COLLECTIONS


FamilySearch

FindMyPast
  • Dorset Burials (29,000 from Melcome Regis, Weymouth, Wyke Regis) (467,385)

FreeBMD

Scotland's People

The Genealogist

Some of the above content contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you buy via these links. This does not affect the price you pay as a consumer, but it does contribute to keeping Irish Genealogy News online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

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Friday 15 January 2021

Members of Accredited Genealogists Ireland to deliver online Diploma in Family History course

For many people, Lockdown has brought the opportunity to study or develop further knowledge of a favoured subject, so readers of Irish Genealogy News are likely to find a new online Diploma in Family History course of particular interest.

The 10-week course is from City Colleges Dublin and will be delivered by members of Accredited Genealogists Ireland (the island-wide network of accredited professional genealogists aka ).

It will start on Thursday 28 January and classes will be held on Thursday evenings from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. You can download (pdf) an overview of the course and the topics to be explored in each week's class here.

Students are required to submit and achieve pass grades in two assignments to graduate with the award of a Diploma.

The course was originally created and presented by John Grenham. While John is still involved and will be one of the lecturers, the course will now be led by Sandra Doble, Nicola Morris and Sandy O’Byrne, all AGI members. Several additional MAGI colleagues make up the full lecturing team. The course fee is €895; instalment plans are available).

To find out more about the course and the lecturers, click the City College logo above.

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Impassioned speeches from contemporary Irish voices

Although slightly off-topic, I think many Irish family historians, especially those supportive of the artistic and cultural tradition of Ireland, will be interested in this unusual up-coming online event hosted by the Centre Culturel Irlandais (CCI) in Paris. The event is called Addresssing The Nation, and it will be held over four evenings in the next fortnight. Here's how CCI explain and describe it:

"Worldwide, 2020 was the year of the televised address of the nation, with diligent speech-writers working in over-drive, constructing emotive speeches which have both reinforced our awareness of the fragility of human existence and inspired altruistic acts of humanity. New language has been developed to describe new circumstances. Unfamiliar words have become common currency.

"To mark the beginning of a New Year and look forward, we hope, to an era post-COVID-19, the CCI has commissioned 40 artists to address the world with their reflections on the times in which we live: choreographers, theatre makers, writers, musicians, visual artists and filmmakers convey their values, their preoccupations, their anger and frustrations as well as messages of courage, joy, gratitude, desire and aspiration in this month of January. These voices from Ireland need to be heard!"

The addresses will be broadcasted on 20, 21, 27 and 28 January at 8pm French time/ 7pm Irish time. Ten 3-minute addresses will be delivered each evening in English (with subtitles) and you'll find brief details of the speakers on the CCI website here.

To receive a link for each evening, register here or watch live on the CCI homepage or YouTube channel.

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FindMyPast adds more Derry and Dublin burial records

FindMyPast's first 2021 upload of Irish records has landed, with two new collections. (Let's hope there are many more to follow this year.) Both new record sets feature burial register records, as follows:

Londonderry (Derry) City Cemetery Burials 1853-1961
This upload delivers transcriptions of nearly 51,000 burial records for those interred in City Cemetery, which opened in 1853 and catered for both Protestants and Catholics in the local area. The burial site is the final resting place of some 70,000 people, including paupers, cholera victims; soldiers who died during WW1 and WW2; the rich and privileged; merchants, shopkeepers and labourers. 

The amount of information each record can vary, but most will include name, address, age, date of death, date of burial, place of birth, name of parents, grave location, name and address of the owner of the grave, notes, and reference number. See example below.

Dublin City Cemetery Burials 1805-2006
This new collection covers three Dublin cemeteries and its index offers some 7,100 names. While the collection title suggests a span of 200 years of burials, the earliest interment I could find was 1900. Perhaps there are records from earlier burial registers from these or additional cemeteries lined up to join this collection. The cemeteries featured are: 

  • St John The Baptist, Castle Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin D3
  • Drimnagh (Bluebell), Old Naas Road, Dublin D12
  • St Canice’s, Finglas, Dublin D11;

Along with key names and dates, each record contains a transcript of the original burial register. The amount of information recorded in each record can vary, but most will include the name of the funeral director and the burial date; name of cemetery; name, address, age, religion, occupation, marital status and date of death of the deceased; grave reference; previous interments in same plot; observations; and the names of parents if the deceased was not of full age.


NOTE: Links to all FindMyPast's Irish burial collections are included in the brand-new (first published 11 January 2021) Irish Burial Records page of my free online guide at Irish-Genealogy-Toolkit.com. Have you checked it out yet?

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Thursday 14 January 2021

RC ancestors who emigrated to Massachusetts? New tool launched to identify their parishes

Regular readers of Irish Genealogy News will already be aware of the on-going digitisation of the Archdiocese of Boston's parish registers (1789-1920) by AmericanAncestors.org. To accompany that dataset, the Archdiocese's Archive Department has created a new tool – The Boston Catholic Parish Map – to help researchers determine which parish their ancestors attended.

The new map depicts the Archdiocese of Boston in around 1955 when a concerted effort was made to document the boundaries of each parish, and reflects the height of the Archdiocese in terms of number of parishes.

Click to view the RC Archdioces of Boston map

The boundary of territorial parishes are shaded in various colours, and the location of their parish churches identified in the same colour. (National or other non-geographic churches are plotted in black.)

Searches via the box in the top right of the map will identify and plot an address.

It will also show nearby neighboring parishes which may have encompassed the address depending on the time period.

Clicking within a parish boundary will provide the name of the parish and address of the parish church. 

Clicking on a church marker will provide the name of the church, address, date the parish was created and, where applicable, the date the parish was suppressed or merged.

You can access the map at the following locations: 

For guidance on how to use the map, consult the how-to video below or on YouTube.

Additional content, including images of the church, the churchlocation of parish records and links to the online records, will be added to the map in the future.

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Monday 11 January 2021

Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project: First 2021 update

The database of the Registry of Deeds Index Project has received its first update of the year of volunteer-contributed transcriptions. It means the main database now holds 395,002 index records from 42,053 memorials of deeds.

This latest batch includes entries from a memorial dated 23 January 1723/24 by Margaret Favre of Dublin. It is unusual as all the parties mentioned, including the occupiers of specified neighbouring property, are women. 

If you click/tap the image, right, you'll see the indexed record for this memorial. 

Click/tap below to see an image of the memorial on FamilySearch (you'll need to be signed in).

The memorial of Margaret Favre of Dublin
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Friday 8 January 2021

British genealogy releases & updates: 3-week summary

Below is a summary of new and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales released by the major genealogy databases since just before Christmas (for the last summary, see 21 December blogpost).

This regular summary of releases and updates relating to British collections is designed to help family historians whose Irish ancestors migrated, temporarily or permanently, to England, Scotland or Wales.

By default, it will also be useful to anyone carrying out research in those three nations, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

The figures in parenthesis in the New Collections section are the numbers of records/images in the new record set.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parenthesis in the Updated Collections section reflect the number of records added to the collection in the recent update. In some instances, the supplier has not made this figure available. Where two figures are given, the first is the number of additions, the second is the new total.

Please note that I don't usually include updates of fewer than 1,000 records.


NEW COLLECTIONS


BritishNewspaperArchive (shared with FindMyPast)

FamilySearch

UPDATED COLLECTIONS


FamilySearch

FindMyPast

National Library of Scotland

NOTE: Due to the UK's current Lockdown restrictions, the National Archives in Kew is closed and some online services are not available (see details). However, the institution has confirmed that it will continue to provide free access to TNA's digitised records during this time. The free access allows registered users 100 free downloads over a rolling 30-day period.
Register for free or browse the TNA online catalogue, Discovery.


Some of the above content contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you buy via these links. This does not affect the price you pay as a consumer, but it does contribute to keeping Irish Genealogy News online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

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Thursday 7 January 2021

New stamp marks anniversary of CoI disestablishment

An Post has today issued a special stamp to mark the 150th anniversary of the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. This historic event, on 1 January 1871, dissolved the union between Church and State in Ireland that had existed since the 16th-century Reformation.

The N-rate stamp costs €1 and is now in circulation. It features an image of the Sun, Moon and Stars stained–glass window from the Cathedral of St Fin Barre in Cork City.

To coincide with the anniversary, the Church of Ireland has published an article providing more detail about the stamp and a brief overview of the disestablishment. Click the stamp image to read it. There is also a video message by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson, here.

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John Grenham launches 'how-to' YouTube channel

Dublin-based genealogist John Grenham has launched a YouTube channel to host short videos aimed at helping researchers get the best out of his IrishAncestors program at johngrenham.com.

Four videos are already live, and they're running at between 12 and 22 minutes long, but I'll direct you to John's blogpost – Ford Coppola Grenham – to find out more.

Click the screenshot image to go direct to the YouTube channel.

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Wednesday 6 January 2021

Digital editions of Irish Manuscripts Commission publications are now downloadable (free) in pdf format

With the retirement of the once-ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player plug-in, the Irish Manuscripts Commission (IMC) has withdrawn its Read Online flip-book service, which provided online access to its out-of-print editions.

In its place, IMC Digital Editions are now available as free downloadable pdfs. These have been created from high-resolution scans and each one is searchable. The downside is that some of the files are quite large (Pender's Census of Ireland 1659, for example, is 128Mb), but most are in the more manageable ballpark of 45Mb.

The 56 titles now available in pdf format includes some valuable resources for Irish genealogists, including the three volumes of Registry of Deeds Dublin abstracts of wills covering 1708 to 1832, Pender's Census a/a, King’s Inns Admission Papers 1607–1867, and The Civil Survey AD 1654-56 for several counties.

To mark the change of delivery method, the IMC has added 10 more digital resources to its Digital Editions library. They are:

  • 1932 Genealogical tracts I, Toirdhealbhach Ó Raithbheartaigh (ed.)
  • 1937 Déssi Genealogies, Séamus Pender (ed.)
  • 1932 Lebor Bretnach: the Irish version of the Historia Britonum ascribed to Nennius, A G Van Hamel (ed.)
  • 1936 Irish Monastic and Episcopal Deeds from the Ormond collection, Newport B White (ed.)
  • 1940 Leabhar Muimhneach, Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (ed.)
  • 1949 Commentarius Rinuccinianus, … 1645–1649, vol. vi: I: History and authorship, Fr Stanislaus Kavanagh; II: Synoposis and indices, Newport B White, (6 vols, 1932–49)
  • 1945 Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celicarum, Vol. I, R A S Macalister (ed.), (2 vols, 1945–49)
  • 1945 Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celicarum, Vol. II, R A S Macalister (ed.), (2 vols, 1945–49)
  • 1960 Dowdall Deeds, Charles McNeill and A J Otway–Ruthven (eds)
  • 1960 Fitzwilliam Accounts from the Annesley Collection, A K Longfield (ed.)

(h/t and thanks to Nuala)

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Tuesday 5 January 2021

Lockdown 3 across the island of Ireland

With tough lockdown measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 having been reintroduced over the festive break, the new year has opened with most of the island closed. Depending on individual home and work circumstances, this might give family historians more opportunity to begin, revive or progress their research.

Certainly many beginners who find they have more personal time available will be able to make significant headroads into their reesarch, because most of the surviving major Irish genealogical collections are freely available online (see Best free Irish genealogy databases page on my Toolkit website).

Those with intermediate and advanced level research requirements may find research a little less straightforward, especially those requiring access to the Registry of Deeds, Griffith's Valuation Revision Books (in RoI), RCB Library and other specialist repositories or public research rooms, since all of these are closed to visitors.

Many of them, however, are providing an email service while the doors are closed. You should be able to find their email addresses on their websites. (Some have yet to update their website with news of the latest lockdowns; this doesn't mean they're open!)

I've noticed on Twitter both yesterday and today that quite a few local studies departments within county libraries, as well as a handful of county archive officers have been publicising their readiness to respond to emails from researchers during the lockdown. If you're looking for expert historical knowledge of a particular area, these local resources would always be my top bet.

Genealogical guidance and advice, often of a very high standard, is also freely available from forums. I recommend Boards.ie and RootsChat.com.

In brief, the current official restrictions in the two jurisdictions are as follows:

Northern Ireland
A six-week lockdown began in Northern Ireland on St Stephen's (26 December). A Stay At Home order will come into effect on 8 January; this will restrict people to leaving their homes only for medical needs, food shopping, exercise and work that cannot be done from home. Nearly all schools will be closed until second half of February. Non-essential retail, gyms etc, cultural attractions, museums, and hospitality venues are closed. Libraries are closed except for online services and 'click and collect'.

Republic of Ireland
Lockdown was reintroduced on 1 January, and was intended to last until at least the end of the month. Non-essential retail, gyms etc, cultural attractions, museums and repositories, hospitality venues, and most workplaces (for non-essential services) are closed and movements restricted to within 5km of home. Schools are closed until 1 February (with an exception for 6th year Leaving Cert students who will attend 3 days a week from 11 January).

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Monday 4 January 2021

Online Church of Ireland Gazette now spans 1856-1989

It's always good to start a new year with some new resources! The RCB Library has announced that another decade of editions of the Church of Ireland's Gazette has been added to the newspaper's dedicated database at https://esearch.informa.ie/rcb. The free online resource now spans 1856 to 1989.

The release of this latest tranche features as the RCBL's first Archive of the Month for 2021, which examines the 1980s through the lens of the Church’s then weekly newspaper.

The new presentation takes a first journalistic perspective in the series, and has been written by the Revd Clifford Skillen, Assistant Editor of the Gazette from 1999 until retirement in 2015.

As with all presentations in the Borderless Church series, it is richly illustrated by extracts, articles and images from the paper.

The RCB Library's long-term project to digitize and make freely available the complete run of the Church’s all-island newspaper has been made possible with the support of the Irish Government’s Reconciliation Fund, administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

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