Friday 26 February 2021

West Cork Graveyards database adds 17,000 records

More than 17,000 additional burial records from the greater West Cork area have been uploaded to Skibbereen Heritage Centre's free West Cork Graveyards Database. This upload more than doubles the number of records – all digitised from the original registers – in this exclusive collection.

The additional burial registers covered in this latest upload include Abbeymahon, Timoleague; Ardagh Rosscarbery; Ballaghboy Castletownbere; Bantry Abbey; Bere Island; Cape Clear; Clogagh Timoleague; St Mary's and Darrara Clonakilty; Drimoleague and Drinagh old graveyards; St Finbarr's Dunmanway; Droum, Castletownbere; Durrus; Eyeries; Foildarrig, Castletownbere; Glandore; Glengarriffe; Kilcaskan, Adrigole; Kilcatherine Ardgroom; Kilcrohane Old and New; Kilmeen, Rossmore; Kilmocomage; Lislee, Timoleague; Milltown and Rathbarry; Rossmore; St Mogla; and Timoleague Abbey.

Click to view larger and interactive map

Click the image, right, to view an interactive map indicating the location of the 57 burial grounds included in the database.

Announcing the latest upload, Skibbereen Heritage Centre's Manager, Kerri Kearney, told Irish Genealogy News: "We're delighted to bring these 32,000 records into the public domain and we are very grateful to Cork County Council for its support of this project."

"With so many people around the world confined to their homes and with time on their hands, Skibbereen Heritage Centre's genealogy service has been inundated with online queries and there is sure to be a big interest in these records.

"We are also getting a fantastic response from all over the world to our series of graveyard video tours. As well as enabling the Diaspora to connect with their ancestors' burial places, these video tours mean a lot to local people, too, and we've had many, many messages of support and appreciation for our West Cork Graveyards Project."

The video tours give a brief history of each graveyard alongside some of the stories of those buried there as well as a 'virtual tour' of the monuments. The graveyard video tours to date cover burial grounds in Caheragh, Drimoleague, Aughadown, Abbeystrowry and Abbeymahon in Skibbereen, cillíní (children's burial grounds) in West Cork as well as one on the burial sites at Schull and Skibbereen Workhouses.

While Skibbereen Heritage Centre is currently closed to the public, its staff are working hard to digitise even more burial records, which will be added to its website in due course. New video tours of Chapel Lane and Creagh graveyards are also in production.

Thursday 25 February 2021

Western Front Association releases Project Alias list

An unusual resource has been released by the Western Front Association that may help those struggling to find details of Irish and British ancestors who enlisted in the British Army and died during the First World War.

It is the product of a project to identify soldiers who enlisted and served under an 'alias' surname. Often such individuals ended up with two sets of records – one under their real family name, another under a different name. Researchers who are not aware their ancestor used an alternative name may be unable to find all his official military records.

My own family has an 'alias' case. In the dying years of the 19th century, an 18-year-old ancestor took the train to Dublin and enlisted in the Royal Irish Fusiliers using his mother's maiden name. He later told his son that he'd wanted to ensure his enlistment in the British Army didn't cause his family in southwest Cork facing prejudice.

He served for three years in the Boer Wars and was promoted to serjeant. He received the South Africa Medals, complete with his alias cut into the outer edging. He settled in London. By the time WW1 came round, his real name was known to the Army and all of his records updated. I've no idea how that came about, but his WW1 medals have his real surname on them.

While my ancestor survived WW1 and his records under both names had been 'married up', the same was not true for many other soldiers. The Commonwealth War Graves Committee identified about 3,500 men whose headstone inscriptions now include 'Served as' plus their alias.

Early last year, the Western Front Association set up Project ALIAS to identify more cases in the 'Soldiers Who Died' category of the Pension Records Cards collection. Some 150 WFA members have been involved in adding the soldiers' names to the index. The list they've produced carries approximately 20,000 names, and with names such as Doyle, Farrell, Sullivan, Murphy and Kelly scattered throughout it, you can be sure many of them are Irishmen.

The resource is now available to WFA members and non-members alike in pdf format. You can download the pdf, and find out more about the project in an interesting feature on the WFA site by clicking the logo above.

A future project is planned to add the aliases for ‘Soldiers Who Survived’. Maybe my ancestor will be listed in it.

Galway's Irish Historic Towns Atlas (digital ed.) online

A digital edition of the Irish Historical Towns Atlas (IHTA) no 28 Galway/Gaillimh by Jacinta Prunty and Paul Walsh is now available to download from the Royal Irish Academy.

The IHTA is a research project of the Academy and is part of a wider European scheme.

Like the hardback edition, the digital version traces the growth and development of the city of Galway from its origins as an Anglo-Norman borough and seaport. It includes an explanatory essay and a historical gazetteer with more than 2,500 entries on features of the townscape such as streets, schools, town walls, mills etc.

The major difference between the two editions is in the number of maps each offers. The printed version comes with more than 30 loose, large-format pages reproducing old maps, plans and views, alongside reconstructions and thematic maps to help tell the story of Galway in a visual way. For copyright reasons, only seven maps (they span more than a century of development) are included in the digital edition, which is free.

To find out more and to download the publication, click here.

Tuesday 23 February 2021

Irish-American with links to Massachusetts? Check out AmericanAncestors.org's new Catholic cemetery records

A new collection of Catholic cemetery/burial registers has been launched today that has huge potential for Irish-Americans seeking genealogical and townland of origin information on their immigrant ancestors who settled in Massachusetts.

It has been created by AmericanAncestor.org in partnership with the RC Archdiocese of Boston's Archives Department and the Catholic Cemetery Association (CCA) of the Archdiocese of Boston.

The registers contain records of sales and interments, and include information about lot owners, date of burial and location of burial. Some of the people represented in these written records may not have purchased a grave marker or their marker may have eroded with time, making this collection essential for research into Catholic burials in this region.

Named the Massachusetts: Catholic Cemetery Association Records, 1833-1940, the database will feature 20 cemeteries administered by the CCA in eastern Massachusetts.

The first instalment to the live database releases 31 volumes from nine cemeteries: Calvary, Waltham; Sacred Heart, Andover; St George, Framingham; St James, Haverhill; St Joseph, Haverhill; St Jean Baptiste, Lynn; St Mary, Beverley; St Mary, Malden; and Holy Cross, Malden, which is not yet completely digitised. This means the database already holds more than 354,500 records and gives researchers access to 355,500 searchable names.

In addition to the searchable database, maps of each cemetery are being made available to help locate burial plots. Where possible, maps include sections, ranges and in some cases narrative description of how headstones are arranged by row and lot number. Also included are points of interest such as entrances, exits, flag poles, monuments, offices and spigots. Special sections for the burials of infants, priests and religious are also noted. Links to the cemetery maps can be found in the Database Description. Ahow-to video provides navigation instructions for both the database and the cemetery maps.

Records from the remaining 11 cemeteries administered by the CCA will be added throughout the year. They are: St. Francis de Sales, Charlestown; St Paul, Arlington; North Cambridge Catholic Cemetery; St Joseph, Lynn; St Mary, Lynn; Holy Cross, Malden (additional volumes), Immaculate Conception, Marlborough; St Mary, Salem; St Patrick, Stoneham; Catholic Mount Auburn, Watertown; St Patrick, Watertown; and Calvary, Winchester.

It is estimated that the new collection will hold one million names by December this year.

Access to the new collection requires membership subscription.

Accredited Genealogists Ireland to host free webinar on gaining credentials as a professional genealogist

Here's a date and time to get into your diary if you're either already a professional genealogist or a would-be professional genealogist with a serious desire to gain credentials in Ireland.

Accredited Genealogists Ireland logo
Accredited Genealogists Ireland (AGI) is the accrediting and representative body for professional genealogists on the island of Ireland (admission to membership is based on the recommendations of an independent Board of Assessors), and the organisation will be hosting a Zoom webinar on Saturday 10 April at 10:30am.

The event will provide information on credentials for professional genealogists, on the AGI Affiliate programme and on the process of seeking accreditation as a Member of AGI. It's a free event to which all interested researchers welcome. Registration is required.

See the AGI website for more information about the organisation, which was founded in 1986, and to register for the webinar.

Irishgenealogy.ie clocked up 4.6m page views last year

The state-managed IrishGenealogy.ie had a rough weekend, spending most of Sunday and yesterday morning with its databases inaccessible to most researchers. Normal service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday.

The temporary loss of the site was hard felt. It holds indexes and images of nearly all 'historical' Irish civil registrations of birth (1864-1920), marriages (1845/1864-1945) and death (1864-1970... indexes only 1864-70), and they're all free to access. It also has a limited mixed denomination church registers collection for a few counties.

No wonder this site has become one of the most important and useful to Irish genealogists. Despite its rather lumpy search and delivery functions, it is much missed on those reasonably infrequent occasions when it is offline.

So, while rooting around the site yesterday trying to identify which parts of the site were offline, I was interested to come across some details of site usage. It tells that some 1,612,008 visits were made to the site in 2020, clocking up a total of 4,689,508 page views. These figures show a 9% increase in visitors on the previous year.

Another statement reminded me that the Civil Registration Service has plans for further development of the site. It intends to add registration records for those Irish personnel killed during WW1, army registers relating to births, deaths and marriages and similar registers maintained by the consular services. Further details on this extension project will be announced in due course. Here's hoping images of the missing death records (164-1870 incl) are uploaded first.

NOTE: The IrishGenealogy.ie site holds all-island civil records up to and including 1921; from 1922, it covers only the 26 counties that now form the Republic of Ireland. For Northern Ireland records, see GENI. Both jurisdictions have chosen to translate 'historical' as meaning births up to 100 years ago, marriages up to 75 years ago, and deaths up to 50 years ago; only historical records can be made available online.

RootsIreland adds more RC baptisms from East Galway

The East Galway Family History Society, which runs the East Galway genealogy and heritage centre in Woodford, has added more than 3,700 Roman Catholic baptisms from the parish of Glenamaddy/Boyounagh to its online database at RootsIreland.ie.

The parish's northern boundary constitutes part of Galway's border with County Roscommon.

These newly transcribed records date from 1838 to 1858, so that the entire span of baptisms available to search from this parish now spans 1838-1900. (Marriages, which were already available, date from 1838-1858.)

For a full menu of collections available in RootsIreland's East Galway database, tap the logo above.

For the main RootsIreland.ie website, click here.

Friday 19 February 2021

Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland: latest update

Come Lockdown or High Water, volunteers of the Registry of Deeds Index Project just keep beavering away, extracting genealogial info from online* images of memorials and inputting it to the Project's database, from where it is made available, free of charge, to all family historians.

(The images are free to view at FamilySearch.org, so this important volunteer work can be carried out from any computer, anywhere in the world, provided it has a wifi connection.)

Earlier this week, an update of the database produced a new total of 402,531 index records extracted from 42,776 memorials of deeds. In addition, the Townslands and Grantors indexes have seen many new entries.

All these transcriptions are fully searchable for free via the link above.

Thursday 18 February 2021

Future of Northern Ireland's Troubles archive secured

Ulster University has confirmed that its highly-regarded Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), a unique academic and civic resource containing a large archive of materials and information related to the conflict and politics in Northern Ireland, has secured funding to keep it going.

A donation from a non-profit organisation based in Switzerland – Initiatives of Change – will not only help to modernise the site, which launched in 1997 and is showing its age, but will also help keep it as a live resource, fielding queries and responsive to corrections, revisions and updates.

CAIN includes oral histories, election results, political memorabilia, public records, bibliographies and the names and details of more than 3,600 people killed in Troubles-related violence in Northern Ireland, Ireland, the UK and continental Europe.

Its website is free to access, and new materials are added on a regular basis. The most recent was last summer, when the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin donated 965 files dating from 1986-88.

For more information see Ulster University's announcement.

Deadline for registering deaths in Ireland may be cut

The General Register Office (GRO) in Ireland is considering reducing the time allowed for deaths to be registered. Currently, relatives are expected to regsiter a death within three months. The GRO is considering cutting this to just two weeks.

A consultation has been launched today to gather views from health stakeholders, members of the public and others with an interest, to improve the efficiency of death registration. One of the proposals to be considered could result in medical practitioners electronically reporting a death within 24 hours of their pronouncement of decease.

The proposals result from work undertaken over the past few months by the General Register Office following concerns about the length of time it takes for deaths to be registered in the State, and are intended to ease the burden on families who have lost a loved one. 

Unlike other countries, Ireland does not have a system in place whereby a person’s death is notified to public authorities immediately following death. 

This has implications for national population statistics, public health management and for co-operation with international bodies.

Announcing the consultation, Registrar General TJ Fleming commented: "The death of a relative is a sensitive time for all members of the family and their wider communities and there is never a good time to seek change to time honoured and traditional practices. I welcome the proposals of the working group and invite the widest range of views to the consultation.

"This consultation allows for the views of a broad range of representative bodies and concerned members of the public to make their opinions known and have their concerns considered."

You can download the consultation document here or from the GRO at gro@welfare.ie.

It's not a difficult read. I found it rather interesting, and the international comparisons provided in the document (see below) gives a fascinating insight into the efficiency and priority with which death registrations are gathered elsewhere in Europe. (If the deadline is cut to two weeks as proposed, Ireland would still be in the slow lane!)


Friday 12 February 2021

British genealogy records: 2-week summary of 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 fortnight (for the previous summary, see 29 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


BritishNewspaperArchive (and shared with some FindMyPast subscriptions)

FamilySearch

FindMyPast


UPDATED COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

FamilySearch

FindMyPast

National Library of Scotland

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.

Thursday 11 February 2021

$50 savings on AncestryDNA for Canadian researchers

Ancestry.ca has launched a special offer on its DNA kits to coincide with Family Day, which falls on Monday 15th February (and is known by other names in some provinces).

The offer is available only in Canada and reduces the price of an Ancestry DNA test kit to $79 CAD plus tax and shipping. That's a saving of $50 CAD, which doesn't come around too often!

The Family Day Sale is already up and running and will continue to 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, 17 February.

Click/tap the image for terms and conditions and to find out more.


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.


Free access to Newspapers.com database for five days

Ancestry is offering free access to its Newspapers.com database over the USA's President's Day weekend. It will run from today until 11:59pm Mountain Time on Monday 15 February and you can gain access by clicking/tapping the image below. You need to register.

If you don't already have a subscription to the site, it's worth setting aside some time to blitz the database over the next few days. It holds some 636 million+ pages of historical newspapers from more than 20,000 titles covering the United States and beyond.

You can search the full database by name, places, dates etc, or select searches focussed on either obituaries or marriages. If you have any 'lost' Irish ancestors who emigrated and settled in the US, this database is a great way to track them down. The only problem is the size of the database! Even with an unusual surname like Santry, a search returns 350 marriages, more than 1,000 obits and nearly 95,000 entries in the main database, a good number of them reporting breathless tales of dogged boxing fights involving one Eddie Santry, who won the world featherweight boxing title in 1899. Still, better too many than too few.

The database allows you to 'clip' pages, or parts of pages, but you can also Google screenshot.

Have fun!

Wednesday 10 February 2021

New/updated US genealogy records: 3-week summary

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 22 January, 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

MyHeritage

Newspapers.com


UPDATED COLLECTIONS


AmericanAncestors
  • Massachusetts: (Image-Only) RC Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920
    Ten volumes added from 9 parishes (27,300 pages):
    Amesbury – Sacred Heart,
    Beverly – St Alphonsus, St. Margaret of Scotland
    Billericay – St Andrew
    Brocton – St. Colman of Cloyne
    Roxbury – St Francis de Sales, St Joseph
    Arlington – St James the Apostle
    Belmont – St Joseph

Ancestry

FamilySearch

FindMyPast

MyHeritage


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.

Friday 5 February 2021

Valentine's Day discount from FamilyTreeDNA

FamilyTreeDNA is offering a $20 discount on its popular Family Finder DNA kit. This is an autosomal dna test, the same type as offered by Ancestry and MyHeritage.

FamilyTreeDNA is a long-established and highly-regarded DNA testing company. As with its competitors, a FamilyFinder test analysis provides an ethnicity estimate and matches your results to those of others in the FTDNA database, allowing you to contact other researchers with whom you may share ancestral connections.

You can find out more about these, and other, features of a Family Finder test by clicking the image, right. If you do so before Valentine's Day, you'll also be able to take advantage of the current discount offer, which reduces the cost of the kit from %79 to US$59. Shipping is extra (US$9.95 for one kit and $4.95 for each additional kit.).

Wednesday 3 February 2021

New from UHF: Online Irish Genealogy Essentials course

The Ulster Historical Foundation is offering an online Irish Genealogy Essentials course. Its aim is to help beginners and rusty intermediates get to grip with research techniques, archives and genealogical sources in Ireland, and to provide them with the information and skills needed to find their elusive Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors.

This new course takes all the key components of the UHF's traditional in-person course and makes them available digitally, allowing participants to complete the programme at their own pace and from the comfort of their own home.

It consists of 21 pre-recorded lectures on essential topics relating to Irish genealogical research. These provide more than 28 hours of content and participants have 24/7 access to them from today until 24 March. Additionally, four live Q&A sessions will be held with the course lectures, and these will be scheduled at different times to suit the time zones of delegates. The course also includes downloadable lecture handouts and reading list.

For details of the full programme and to view some samples of the recorded lectures, see the UHF's website by clicking the logo above, or email enquiry@uhf.org.uk.

Tuesday 2 February 2021

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: first 2021 update

Headstone to the Galligan family, in St Joseph's
graveyard, Dumkilly, Co Cavan. Click for larger view.
Photo courtesy of IGP Archives
.
Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives has added some new headstone photos and transcribed church records to its ever-growing database of volunteer-donated material.

If you have any files of records, photos of documents, or other material, please consider donating them to this worthwhile and popular project. If you don't have time to transcribe texts or headstone inscriptions, don't hold back on donation; just drop the administrator an email to check IGPA has a willing volunteer available!

This month's new files come from Counties Dublin, Fermanagh and Tipperary, as follows:

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives: Headstones
Kilbarrack Graveyard, Sutton (35 additional)

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives: Headstones
Mount Jerome Cemetery - Part 268, 269 & 270

FERMANAGH Gen. Archives: Church Records
Aghavea CoI Marriages 1845-1921
Mullaghfad, CoI Marriages, 1845-1916

TIPPERARY Genealogy Archives: Church Records
Fethard RC Parish Baptisms 1815-1816



Monday 1 February 2021

Digitisation of Church of Ireland Gazette completes

The Church of Ireland Gazette Digital Archive is now complete. All editions of the newspaper from its foundation in 1856 up to and including 2010 are available electronically and free to search and view at esearch.informa.ie/rcb. (From 2010, the Gazette became available as an e-paper.)

Written and read by lay and clerical members and others, the Gazette provides the longest-running public commentary on the Church’s affairs, and as such is recognised as a valuable primary source for understanding the complexities and nuance of Church of Ireland and indeed wider Protestant identity, as well as the Church’s contribution to political and cultural life across the island.

The digitisation project began eight years ago when the RCB Library digitized and uploaded the 1913 editions.

Since then, a combination of state funding, private sponsorship and the support of central Church funds has enabled evolutionary growth of the project, and thanks to the generous grant from the Irish Government’s Reconciliation Fund, administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs, this is now complete, with a permanent digital archive available online for future generations of researchers.

This final instalment of digitised editions is reviewed by the Archbishop of Armagh, John McDowell, as the RCB Library's February Archive of the Month.

In announcing the delivery of the final tranche, Dr Susan Hood, Librarian and Archivist of the RCB Library, thanked the current Editor and Board of the Church of Ireland Gazette who have collaborated so positively with the Library since the inception of the project, and the Gazette office staff whose input of PDF documents for the period between 2004 and 2010 had allowed the final bonus years to be added to the database, expertly overseen by service provider Informa. Finally, she sincerely acknowledged the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Reconciliation Fund whose generous grant ensured that this worthwhile project could be completed.

Irish genealogy and history events online: February

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.

Tuesday 2 February: An overview of FamilySearch for beginners. Host: FamilySearch. Free. Online Zoom lecture at 10am MST / 5pm Ireland (GMT). Details and registration.

Tuesday 2 February: The Tired, the Poor, and the Huddled Masses: U.S. Immigration 1820-1954, aimed at beginners. Free, online Zoom lecture at 10am MST / 5pm Ireland (GMT). Details and registration.

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.

Monday 8 February: Retail in Dublin City Centre, with Dr Mary Muldowney. Host: Dublin City Libraries. Free but need to register by email to centrallibrary@dublincity.ie. 7pm. All welcome.

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.

Monday 15 February: Irish Planned villages: forms and ideologies, with Miriam Delaney. Host: Kilrush & District Historical Society. Lecture on Zoom. Free. All welcome on a first-come first-served basis; follow this link to join the meeting at start time – 8pm.

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.

Tuesday 16 February: Leaving Hearth and Home: 18th-century emigration from Ahoghill parish, with Natalie Bodle. Host: An Exploring your Roots lecture from Mid and East Antrim Museum & Heritage Service. 7pm. Online and free. 7pm. Details and booking.

Tuesday 16 February: Using Digital Archives for Historical Research, with speakers from Beyond 2022, Dublin City Library & Archive, National Museum of Ireland, and The Military Archives. A Zoom webinar from DRI (Digital Repository Ireland. 3pm to 4:30pm. Registration is free. Details.

Tuesday 16 February: Carrickfergus Churchyards: Stories behind the Stones, with Dr William Roulston. Hosts: An Exploring your Roots lecture from Mid and East Antrim Museum & Heritage Service and Ulster Historical Foundation. Online. 7pm-8:15pm. Free. All welcome. Booking and details.

Wednesday 17 February: Larne: A Port Town Case Study, with Dr William Roulston. Hosts: Mid and East Antrim Museum & Heritage Service and Ulster Historical Foundation. Online. 7pm-8:15pm. Free. All welcome. Booking and details.

Wednesday 17 February: Hospitaller Knights of St John in Carlow, 12th to 21st Centuries, with Dr Declan Downey. Host: Carlow Historical and Archaeology Society. 8pm. Free. All welcome. Details.

Wednesday 17 February: Using WikiTree, Anne Johnston. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society. Zoom webinar. 2pm-3pm, with Q&A following. £10. Booking essential. All welcome.

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.

Friday 19 February: Family Tree Maker – Basics and Benefits, with Imelda McVeigh Host: North of Ireland Family History Society. Zoom webinar. 2pm-3pm, with Q&A following. £10. Booking essential. All welcome.

Saturday 20 February: The Advantages of Y-DNA, with Martin McDowell. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society. Zoom webinar. 2pm-3pm, with Q&A following. £10. Booking essential. All welcome.

Saturday 20 February: The Family History Show 2021, organised by Discover your Ancestors magazine and the Society of Genealogists. An online show featuring talks, Ask The Experts panels, 'exhibitors' from wide range of UK local family history societies. Early Bird tickets £6. On the Day tickets £8. From 10am to 4:30pm. Details.

Monday 22 February: Cathedral Hill, Downpatrick, with Brian Sloan. A Heritage from Home online event from Libraries NI. Free. One hour duration. All welcome, but you need to book by email to heritage.talks@librariesni.org.uk. 1pm.

Tuesday 23 February: Key Sources for Genealogy - The Tithe System & Tithe Applotment Books. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 2-3pm. Free. Online. Fully booked.

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.

Thursday to Saturday, 25–27 February RootsTech Connect, an online genealogy conference hosted by FamilySearch featuring speakers from around the globe, and a handful of Irish-themed talks. Download the (long) list of sessions. Free. Details and registration.

Friday 26 February: The destruction and preservation of the records of the Department of External Affairs during the Second World War, with Dr Michael Kennedy. Online. 7pm. Free. Host: National Archives of Ireland. Need to register.

Friday 26 February: Why can’t you find your Irish ancestors? An online lecture with John Grenham FIGRS MAGI. Host: Libraries NI. Free. All welcome but be sure to book by email to heritage.talks@librariesni.org.uk. 1-2pm.


IrishGenealogy.ie adds rolling year of civil records

IrishGenealogy.ie, the state-managed database of civil bmd and (some) church records, has uploaded a rolling year of updates to each of its birth, marriage and death collections.

This means indexes and images of registers are freely available to view as follows:

  • Births 1864 to 1920
  • Marriages 1845 to 1945
  • Deaths 1871 to 1970 (1864-1870 is index only)

Click the link above to reach the civil records database.