Tuesday 30 November 2021

National Library of Ireland requests your feedback on draft strategy

The National Library of Ireland is developing its new strategy for 2022 to 2026 and is calling on those who use its services to have a say in how the institution can best provide for your needs in the future.

A short survey is awaiting your feedback and it takes only five or so minutes to complete, although I'd recommend you read the Draft Strategy summary before you hit the 'go to the survey' link provided on the landing page. This may add a couple of extra minutes.

The survey will be open until Sunday 5 December 2021.

Monday 29 November 2021

40,000 names added to Irish-rich Boston Savings Bank collection

AmericanAncestors has updated its Irish-rich Boston MA - Provident Institution for Savings, 1817–82 collection. Four more volumes, or ledgers, have been digitised and uploaded, adding more than 40,000 names to search.

     Click image to view a sample page from a Signature Book

This collection launched on the New England Historic Genealogical Society's database in October 2020 and I blogged about its value to Irish family historians at the time.

Rather than repeat that post, I'll simply let you link to it for a quick read, here. It explains the contents of the ledgers and why this is such an important collection for resarchers whose ancestors from Ireland immigrated or settled in Boston, Massachussets.

The collection, when completely digitised and available to search, will comprise six Waste Books and six Signature Books.

Waste Books record transcription ledgers showing how much and when each account holder deposited funds money or requested a cheque to be raised to a third party. Signature Books note personal information provided when the account was opened: Irish county of birthplace, customer's residential or contact address in Boston, occupation and, in some cases, marital status.

For now, the following volumes can be explored in the database (bolded books are from the latest upload):

  • Waste Book 1A, 1817-1820
  • Waste Book 1B, 1820
  • Waste Book 1C, 1820
  • Waste Book 4C, 1821-1833
  • Waste Book 1D, 1 Mar 1821 - 5 Jun 1822
  • Waste Book 1E, 1822-1824
  • Signature Book 10, May 1854 - Jun 1855
  • Signature 11, 1854-1858
  • Signature 14, 1863-1867

Together they provide a collection of just under 70,100 records.

You'll need an Individual-level and above NEHGS membership to search or browse this collection.

Thursday 25 November 2021

New and updated British genealogy collections: 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 over the last three weeks (see previous summary, 5 November).

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, shared with FindMyPast (total 46,252,976 pages)
  • New titles in main collection ($£€)

FamilySearch

FindMyPast


UPDATED COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

FamilySearch

FindMyPast

FreeBMD

ScotlandsPeople



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 24 November 2021

Irish genealogy and history events: 24 November to 21 December

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.

Wednesday 24 November: Stephen Scarth, PRONI, A Century of Archiving – the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, an online lecture with Stephen Scarth. Host: LibrariesNI, Heritage from Home series. 12:30pm–1:30pm. Free. All welcome. Details and registration.

Thursday 25 November: In their own words: children of Victorian Belfast, with Dr Alice Johnson. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Part of the UK and Ireland's ‘Explore Your Archives Week’. An online lecture via Zoom. 2pm to 3pm. Free but you need to book your place at eventbrite.

Thursday 25 November: The Story of the Workhouse and Their Records, with Natalie Bodle. 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.

Thursday 25 November: Reading the Deeds and Sasines: A Digital Humanities approach to the Irish and Scottish Land Records, with Dr Patrick Walsh and Dr Andrew Mackillop. Host: Registry of Deeds/PRAI. 11am–12pm. Free. All welcome. Need to register.

Wednesday 1 December: Using Online Resources, a Getting Started Workshop on Zoom. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 12:30–1:30pm. Free. Need to book. Details.

Wednesday 1 December: An Irish Diaspora webinar, with Claire Bradley focussing on tracing your Irish ancestors to their townland of origin. 8pm GMT. Cost: €10 per person. Online from Dublin. Details and booking.

Thursday 2 December: Exhibiting the past: telling the story of Partition in the museum environment with Armagh County Museum curator Sean Bardon. Host: LibrariesNI, Heritage from Home series. Online at 12:30pm. All welcome. Free, but need to register. Details.

Thursday 2 to Saturday 4 December: The Treaty, a new play from playwright Colin Murphy and Fishamble Theatre Company. An in-person event. The 70-minute play tells the story of what happened inside the negotiations, as Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and fellow Irish negotiators engaged with one of the most formidable negotiating teams ever assembled. Tickets: £25/£21 (online via ICC Hammersmith). Venue: The Embassy of Ireland, 17 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7HRDetails.

Thursday 2 December: Sharing our Story – Northern Ireland's Jewish community, with Steven Jaffe, Amanda Jackson, Bernard Enlander and Lorraine Bourke. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 15:00 – 16:00 GMT. Free. Online event. Details.

Thursday 2 December: Advanced Google Tools for Family History Research, an online NIFHS class with Anne Johnston. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society. 7pm to 8:30pm. All welcome. £10. Details and booking.

Saturday 4 December: Irish winter traditions, with Dr Marion McGarry. Host: Ulster Architectural Heritage. Choose between in-person and online event. Those attending (The Old Museum Building, Belfast BT1 6AR) get Christmas refreshments from 10:30pm to 12:30pm. Virtual attendees (11am start) can supply their own. Full details. Free and all welcome.

Saturday 4 December: Family Tree Maker - Basics and Benefits, an online class with Imelda McVeigh. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society. 2pm to 3:30pm. All welcome. £10. Details and booking.

Saturday 4 December: Irish Civil Registration and Church Records: It’s a New World! and Map It Out: Using Maps to Locate your Irish Ancestors, with Donna Moughty in a two-lecture, online seminar. Host: Hamilton County Genealogical Society, USA. 11am to 1:15pm ET (includes 15-min break at noon). Need to register before 9pm EST on 27 November. Details.

Monday 6 December: Making men pay: the financial support of illegitimate children in Ireland 1800-1957, an online lecture with Professor Maria Ludd. Host: Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society. 7:30pm. All welcome. Free. Email info@offalyhistory.com for link.

Tuesday 7 December: PRONI Online Records, an online class with Andrew Kane. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society. 7pm to 8:30pm. All welcome. £10. Details and booking.

Thursday 9 December: Aspects of the Land War of the 1880s 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.

Thursday 9 December The murder of Martha Lunney and the little histories of partition, with Dr Peter Leary. Hosts: The Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 7pm to 8pm, on Zoom. All welcome. Free but need to register. More.

Thursday 9 December Irish Christmas Folklore, Customs and Traditions, an online presentation by Michael Fortune of folklore.ie. Host: National Library of Ireland. 7pm. Free. All welcome. Need to book. Details.

Monday 13 to Saturday 17 December: National Archives of Ireland closed to the public. Annual media preview.

Tuesday 14 December: Researching your ancestors in Northern Ireland, an online lecture with Gillian Hunt. Host: Ulster Historical Foundation and Libraries NI, Heritage from Home series. 12:30pm to 1:30pm. Free. All welcome. Need to register. Details.

Thursday 16 December: SS Isolda: Censorship, Secrecy and Grief in Emergency Ireland, with Elleesa Rushby. Host: National Maritime Museum of Ireland. 7:30pm. Online. All welcome. €5. Tickets and Details.

Monday 20 and Tuesday 21 December: National Archives of Ireland closed to the public. Annual media preview.

Tuesday 21 December: Tom Kiely: Tipperary's and Ireland's greatest champion, with Dr Kevin McCarthy. 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.

MilitaryArchives.ie releases 11th instalment from the Military Services (1916-1923) Pensions Collection

The Military Archives of Ireland has released its 11th instalment of files in the Military Services (1916-1923) Pensions Collection, a record set that is considered the single most important archival collection relating to Ireland’s revolutionary period.

It comprises many hundreds of thousands of individual accounts of the activities of nationalists from 1916 to 1923. Many family historians, myself included, have discovered details of their ancestors who played a part in gaining Ireland's independence and statehood, and these regular releases of records by the Military Archives always prove popular.

In this latest tranche of 4,230 files, some 1,469 individuals are represented, and in a welcome surprise, the majority of entries relate to women pension applicants.

This latest release means there are now 38,730 fully digitised claim files in the MSPC database.

The MSPC is a huge collection. If you have not encountered it previously, I recommend downloading the well illustrated and thorough Guide to the MSPC. Don't be put off by its 178 pages! It has a high ratio of images to text and will help you get to grips with what is, admittedly, a complex collection of many parts.

Tuesday 23 November 2021

25% off six-month and annual subscriptions to RootsIreland.ie

RootsIreland.ie is offering a 25% discount on its six-month and annual subscriptions.

The database is managed by the Irish Family History Foundation and has the most complete and most accurate set of Roman Catholic church records online, plus huge numbers of Church of Ireland and Presbyterian records. Its collections of registers from other denominations are also the best available online.

Undoubtedly Number One for church records, RootsIreland also offers civil records for around half the island's counties, plus gravestone inscriptions, census substitutes and other miscellaneous records according to locality.

The database of 23 million records is being added to continually. In 2021 so far, the database has uploaded more than 100,000 records from Kerry, Cork, Laois, Offaly and East Galway, and a further 10,000 are coming soon from County Kilkenny.

This current special offer will run until 11:59pm GMT on Friday 10 December. Click here to see the records held for each county of Ireland.

Click the sale splash image to purchase your discounted subscription.

The saving is available to both new and existing subscribers. If you currently have a subscription, click My Account, My Subscription and Start a New Subscription. The special deal subscription will then begin when your current subscription runs out.

Say Cheese! Registry of Deeds agrees self-use digital photography

The Registry of Deeds (RoD) in Dublin has announced a change of policy today which is sure to make Irish family historians happy.

Researchers visiting the RoD's Reading Rooms can now request permission to take digital photos of records over 100 years old.

They will have to speak to a member of staff first, and complete a request form. They will then be able to use a small hand-held camera or (silent) mobile phone, both in flash-free mode, to take images.

Any images taken must be for the visitor's non-commercial historical ressearch.

The announcement has been made as part of the #ExploreYourArchive (EYA) Week, a promotion of the Archives and Records Association, the professional body for archivists, conservators and records managers in the UK and Ireland. It's a busy week on social media with different themes each day (see image below). Use the hashtag to explore twitter posts by ARA members. You're sure to discover interesting archives and record collections, and a good few events are taking place, too.

One of them is from the Registry of Deeds/PRAI and will take place online on Thursday 25 November at 11am, when Dr Patrick Walsh and Dr Andrew Mackillop will give a free lecture titled “Reading the Deeds and Sasines: A Digital Humanities approach to the Irish and Scottish Land Records". It's free and all are welcome. You need to register.

Monday 22 November 2021

Latest updates to Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project

The Registry of Deeds Index Project has received another update and now holds 455,355 entries extracted from 47,738 memorials of deeds. As you can see from the image, right, both the Townland Index and Grantor Index have also been growing.

Managed by founder Nick Reddan FIGRS, an Irish-Australian living in Canberra, the database is regularly fed by a team of volunteers from around the world who extract information from the online images of memorials and related manuscripts hosted on FamilySearch.org.

These images are free to view on your own PC or computer device – and you need only a free registered account to access them.

So, if you've being looking for a deserving transcription project to donate either an occasional few hours, or a more sustained and regular commitment, check out the site. There are good how-to guides available, and if you get stuck or have any questions, there are always other volunteers available to help.

Lowest price of the year! AncestryDNA kits for Irish/UK researchers

AncestryDNA test kits are on sale at their lowest price of the year for researchers based in Ireland and the UK, making it an ideal time to buy gifts for friends, relatives and loved-ones.

Of course, if you're really enthusiastically persuing your ancestors and extended family, it'll also be a good time to stock up!

You have until 11:59pm GMT on Monday 29 November to take advantage of thes saving.

Choose your flag below and place your order.

Offer expired. Links removed.


FindMyPast offers savings on one- and 12-month subscriptions

FindMyPast is offering a 25% discount on one-month and annual subscriptions to its database. All four FindMyPast 'territories' are running the same offer.

To take advantage of the saving, click/tap the most appropriate flag for your main area of research and explore the options available. The PRO or Ultimate subscription is usually the best option if you have emigrant Irish ancestors because, in addition to FindMyPast's excellent collection of records from Ireland, it includes access to FindMyPast's worldwide collection.

Perhaps more importantly, it also includes access to the British Library's online Newspaper Collection with its vast archive of titles from Ireland (213 titles) and Britain.

The savings you can make are, as you'd expect, biggest with the top-level collection.

Another attraction worth noting is the arrival, on 6 January 2022, of the 1921 Census for England and Wales. Only 12-month PRO/Ultimate subscribers will receive discounted access to this much-anticipated collection.

Here are the flags:

The discounts will expire at 11:59pm GMT on Sunday 28 November


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 20 November 2021

IrishNewsArchive: 50% discount on Gold and Silver memberships

As teased a couple of days ago (see post) Irish Newspaper Archive is offering a big Black Friday discount on new subscritions to its ever-growing database.

The half price savings can be had on all Gold and Silver membership options, and on Gift subscriptions, too.

To take advantage of this generous offer, click the link below, follow the link below and decide which sub package suits your research best, and then type in the relevant promo code to claim your discount:

IrishNewsArchive Subscribe

  • Gold Subscription Code, monthly and yearly: BlackFriGold
  • Silver Subscription Code, monthly and yearly: BlackFriSilver

The discount offer will expire on Sunday 28 November.

Friday 19 November 2021

Two-week summary of new and updated US genealogy collections

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 2 November 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


AmericanAncestors

Ancestry


FamilySearch

FindMyPast


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.

OS200 Project to create free online resource for Ireland's historical Ordnance Survey maps and texts

A new website has been launched by the OS200 Project, a three-year project to gather historic Ordnance Survey (OS) maps and present them on a freely-accessible online resource. It is scheduled to complete in 2024, and will mark the bi-centenary of the Irish Ordnance Survey being founded.

Just as the original survey went further than just mapping the island, OS200 will go further than creating a digital home for the maps. It will also reconnect the First Edition 6-inch maps with the OS Memoirs, Letters and Name Books, the informative notes recorded by the first waves of surveyors as they recorded landscapes and localities, customs and antiquities, place names and more, pulling together all relevant material from their work into one online resource.

      Ireland was the first entire country to be mapped at 6" to a mile
The project seeks to reconstruct an ‘ethnography’ of the OS in Ireland, looking in detail at the movements of individuals, as well as their links with others, with informants and other OS personnel, studying the timing and geography of these movements and the unfolding of OS operations across Ireland during the late-1820s through into the 1830s.

Among the team are geographers, historians, linguists and computer scientists; it is led by Professor Keith Lilley at Queen’s University Belfast and Dr Catherine Porter at the University of Limerick.

Take a look around the website for more information about what we can expect from the site as the project progresses. Click the image, right.

OS200: Digitally Re-Mapping Ireland's Ordnance Survey Heritage is an Irish Research Council and Arts and Humanities Research Council co-funded project and is supported by the Royal Irish Academy, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the Digital Repository of Ireland, and the major place-name projects Logainm.ie and the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project (NIPNP).

Thursday 18 November 2021

IrishNewsArchive announces new titles and imminent special offer

The family-owned, Dublin-based Irish Newspaper Archive (INA) has three meaty chunks of news for us this week.

First up is the arrival of The Northern Standard to the online database. This is an important regional paper, published weekly in Monaghan Town, and the longest established newspaper circulating in the county.

It reaches far beyond the county and national border, however, with coverage of counties Cavan, Louth, Armagh, Fermanagh and Tyrone, making this an important publication for family historians to explore as part of their research.

It was first published in January 1839. While the first 46 years of editions are accessible at the BritishNewspaperArchive, the INA holding will run from 1885 to 2018, offering nearly 58,000 pages published over 5,100 editions.

Next, some advance notice of new additions to the INA database. The Clare Champion will be available in the not too distant future with editions published from 1903, and next in line will be The Corkman. Meanwhile, the company continues to work on filling some of the gaps in their holdings of both the Belfast Newsletter and Cork Evening Echo.

And finally, there's a very generous Black Friday Sale just around the corner... It starts this coming Saturday (20 November) and will expire eight days later, on Sunday 28 November. When I say 'generous', I mean half price on both the Silver and Gold subscriptions! The discount will also apply on Gift subscriptions, so look around you (or into the mirror) to see if you know a genie who would love you forever if a Gift sub was under the tree in four weeks time.

Full details of the discount, and how to claim it, will be posted here on Irish Genealogy News (and @Irish_Genealogy on Twitter) on Saturday morning. Link to that post.

New digital archive and database of Irish Catholic clergy launches

A new digital archive and database of the Irish clerical population from medieval to modern times has been launched out of Maynooth University's Arts and Humanities Institute. It's called Clericus.ie.

The first phase of the Clericus project focussed on students and faculty of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, historically Ireland's largest seminary and pontifical university.

The principal sources were 124 student class portraits and student lists dating from the second half of the 19th century to 2018.

Irish family historians will be particularly pleased to hear that parents' names, including the maiden name of mothers, are available for over half of the students.

Class pieces dating up to 1941 can be viewed on the website. Each portrait is supplemented with biographical information detailing the connections of individual clerics to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and elsewhere. (This data includes records of students who matriculated into St Patrick’s, but for whom no record of ordination exists.) Project members are looking to enrich these biographical entries with information gleaned from obituaries.

Now in its second phase, the Clericus research team is expanding the temporal and spatial range of the project to include datasets from the early modern period and Irish clergy abroad. Among the newest additions to the database are more than 1,500 Irish clerics who attended the universities of Paris and Toulouse between 1573 and 1792. Similar research will gather data from Lisbon (1587-1850) and Salamanca (1592-1638).

Several of the most comprehensive records for Ireland’s 17th- and 18th-century Catholic clergy have also been identified. One of the resources proving most fruitful to the project is that produced following the 1704 Act of Parliament which required all 'Popish' priests to register at their local magistrates' court or pay a not-insignificant fine.

The resulting list covers the entire country for one year and provides information on each cleric mentioned. This includes their name, place of abode, parish(es), date of ordination, where they received orders, from whom (ie the bishop) and the details of two lay individuals acting as sureties or guarantors for each priest.

Just under 1,100 priests are listed, along with more than 800 lay sureties and several dozen Irish and foreign bishops.

Future plans, in collaboration with Notre Dame University, will include the processing and ingestion of datasets of Irish priests, and male and female religious, active in the USA particularly. It is also envisaged that the existing dataset will be supplemented with biographical information from SPCM's archives and other external sources.

Wednesday 17 November 2021

BritishNewspaperArchives passes another milestone: 46m pages

The BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk (BNA – the online database of the British Library's newspaper collection) passed another milestone this week and today holds a total of 46,208,982 pages of digitised newsprint published in Britain, the island of Ireland, and some former colonies around the world.

While the BNA;s Irish collection hasn't seen any new titles making a debut in the database over the last several months, some of the papers already in the online holding have been topped up recently. In the last 30 days, for example, the following titles have had extra editions added:

  • The Waterford Star
  • Irish Times.
  • Strabane Chronicle
  • Strabane Weekly News
  • Newry Reporter
  • County Down Spectator and Ulster Standard

The BNA's database can be accessed via the link above or through FindMyPast (depending on subscription type) and currently includes 213 Irish publications.

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 November 2021

Unique Irish Great War Dead Archive launched by Tipperary Studies

Tipperary Studies, the local history department of the county council's library service, has launched an excellent new online resource entitled The Irish Great War Dead Archive.

The newly-developed site was created after military historian and author Tom Burnell presented Tipperary Studies with a unique database recording the names of servicemen with connections to Ireland who died in World War I.

It records not only the individual's war service information but also, where available, genealogical details extracted from GRO, census and other non-military collections. Newspaper death announcements, tributes and obituaries, photographs and last place of residence have also been researched, as have details of death from medical records and civil death certificates, and location of their memorial entry or gravestone.

The new archive represents some twenty years of research by Tom Burnell but is still a work in progress. While details of servicement from the counties representing the Republic of Ireland have been completed, work is continuing to research the Great War dead from the six counties in Northern Ireland.

FindMyPast opens up its worldwide military collection this weekend

FindMyPast is offering free access to all its military records this weekend.

Select your preferred flag below in order to reach the free access page. If you don't already have one, you'll need to sign up for a free account – a quick and uncomplicated process that doesn't require you to provide any financial information – and then you can search and view the collection to your heart's content until 10am GMT on Monday 15 November.


The collection holds more than 60 million military and conflict records, which contain reliable, accurate, and revealing information about our ancestors’ service histories in conflicts that often impacted millions around the world. Among the specific conflicts recorded are the Boer War, Korea and Vietnam, the Maori campaigns, the Easter Rising in Ireland and both world wars. They include records for conflicts dating from 1760 to the 20th century.


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.


Monday 8 November 2021

Irish genealogy, history and heritage events, 8 - 28 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, you'll find all in-person events clearly indicated and the location highlighted in bold.

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.

Tuesday 9 November: The Royal Irish Constabulary, with Jill Williams FIGRS. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Lisburn Branch. Free. All welcome. 7:30pm - 9:00pm GMT. Online lecture – for zoom link email Branch Secretary, Elizabeth Scott, at Lisburn@nifhs.org.

Tuesday 9 November: New Perspectives on Early Modern Cork City, an in-person event with Ciara Brett, Dr. Michael Waldron, Professor David Dickson, and Daniel Breen. Venue: St Peters Cork, North Main St, Cork. 8pm–11pm. Free. Need to register.

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: Doing local history in Offaly: A guide to the sources, with Dr Ciaran Reilly. Host: Offaly Libraries History Lectures 2021. Online via Offaly Libraries’ Facebook and YOUTUBE channels. Free. 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: 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. In-person. Starts from Rathmines Library, 157 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6. 11am to Noon. Tickets: €10. Sold out.

Monday 15 November: Commemorated in Stone: War Fatalities Remembered in Local Graveyards, with Nigel Henderson. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Larne Branch. Online 7:30pm - 9pm GMT. All welcome. Email for zoom link. Free. Details.

Tuesday 16 November: Dublin's housing crisis in revolutionary times, 1915-1923, with Cathy Scufgil. An online lecture hosted by Foxrock History Society. 8pm sharp. All welcome. Non-members can email info:foxrocklocalhistory.ie for zoom password.

Wednesday 17 November: Getting Started Workshop - Using Online Resources, a free online workshop. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 12:30pm - 1:30pm. Free. Need to register.

Wednesday 17 November: The records of Carlow Gaol, with Christopher Power. Host: Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society. Online (zoom link here) but also in-person at Seven Oaks Hotel, Athy Road, Carlow Town. 8pm. All welcome.

Thursday 18 November: Rural and small-town Ireland in the popular fiction of the 19302–1950s, with Dr Catriona Clear. 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.

Thursday 18 November: The O'Briens of Dromoland, an online talk with Colm Liddy. Host: Clare Roots Society. 8pm. Free. All welcome. Details.

From Saturday 19 November: By every means at our command, a new in-person exhibition exploring the War of Independence in Cork. Venue: Cork Public Museumm, Fitzgerald Park, Mardyke, Cork City. Free. No need to book. Details.

Tuesday 23 November: DNA for beginners plus information on the new FTDNA website, with Martin McDowell. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Causeway Coast & Glens Branch. Online 7:30pm - 9pm GMT. All welcome. Free. Details.

Tuesday 23 November: Researching Farming Ancestors, with Dr William Roulston. Part of the UK and Ireland Explore Your Archives Week. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 2-3pm. Free, online. Need to book.

Tuesday 23 November: The Irish Revolution and the making of a new world order: what the archives tell us, an online roundtable discussion with Dr Linda Connolly, Dr Brian Hanley and Dr Fearghal McGarry. Moderator: Dr Patrick Geoghegan. Host: National Archives of Ireland. All welcome. Free. Need to register, here.

Tuesday 23 November: Commonwealth War Graves, an online lecture with Ian Everest. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Belfast Branch. 7:30pm to 9pm. All welcome. Free. email Belfast@nifhs.org for zoom link.

Tuesday 23 November: A large, populous and beautiful town?: Belfast in the Eighteenth Century, with Professor Raymond Gillespie. Host: Irish Cities in the Georgian Era lecture series from the Irish Georgian Society. Pre-recorded on Zoom at 6:30pm. Tickets €15. Talk will be available for ticket holders to watch for seven days. Details.

Wednesday 24 November: Stephen Scarth, PRONI, A Century of Archiving – the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, an online lecture with Stephen Scarth. Host: LibrariesNI, Heritage from Home series. 12:30pm. Free. All welcome. Details and registration.

Thursday 25 November:In their own words: children of Victorian Belfast, with Dr Alice Johnson. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Part of the UK and Ireland's ‘Explore Your Archives Week’. An online lecture via Zoom. 2pm to 3pm. Free but you need to book your place at eventbrite.

Thursday 25 November: The Story of the Workhouse and Their Records, with Natalie Bodle. 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.

Friday 5 November 2021

12-day summary of new and updated British genealogy collections

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, 25 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


Ancestry

BritishNewspaperArchive, shared with FindMyPast (total 45,920,623 pages)
  • New titles in main collection ($£€)

FindMyPast

UPDATED COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

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.


Thursday 4 November 2021

More parish and local histories added to RCB Library collection

Although the RCB Library service has, like so many others, been hugely disrupted over the past 18 months due to the pandemic, work continued behind the closed doors on many projects. These projects included digitisation*, cataloguing, archiving, and the receiving of registers and general parish material. Another task that continued behind the scenes was the selection and acquisition of printed books.

The parish history section of the Library is a valued and eclectic part of the Library’s collection, and the Library continued to accession parish histories that will be of use to researchers, historians, and the general public. Among these was Desmond Gillmor’s Drumlease: Two Centuries of a Church of Ireland Parish in County Leitrim, which was published this year.

Several other local histories are also now on the shelves from areas such as Ballymahon, Shrule, and Kilchreest.

In addition, the Library accessioned many new current affairs, history and biography titles. You can find out more about these latest acquisitions in the Library's November Archive of the Month.

Membership of the RCBLibrary.

*There's no word yet about when the Church of Ireland's parish registers will be online and ready for public access.

Wednesday 3 November 2021

The Irish Exile joins BritishNewspaperArchive and FindMyPast

Among the latest additions to the BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk and FindMyPast's British Newspaper Collection is The Irish Exile, a title published in London from March 1921 to June 1922.

It was the official monthly paper of the Irish Self-Determination League, a nationalist diaspora organisation officially established in Manchester two years earlier at the request of Sinn Féin president Éamon de Valera. Within only nine months of being set up, the ISDL had more than 50 branches across England and Wales.

The ISDL's objectives were defined as follows: To band together the Irish residents of Great Britain, in order that they shall as a body support their compatriots in Ireland, and use every means in their power to secure the application of the principle of self-determination for Ireland and the recognition of the Irish Republic ... and ...to render all and every assistance to any Irish subject imprisoned in Great Britain or Ireland for political offences, and to do all other acts which will further the cause of an independent Irish Republic.

The Irish Exile paper described itself as the 'monthly organ of Irish-Ireland Movements' and it carried news and updates of nationalist activities and the raids, arrests and many deportations of ISDL members by the British authorities. It also brought announcements and reports of social activities, language, music and dancing classes, and includes many names of branch members in its monthly round up of local meetings.

FindMyPast subscribers: please note that this title is in the British, not the Irish, Newspaper Collection as its target readership was resident in Great Britain.


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.