Sunday 31 October 2021

No tricks, just money-saving treats, from Irish Newspaper Archives

The Dublin-based IrishNewsArchive.com (INA) has gone Halloween crazy, which is absolutely acceptable in Ireland because the island is the original home of Halloween*.

It's a dual celebration, though, because the family-owned archive has also added The Fingal Independent to its holdings this weekend.

In total, the archive now consists of more than 9 million pages of newspaper content published since 1738. The Gold Subscription additionally offers access to 115 Radical Newspapers.

Here are the discount codes:

Gold Subscription: Save 35% on your purchase. Use code TREAT35.
Silver Subscription: Save 30% on your purchase. Use code TREAT30.

To take advantage of INA's Halloween offer, you just need to visit the subscription page for further details of the membership options. When you've decided which suits your research needs best, type the relevant promo code into the box. You'll find the discounted membership prices applied and can then place your order.

The offer will expire on Monday 8 November.


* See The origin of Halloween on my Toolkit website.

Saturday 30 October 2021

Dublin's GRO Research Room to allow walk-ins on 2 days a week

Good news from the General Register Office of Ireland: its Public Search Room in Werburgh Street, Dublin will no longer require researchers to book an appointment for visits on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

On these two days only, those wanting to search the civil registration indexes or obtain 'research copy' versions of birth, marriage and death entries from the registers, will be able to walk-in without any prior arrangement during normal hours, subject to capacity.

'Walk-in' opening hours are:
Tuesdays and Wednesdays
10am – 12:30pm
2pm – 4:30pm
Closed for lunch from 12:30pm – 2pm

Government COVID-19 regulations apply for all visitors at the Research Room.

You'll find additional information about this welcome development at www.gov.ie/gro. This is also the page you should check before setting off to visit, as the new arrangements may be changed at short notice.

(Many thanks to genealogist Claire Bradley for spotting the GRO's update.)

Save at least $40 on Ancestry DNA offers (US researchers only)

Some special offers on AncestryDNA test kits are now available. They'll run until 11:59pm ET on Wednesday 24 November.

Scroll down to view the offers for US-based researchers.

They include a straightforward S40 discount on a single test kit, which comes with an ethnicity analysis and the full matching process allowing you to discover close and distant relationships with other researchers.

Spend just $1 more and you'll receive not only your test kit, ethnicity analysis and the full DNA matching system, but also free World Explorer Membership to the Ancestry database for three months, helping you to build your family tree.

If you choose the more expensive but great value DNA+Traits+AllAccess Membership package, you'll receive your DNA test kit, ethnicity analysis and the full matching feature, plus 36 Personal Traits, and access not only to the entire Ancestry global database of 30billion records, but also to Newspapers.com (basic level) and the military collection of Fold3. On this package you save $50 on regular prices.

Shipping is extra.

Package offers are for new and returning subscribers only and not for renewal of current subscriptions. See the terms and conditions before placing your order.



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Friday 29 October 2021

5,300 Irish among the dead in transit through Manhattan, 1859-1894

Whether this is intended as a Halloween release, I don't know, but one of Ancestry's recent releases is an unusual collection containing an index of permits for the carriage of dead bodies through Manhattan between 1859 and 1894.

It's called New York, U.S., Bodies in Transit, 1859-1894 and it's sourced from the New York City Department of Records & Information Services. The index holds some 60,000 entries.

Surprisingly, perhaps, a sizeable chunk of the records – 5,292 – relate to Irish-born individuals. While most of these were passing through New York from one part of the United States to another, many others were making their final journey from Ireland to the USA. Only a small number were travelling in the opposite direction, possibly to fulfil the deceased's final wishes to be buried in the auld sod.

The example I've chosen, above right, is one of the more straightforward index entries. (Incidentally, I couldn't find an Irish death certificate for Mr Conway, but I did for other travellers who had died in Ireland).

The only real issue I found with this collection is that the spelling of placenames is often pretty dire. Harts Island, Rikers Island and even Staten Island have become Harts Ireland, Rikers Ireland, and Staten Ireland, giving a load of false results if you aren't careful with where you place the word 'Ireland' in the search fields while Duenstown and Lenstown are Queenstown, etc, and Doblin is Dublin. The spelling of names leaves something to be desired, too. You'll just have to be inventive!

Thursday 28 October 2021

Ten weeks to release of the 1921 census of England and Wales

The National Archives (TNA) at Kew, London and FindMyPast have announced that the 1921 Census of England and Wales will be released to the public on 6 January 1922. Visitors to TNA will be able to view digital images free of charge. Researchers viewing the online collection – exclusively at FindMyPast – will have to pay £2.50 to view a transcription and £3.50 to view an image of the census return; search results, showing name, age, birthplace, and one or two other names in the same census return, will be free.

Click to view the census enumerators' full instruction sheet
This census was taken on Sunday 19 June 1921, having been postponed from 29 April 121 due to the arrival of economic depression following WW1 and Spanish Flu, and a threat of imminent strike action from miners, transport and railway workers, and dockers.

It gathered information on more than 38million individuals, resulting in 18,235,242 census return images. Most of the data requested was similar to that required in previous censuses but there are some changes and additions. Not only was a person's occupation noted, as before, now the person's employer's name and address was recorded.

Take a look at the examples shown in the Instructions provided for enumerators (click image, right) and you'll soon spot the differences, most of which are positive. I just wish that, instead of having to note any and all household guests who normally lived elsewhere as 'visitor', some provision had been made to record their kinship, if there was any relationship.

Please note this census relates only to England and Wales. Scotland's 1921 Census will be published in the second half of 2022 on ScotlandsPeople. No censuses were taken in Ireland that year due to the War of Independence. The 1921 Censuses of Ireland and Northern Ireland were not taken due to the War of Independence.

As such, the 1921 English and Wales census, and that for Scotland when it is published, will be of interest not only to British researchers but also to those with Irish ancestors. By 1921, and especially due to the unsettled political scene on the island, many Irish researchers will find forbears working or living, temporarily or permanently, in Great Britain.

Unfortunately, the 1931 census for England and Wales was destroyed by fire in 1942. The 1931 census of Scotland survives. No census was taken in the UK in 1941 because of the Second World War.

MyHeritage opens its death records to free access for Halloween

MyHeritage is offering free access to its death records over the coming weekend.

The company has taken a generous description of death records, so the free access will allow you to search death, burial and cemetery records as well as obituaries, all crucial sources of genealogical information.

From last Halloween until the beginning of October, MyHeritage has added more than 37 million records to its worldwide collection of these records – a collection of nearly 587 million records. 

There don't appear to be any records related to deaths in Ireland itself. However, the collection is impressivey global and among the most recent addtions were collections from Brazil, New Zealand, the United States, Poland and France, so no matter where your Irish ancestor headed, you have some chance of finding them here.

Free access will be available until Tuesday 2 November, and, if you're not already a member, you'll need to sign up as one (a quick and painless process) to take advantage of the offer.

Wednesday 27 October 2021

More new Irish records join The Genealogist

The Genealogist database, owned and managed by S&N Genealogy and based on the Channel Island of Jersey, has been turning its attention to Ireland over the last year or so, and has uploaded two more collections in the past week. They are:

Wexford Roman Catholic registers of baptisms, marriages and burials

Nearly one million Wexford Parish records have been newly transcribed by the Genealogist. The collection benefits from SmartSearch, a techie-solution to, potentially, finding records for the the groom's and bride's parents and siblings. Each marriage transcription links to an image of the register record on the National Library of Ireland's website.

Dublin Will and Grant Books

This resource – The Deputy Keeper Of Ireland's Index To The Act or Grant Books, and To Original Wills, of The Diocese Of Dublin 1272-1858 (26th, 30th, and 31st Report), is already available to search on major commercial databases, but this is a new transcription. The records cover an area that is bigger than the current County of Dublin as the diocese included a sizeable part of County Wicklow, some substantial parts of southern and eastern County Kildare, as well as smaller portions of Counties Carlow, Laois (Queen's County) and Wexford.

You can find out more about these collections on the website, and discover George Harrison's Wexford ancestors, in The Genealogist's featured article here.

Tuesday 26 October 2021

Dublin City Surveyors Maps, 1695-1827: 130+ maps now at DRI

Dublin City Libraries (DCL) has announced that its City Surveyors' Maps Collection, 1695-1827, is now available to the public via the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI).

Click to view the City Surveyors' Maps Collection on the DRI

Each map would have been created by the City Surveyor of the time.

The role of City Surveyor was created in 1679, when there was no overall planning authority for the city. The task was to record rather than to plan development and his involvement in planning began and ended with dividing ground in lots for setting.

The collection documents the development of the ancient Dublin City Estate within its original walled city, with land being leased to Dublin’s merchant class who built houses, stables, warehouses and out-buildings on their holdings.

A small proportion of these maps was previously online on the Dublin City Libraries digital platform but by moving to the DRI website, an additional 100 maps have been added to the online collection. Archivists have also enhanced map descriptions to make them easier to search and identify.

You can find out more about the collection and this recent development on the DCL's blog.

Monday 25 October 2021

New and updated genealogy records for England, Scotland & Wales

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 10 days (see previous summary).

My 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 €$£ collections, shared with FindMyPast (total 45,478,812 pages on 15th
  • England : New titles in main collection ($£€)
  • Scotland : New titles in main collection ($£€)

FindMyPast

Updated collections


DeceasedOnline
  • Burial records - London Borough of Barking and Dagenham: Rippleside Cemetery, 1886-2019 (62,622 records added / total 102,000)

FamilySearch

FindMyPast

FreeBMD


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Irish genealogy and history events, 25 October to 14 November

While online talks continue to be offered by most organisations and event hosts, a few in-person events are beginning to re-appear in my listings. In the list below, online events are treated as the default position. All in-person events are clearly indicated as such and the location highlighted in bold.

Until 6 November: The Art Of Negotiation: John Lavery's Anglo Irish Treaty Portraits, an exhibition, with talks and tours (all in-person) throughout the month. Embassy of Ireland, 17 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7HR. Free tickets.

Monday 25 October: Bank holiday in Republic of Ireland. All repositories, archives and libraries closed. (Does not apply in Northern Ireland)

Tuesday 26 October: Raising revenue for the Holy Land: The Knights Templar and Agriculture in Medieval Tipperary, with Dr Margaret Murphy. Host: Tipperary Library Services 'Tipperary People and Places Lecture Series XV'. Free. In-person at Tipperary Studies, The Source, Thurles, Co Tipperary. 7pm. No need to book. Details.

Tuesday 26 October: Recovering West Clare Voices from the American Civil War, with Damien Shiels. The in-person lecture, at 8pm, follows the society's AGM. Host: Kilrush and District Historical Society. Venue: Teach Ceoil, Kilrush, Co Clare. See health rules for attendees. Members free. €5 for non-members. Details.

Tuesday 26 October: Tracing Relatives from the Belfast Shipyards, an online lecture with Maureen McKinney. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Causeway C&G Branch Branch. 7:30pm to 9pm. All welcome. Free. email Causeway@nifhs.org for zoom link.

Tuesday 26 October: Shadows from the Trenches – Veterans of the Great War and the Irish Revolution, 1918-1923, an online lecture with Dr Emmanuel Destenay. Host: National Library of Ireland. 6pm. Free. Need to register.

Tuesday 26 October: Northern Irish Land Registry, an online lecture with Des McCabe. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Belfast Branch. 7:30pm to 9pm. All welcome. Free. email Belfast@nifhs.org for zoom link.

Thursday 28 October: A History of Fraternities in Ulster – Orange Order, Freemasons, Hibernians, etc, with David Hume. A free online talk hosted by the North of Ireland Family History Society, Ballymena Branch. 7pm-9pm. Email to request link: Ballymena@nifhs.org. Details.

Monday 1 November: Shannonbridge, valuation records and family history, with Laura Price. Host: Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society. 7:30pm. All welcome. Free. Email info@offalyhistory.com for zoom link.

Monday 1 November: The Ballyminstragh Project, a virtual talk and presentation by Leslie Simpson & Moira Concannon about significant buildings and people from the Balloo/Ballyminstragh area. Host: Host: Northern Ireland Family History Society, Killyleagh Branch. Free. All welcome. 8pm to 9:30pm. Details.

Monday 1 November: Life in Ulster in the 1830s, an online class with Mike McKeag. Host: Northern Ireland Family History Society. 2pm-3pm GMT. All welcome. Class costs £10 / Class plus notes costs £15. Details.

Thursday 4 November: Looking Back, Moving Forward: sharing our digital preservation journeys, an online morning discussion on the challenges and opportunities presented by the ongoing need to consider long term digital preservation. Host: National Library of Ireland. 10am - 11.30am. Programme, details and registration here.

Monday 8 November: Scottish Poor Law Records, with Irene O’Brien. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Newtownabbey Branch. Free. All welcome. 7pm - 8:30pm. Send email to newtownabbey@nifhs.org for zoom link.

Tuesday 9 November: The Irish Soldier in the Great War, with Chris Baker. Host: The Genealogical Society of Ireland. 8pm, on zoom. For details and access, email Membership@familyhistory.ie.

Thursday 11 November: Doing local history in Offaly: A guide to the sources, with Dr Ciaran Reilly. Host: Offaly Libraries History Lecture Series 2021. Online via Offaly Libraries’ Facebook and YOUTUBE channels. Free to view. 7:30pm.

Thursday 11 November: WWI: Exploring the Irish Experience, a virtual exhibition tour. Host: National Library of Ireland. 11am. Free. All welcome. Details. Tickets.

Thursday 11 November: William Sharman and the Politics of Volunteering in Ulster, 1781-1803, with Professor Peter Gray. Hosts: The Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies, and Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 7pm to 8pm. Free. All welcome. Need to book.

Thursday 11 November: Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck and the Indian Army, 1914-1947, with Dr Timothy Bowman. Hosts: The Antrim and Down branch of the Western Front Association and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). 8pm to 9pm. Free. All welcome. Need to book.

Friday 12 and Saturday 13 November: Really Useful Show, hosted by the Family History Federation. Friday hours: 6pm to 10pm. Saturday hours: 10am to 6pm. 24 talks, plus workshops and Expert Sessions. Tickets £10. More information.

Saturday 13 November: Rathmines: A Walking Tour with Dr Séamas Ó Maitiú, author of IHTA Dublin Suburb Series, Rathmines. Host: Dublin Book Festival. Starts from Rathmines Library, 157 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6. 11am to Noon. Tickets: €10.

Wednesday 20 October 2021

Northern Ireland FHS: online classes programme for Autumn 2021

The North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS) has a new programme of online classes starting at the tail end of this month. Most of them cost £10 each. Typically, the one-hour talk is followed by a Q&A session of around 30 minutes.

Here's an overview of the programme:

  • Friday 29 October – Raising The Dead, with Martin McDowell. 7pm-8pm BST.
  • Monday 1 November - Life in Ulster in the 1830s, with Mike McKeag. 2pm-3pm GMT
  • Tuesday 16 November - Using WikiTree, with Anne Johnston. 2pm-3pm GMT
  • Thursday 18 November – Google Basics for Family History Research*, with Anne Johnston. 7pm-8pm GMT
  • Thursday 2 December – Advanced Google Tools for Family History Research*, with Anne Johnston. 7pm-8pm GMT
  • Saturday 4 December – Family Tree Maker: Basics and Benefits, with Imelda McVeigh. 2pm-3pm GMT 
  • Tuesday 7 December – PRONI Online Records, with Andrew Kane. 7pm-8pm GMT

*Save £5 when booking both classes with Anne Johnston.

For full details of each class, and to book, see nifhs.org.

Friday 15 October 2021

Save US$125 on AncestryDNA's Family Pack (US researchers only)

Ancestry DNA is running an Early Gifting promotion to US-based researchers only (last week's offer to Irish and British researchers has now expired).

It's a promotion for AncestryDNA's Family Pack. When you order two Ancestry DNA kits, you get a third kit free. You'll also get free shipping and a free Traits update for all three kits. Not bad, eh!

In monetary terms, it means a saving of a whopping US£125! The standard price for the items and features of the Family Pack would be $376.

The Early Gifting price is just $198. Click the image to find out more.

The offer is now live and will expire at 11:59pm EST on Friday 29 October.


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.

Ancestry adds Irish Emigration Lists, 1833-1839

Ancestry has added an index of pre-Famine emigrants from County Antrim and County LondonDerry in 1833-1839. The records were originally compiled from notebooks ('memoirs') created by surveyors working on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland.

Click image to search on Ancestry.co.uk

These field officers gathered topographical, historical, economic and social information about the places they were visiting in the course of their work, but only those for the counties of Antrim and LondonDerry included details of emigrants such as name, age, name of parish, town and county, religion, occupation, destination and year of departure, plus the names of family members.

Ancestry's description of the collection is good, so be sure to read it before searching.

Importantly, it points out that many of those NOT departing for North America may have been travelling to Glasgow or Liverpool either for seasonal work or as a stepping stone to a transatlantic crossing once the fare had been earned in Britain.

As far as I'm aware, this is the first time these 3,421 records have been made available on a major online database.

The new collection offers both a searchable index, and a browse facility of the 127-page book published back in 1989 by the Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore, which was brought together by Brian Mitchell MAGI. Brian's introduction to the book should also be read.

Click here to search the records on Ancestry.com.


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.

New and updated British genealogy collections: 12-day summary

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 (see previous summary, 3 October).

My 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 €$£ collections, shared with FindMyPast (total 45,478,812 pages)
  • New titles in main collection ($£€)

FindMyPast

Updated collections


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.

 

Wednesday 13 October 2021

Connacht & Munster Landed Estates Database is offline due to hack

If you've been wondering (and I know some of you have from my twitter feed and email inbox) why it's been impossible to reach the Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database for the past fortnight, I now have the answer for you.

On 30 September, a cyber attack was attempted on NUI Galway's IT systems. Access between the campus internet and the wider internet has been disabled while the university's IT, cyber security and data protection specialists monitor and investigate the attack. No data breaches appear to have occurred as a result of the hack

Disabling these systems is obviously impacting all users, especially students and staff. So far, a few workarounds and temporary wifi hotspots have been provided for them, but I think genealogists and historians will appreciate that the landedestates database, which is hosted on the university's site, is not going to be a top priority when students are missing classes and cannot access course materials.

I'm told that techies are now working to restore some of the university's online services and resources. Realistically, it's unlikely we'll see the Landed Estates Database searchable for a couple of weeks.

For those researchers unfamiliar with this extremely useful and free database, the Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database provides a comprehensive and integrated resource guide to landed estates and historic houses in Connacht and Munster, c. 1700-1914. It holds information, photographs and details of documentary sources, and helps you discover where (or if) landowning families deposited their papers, some of which contain lists and accounts noting tenants and contractors on their estates, and much more of interest.

When the Database is back and running, I'll add the access link to this post.

UPDATE, 9 Feb 2022: It's going to be offline for some time. See post.

UPDATE, 11 Feb 2022: A workaround has been found. It's not perfect, but you'll be able to search the Estate, Family and House databases. See blogpost.


8 April 2022: The site is back up and running! See blogpost.

Monday 11 October 2021

Back To Our Past show to return to Dublin in 2022

Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this today, nor even, if I'm honest, anytime this year, but the Back To Our Past (BTOP) team has announced that the popular genealogy show will return to the RDS in Dublin 4 in 2022.

The dates are Friday 22nd to Sunday 24 April.

As yet there are no further details available (the lecture programme on the website relates to 2020's virtual BTOP) and I suspect the schedule of talks won't be confirmed for some months yet.

Even so, it's good to see Ireland's very own family history show back in the diary.

Irish genealogy, history and heritage events, 11 - 31 October 2021

While online talks continue to be offered by most organisations and event hosts, a few in-person events are beginning to re-appear in my listings. In the list below, you'll find all in-person events clearly indicated and the location highlighted in bold.

Until 6 November: The Art Of Negotiation: John Lavery's Anglo Irish Treaty Portraits, an exhibition, with talks and tours (all in-person) throughout the month. Embassy of Ireland, 17 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7HR. Free tickets.

Tuesday 12 October: The Significance of the Irish Townland as an Analytical Tool for the genealogist and local historian, with the founder of CavanTownlands.com, Michael McShane. Host: The Genealogical Society of Ireland. 8pm, on zoom. All welcome. For details, email Membership@familyhistory.ie

Tuesday 12 to Saturday 23 October: The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives, an in-person exhibition. Hosts: Irish Embassy in London, National Archives of Ireland, British Academy and Royal Irish Academy. Venue: British Academy, Carlton House Terrace, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AH. Free but booking essential. Timed admission slots available throughout the day.

Tuesday 12 October: More than two sides to every border story, with Dr Darach MacDonald. Host: Heritage from Home Series / LibrariesNI. A free online lecture starting at 12:30pm. Booking essential.

Tuesday 12 October: A fight to the finish: The 1920 Hunger Strike of Michael Fitzgerald, an online lecture with Gerard Shannon. Host: Áras Uí Chonghaile / James Connolly Visitor Centre. Zoom. 8pm. YouTube or Facebook. No need to book.

Wednesday 13 October: The Boer War and its Legacy, with Dr Spencer Jones. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Free. Online. 8pm to 9pm. Need to book.

Thursday 14 October: The 1798 rebellion in Offaly, with Dr Ciaran Reilly. Host: Offaly Libraries History Lecture Series 2021. Online via Offaly Libraries’ Facebook and YOUTUBE channels. Free to view. 7:30pm.

Monday 18 October: In the shadow of Glenarm Castle, an online talk with Jacky Wilson. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Larne Branch. Free. 7:30pm to 9pm. All welcome. Send email to Larne@nifhs.org for zoom link.

Tuesday 19 October From Dungannon to Dungannon : A Scots/Irish Journey, a talk by John Palmer. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, South Tyrone branch. 8pm to 9:30pm. Free. All welcome. Email southtyrone@nifhs.org for zoom link.

Tuesday 19 October: Northern Protestants On Shifting Ground, with Susan McKay. Host: Heritage from Home Series / LibrariesNI. A free online lecture starting at 12:30pm. Booking essential.

Wednesday 20 October: Getting Started Workshop - Using Online Resources, an online workshop from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Free. 12:30-1:30pm. Need to book.

Wednesday 20 October: A Peaceable and Orderly County? – Police-Public Relations in Carlow during the War of Independence, with Adam Kane. An in-person event. Host: Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society. Venue: Seven Oaks Hotel, Athy Rd, Carlow Town. 8pm. Free. All welcome.

Wednesday 20 October: Goldenbridge Cemetery Tour, an in-person event with limited numbers. Host and meeting place: Richmond Barracks, off Bulfin Rd, Inchicore Dublin 8 at 10:30am. Must be booked in advance. €8 adults / €6 concessions.

Wednesday 20 October: The Great Northern Railway, Louth and the Revolution, with Dr Peter Rigney. Host: Louth Library Service. An online lecture starting at 7:30pm. Free. All welcome. Register here.

Thursday 21 October: Curses, Witches, and Fairies: The Uses and Abuses of Magic in Modern British and Irish History, with Dr Thomas Waters. Host: The Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 7pm to 8om. Free. Online. Need to book. Details

Thursday 21 October Famine Emigration, with Dr Ciaran Reilly. Host: Clare Roots Society. An online lecture. 8pm. All welcome. Details.

Thursday 21 October: From Turmoil to Truce: Photographs of the War of Independence, an online tour of the National Library of Ireland's exhibition. Free. 11am. Need to register.

Saturday 23 October: A Changing Ireland 1918 - 1923, with Dr Myrtle Hill, Gabriel Doherty and Padraig Yeates. An online lecture and discussion via zoom from 11am to 1:30pm. Hosts: Federation for Ulster Local Studies and Federation of Local History Societies. Register by email to padraiglaffan@gmail.com.

Saturday 23 October: Scotland Road, the former heartland of Liverpool’s Irish community, a two-hour walk with historian Greg Quiery. Host: Liverpool Irish Festival. From the city's Central Library on William Brown Street, Liverpool, to St Andrew's church. 10am to Noon. £10/£7 conc (+ Eventbrite fees), Need to book. Numbers of participants will be limited.

Sunday 24 October: A live recording of the Irish History Podcast, with Fin Dwyer talking locals about their Irish family history and the long history of links between Merseyside and Ireland. Host: Liverpool Irish Festival. In-person event at Grand Central Hall, 35 Renshaw Street, Liverpool, L1 2SF, 2pm to 4pm. Booking essential. Fee: £7/£5conc + booking fees. All welcome. Details.

Monday 25 October: Bank holiday in the Republic of Ireland. All libraries, archives and similar repositories will be closed, returning to normal opening hours on Tuesday 26th.

Tuesday 26 October: Raising revenue for the Holy Land: The Knights Templar and Agriculture in Medieval Tipperary, with Dr Margaret Murphy. Host: Tipperary Library Services 'Tipperary People and Places Lecture Series XV'. Free. In-person at Tipperary Studies, The Source, Thurles, Co Tipperary. 7pm. No need to book. Details.

Tuesday 26 October: Recovering West Clare Voices from the American Civil War, with Damien Shiels. The in-personlecture, at 8pm, follows the society's AGM. Host: Kilrush and District Historical Society. Venue: Teach Ceoil, Kilrush, Co Clare. See health rules for attendees. Members free. €5 for non-members. Details.

Tuesday 26 October: Tracing Relatives from the Belfast Shipyards, an online lecture with Maureen McKinney. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Causeway C&G Branch Branch. 7:30pm to 9pm. All welcome. Free. email Causeway@nifhs.org for zoom link.

Tuesday 26 October: Shadows from the Trenches – Veterans of the Great War and the Irish Revolution, 1918-1923, an online lecture with Dr Emmanuel Destenay. Host: National Library of Ireland. 6pm. Free. Need to register.

Tuesday 26 October: Northern Irish Land Registry, an online lecture with Des McCabe. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Belfast Branch. 7:30pm to 9pm. All welcome. Free. email Belfast@nifhs.org for zoom link.

Thursday 28 October: A History of Fraternities in Ulster – Orange Order, Freemasons, Hibernians, etc, with David Hume. A free online talk hosted by the North of Ireland Family History Society, Ballymena Branch. 7pm-9pm. Email to request link: Ballymena@nifhs.org. Details.

Wednesday 6 October 2021

AncestryDNA test kits: 25% discount for Irish and UK researchers

The offer below has now expired.

AncestryDNA test kits are on offer for the next week for Irish and UK researchers.

With a 25% discount available, Ancestry is calling it an Early Gifting Holiday Sale, but don't worry, you don't have to give the kit as a gift; you can buy it for yourself.

Nor do you need to be focussing on that major winter festival when reindeers with red noses fly about in the dark sky at the tail end of the year. You can make a choice between your DNA test kit arriving dressed in its regular branding or a more busy and colourful 'festive' theme if you want to hang on to it until you-know-when.

The sale is now live and it will run until 11:59pm on Tuesday 12 October.

Choice your flag below. You'll then be able to select your preferred packaging and place your order.



Ireland: AncestryDNA test kit €69 + shipping, reduced from €95+
UK: AncestryDNA test kit £59 + shipping, reduced from £79+

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.

Tipperary Studies releases 1930s Munster Glass Plate Images

Tipperary Libraries' Local Studies department has released online a wonderful collection of photographs from a recently-acquired set of 399 glass plate negatives.

   Click to find out more about this new
collection at TipperaryStudies.ie

The images have been dated to the 1930s by window advertising posters and newspaper headline boards that appear in many of the photos, which are mainly of shops, houses and workplaces. One or more people poses outside each location, presumably the residents, shopkeepers and staff, but no index or guide to the images or details of where they were taken is available.

Staff knowledge and research into contemporary trade directories and other guides have enabled the Library team to identify 83 of the shops and businesses, and help is now sought from family and local historians to pin down the remaining 316!

Among the towns and villages recognised so far are Cashel, Thurles and Tipperary in County Tipperary; Cork City and Charleville from County Cork, Listowel from County Kerry, and Limerick City and Killmallock in County Limerick, so if you have connections to these counties, why not set aside some time to go through the Munster Glass Plate Images collection and see if you can assist with the Library's project. Even if you can't, you'll enjoy the time; the images are large and you can zoom in to view details.

You can find out more by clicking the image above, and start browsing the images here (click on each photo for enlarged view.

There's also an interesting 'Then and Now' feature here, showing some of the 1930s images from Thurles next to a photograph of the building as it is in 2021.

 

Tuesday 5 October 2021

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: six-county haul in last update

September brought a good mix of files with goodies from three of the island's four provinces. Only Munster failed to feature.

Among the volunteer-donated haul were Presbyterian, Methodist and Church of Ireland records, and headstone photos with transcribed inscriptions from four burial grounds. Details below:

The remains of an old cross at Old Galloon
Graveyard, Upper Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh.
Photo courtesy of the photographer and IGPArchives.
Click for larger image
.

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Pettigo Town Methodist Marriages 1872-1921

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Deansgrange, St. Kevin's Section, Part 1

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives – Headstones
Old Galloon Graveyard

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives – Church Records, A-H
Castle Archdale (CoI) Marriages, 1845-1921
Derrybrusk (CoI) Marriages 1870-1921
Enniskillen Town Methodist Marriages 1872- 1932

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records, I-U
Irvinestown Methodist Marriages, 1847-1920
Maguiresbridge (CoI) Marriages, 1872-1921
Pettigo Town Methodist Marriages 1872-1921

MONAGHAN Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Clones Presbyterian Marriages 1859-1943
Clones Town Methodist Marriages 1872-1932
Newbliss (CoI) Marriages, 1880-1938

ROSCOMMON Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Kilbarry Graveyard, Tarmonbarry

WICKLOW Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St Brigid's RC Graveyard, Annacurra, West Section, Part 1

Monday 4 October 2021

New and updated USA genealogy collections: two-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 fortnight. (The previous summary list was published on 17 September, 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

UPDATED COLLECTIONS


AmericanAncestors
  • Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920
    66 register volumes/12,400 pages added to browse collection. Parishes:
    St George, Norwood   |   Immaculate Conception, Revere   |   St Joachim, Rockport   |   Immaculate Conception, Salem   |   St Anne, Salem   |   St Mary, Salem   |   Our Lady of Sorrows, Sharon   |   St Anthony of Padua, Shirley   |   St Ann, Somerville   |   St Benedict, Somerville   |   St Catherine of Genoa, Somerville   |   St Lawrence, Brookline   |   St John the Evangelist, Cambridge   |   St Mary of the Annunciation, Cambridge   |   St Patrick, Cambridge   |   St Clement, Somerville   |   Patronage of St Joseph, Somerville   |   St John the Evangelist, Swampscott   |   St Charles Borromeo, Waltham
  • Massachusetts: Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920
    22 register volumes/24,200 records and over 94,000 searchable names. Parishes:
    Immaculate Conception, Weymouth   |   Our Lady of Lourdes, Jamaica Plain   |   St Charles Borromeo, Waltham   |   St Charles Borromeo, Woburn   |   St Francis Xavier, Weymouth   |   St John the Evangelist, Swampscott.

Ancestry

FamilySearch

FindMyPast
  • United States Marriages
    5.7million records added from 4 states: California 1850-1945  |  Indiana 1811-2007  |  Iowa 1809-1992  |  Massachusetts 1841-1915.

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.

Saturday 2 October 2021

National Archives of Ireland's websites have technical problems

Both the National Archives of Ireland's main website and its Genealogy platform are experiencing technical problems. The snags are resulting in access refusal to the Front door/Home pages, which can't currently be reached.

This has happened at least a couple of times before and the techies have been pretty quick at sorting it out, but as this is a Saturday, the problems may remain until Monday.

While I can't do anything that will help you explore the main site, I can offer some access to the Genealogy site.

Below are the direct links to the most essential databases.

Click on them and you'll find yourself on the 'home' page of the database and can then freely search for records:

There may be a couple of other databases on the site; as I can't remember what they are, I'm fairly confident they aren't of major importance. I think most Irish family historians will be happy enough with the collections listed above for a couple of days.

I can't guarantee that access to the databases will hold up until the maintenance crew sort out the site's problems. But they are working at 5:30pm on Saturday 2 October.

Monday 4 October, 10am. From the NAI on Twitter:


Tuesday 5 October, 8:30am. Both sites appear to be functioning well this morning, although I will check again in a few hours.

Tuesday 5 October, 13:30am. All seems well with the two sites. I hereby declare the crisis over.

English, Scottish and Welsh genealogy updates: 1-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 over the last week (see previous summary, 24 September).

My 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 €$£ collections, shared with FindMyPast (total 45,184,062 pages)

FamilySearch

National Library of Scotland


UPDATED COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

DeceasedOnline

FamilySearch

FindMyPast

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.