Friday 31 December 2021

Dromore Weekly Times joins BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk

The BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk has added another Irish title: the Dromore Weekly Times and West Down Herald. This paper was founded by R J Hunter. It aspired to be politically neutral and was published from 1900 to 1952.

The online holding will not cover this entire span. Instead it will offer all 501 Saturday editions published from 13 May 1905 to 26 December 1914.

It is the latest addition to the digital archive's collection of Irish titles, and the 26th to join in 2021. It means there are now 226 Irish newspapers to explore. They are split 65 from the counties in Northern Ireland to 161 from counties now in the Republic.

All are available on subscription via the BNA or its sister company FindMyPast (Pro package).


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 30 December 2021

The HSE has suspended all online ordering via Certificates.ie

The Health Service Executive, which manages Certificates.ie, the online ordering site for official birth, marriage and death certificates, has suspended its service. (For clarity, the online site provides only the €20 ‘full’ certificates, not the €5 ‘research’ photo copies more typically used by family historians.)

The Eastern Registration Area of the Civil Registration Service lost all access to all its operating systems as a result of a cyber attack from mid-May to the end of July. Since then, staff have been working overtime and additional staff are in the process of being recruited, to help address the impact on civil registration services resulting from the cyber attack.

Under normal circumstances, certificates.ie was able to issue a certificate in ten days from the order being placed online. Since the summer, the backlog has grown, delaying official despatch times from the original 10 days, to 30 days, then 60 days and finally, in the first week of December, 100 days.

On 21 December the decision seems to have been taken to suspend the ordering service. No date for its reinstatement has yet been given, and no information has been provided to customers still awaiting delivery of their ordered certificate(s). (I know this for certain because I'm one of the countless thousands with an order stuck in the backlog. I placed my order and paid for the certificate on 23 October, 68 days ago.)

Walk-in and phone-and-collect services are still available for those able to make a personal visit to a registration office that provides such services. Click the image above to find out more.

Friday 24 December 2021

Last-minute (digital) gifts for the Irish genealogist in your family

Shop opening hours are ticking down and the vans of online outlets are making their last deliveries. If you've run out of time to do any more shopping – you're not alone, I promise you – see below for a few last-minute gift ideas that will save your blushes and put a smile on the face of your favourite Irish genealogist.

RootsIreland.ie Gift Voucher Ireland's home-grown genealogy database is an essential source for church records of all denominations. It can't be beaten for transcriptions of parish registers of baptism, marriage and burial for Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Quaker and Church of Ireland congregations, most of which are not available online elsewhere. The database also holds Roman Catholic records created over a longer span of time than most other sites offer. In addition, it offers civil records for about half of the island, headstone inscriptions, census substitutes, and much more.

Gift vouchers can be bought for a range of subscription packages spanning a one-day-research-feast to a full year of mining the database. Prices range from just €15 to €225, and can be redeemed online immediately, or at the researcher's convenience.

_________ 

British Newspaper Archive
The BNA is the online home of the British Library's newspaper collection. Don't be confused by its name. It holds more than 220 historical Irish newspaper titles that cover the entire island and span close to 300 years of publication. Some are national papers. Some are regional, and a good many are local – town, city or county, and hold information about people, events, social history, political history and more, that add colour and context to our family research.

Gift subscriptions can be purchased for £12.95 (one-month); £25.90 (three-months); and £79.95 (12 months).

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Irish Roots magazine
Irish Roots is Ireland's only independent genealogy magazine. Published quarterly in County Wicklow, it is always an informative read, full of articles about Irish genealogical sources, Irish political and social history, DNA, overcoming brickwalls, and how-to guidance for family historians.

Each edition brings comments and observations on the Irish genealogical community, news from Irish societies and organisations, letters to the Editor, a round-up of newly published books, a review of recent record releases and other developments, questions from readers and answers from professional genealogists, and much more.

The magazine is available in print and digital formats, in single issues or on subscription, and in gift packs. To find out more, and to download a sample copy of the latest edition, click the link above.

 _________ 

New Irish Genealogy Resources 2021
This 130-page ebook is exclusively available from IrishGenealogyNews and Irish-Genealogy-Toolkit.com.

It notes more than 800 Irish genealogy collections released since 2011 to March 2021, providing brief details about each record-set, and linking to websites (paying and free) or institutions where it may be accessed.

It has a logical arrangement by record type eg census, military, wills, and a county-by-county breakdown of available collections, and costs £8.99, €9.20, or US$9.99.

It is in PDF format. You can find out more (and even download a free sample) here.

 _________ 

AncestryDNA test kits
While there are special offers for AncestryDNA test kits still running for Ireland- and UK- based researchers until close of play on Sunday 26 December, the kits themselves wouldn't arrive until after the New Year if purchased now. If that's not a problem, choose the kit's destination in either Ireland or the UK.

 _________ 

Ancestry gift subscriptions
Membership discounts have been few and far between from Ancestry this year. There's currently just one, for those buying the Ancestry.com packages. It sees 6- and 12-month gift subscriptions attracting discounts of up to 30% across the range. The offer ends on 31 December.

Find out more at Ancestry.com.

 _________ 


Merry Christmas!

Thursday 23 December 2021

Registry of Deeds Index Project doubles entries in Townland Index

The volunteer-managed Registry of Deeds Index Project has been updated twice in the past week. The first update was to the main database, and saw just over 3,000 entries from just over 300 memorials of deed join the index. This means researchers can now search a total of 460,712 index records from 48,264 memorials of deed.

The second update, three days ago, saw more than 120,000 entries added to the Townland Index, almost doubling the total number of searchable transcriptions in this Index.

If you get a chance over the festive break, why not take a look at the many how-to guides available on the Project site and perhaps try your hand at transcribing some of the Townland Indexes (images are free to view on FamilySearch.org), which are probably the most accessible of the material being transcribed? If this time of year is too-frenetic for you, why not make a New Year resolution to help this volunteer team out during the next 12 months?

(And if you need some extra motivation, look at the last blogpost before this one: you'll see the official digitisation of the Registry of Deeds archive is still several years away.)

Tuesday 21 December 2021

Irish Registry of Deeds digitisation project still years from lift off

The Property Registration Authority's new Statement of Strategy 2022-2024, Resilience in a Changing Environment, is now available to download.

Ireland's Property Registration Authority (PRAI), which runs two particularly important services of interest to genealogists – the Registry of Deeds and the Valuation Office – has just published its Statement of Strategy, 2022–2024.

       To download pdf of the document, click image
I was hoping for some clear sense of timeframe for the digitisation of the Registry of Deeds' wonderful archive, but I didn't get it. That's not to say the project wasn't mentioned, however.

Given the last couple of years of Covid-19 related disruption, this is hardly surprising. So much, in so many spheres of life, has had to be moved to the back burner and it is clear from the strategy document that while the project is still noted as live, it is not an immediate priority.

In the immediate future, the PRAI will be merging with the Valuation Office and Ordnance Survey Ireland to create a new Government body called Tailte Éireann (trans. Irish Lands). This new State land organisation will be established in January 2022 and is designed to help the three previously disjointed agencies work more efficiently in its provision of infomation on property ownership. The body will move to a new headquarters in Smithfield’s Distillers Building, Dublin 7, when the development is completed.

The archival services provided at the Registry of Deeds will remain in Henrietta Street. (Also staying put will be the Ordinance Survey's historic manuscripts store in the Phoenix Park.)

In reference to future plans for the Registry of Deeds, this is what the Strategy document tells us: "It is envisaged that a digitisation strategy, developed during the period of this corporate strategy, to conserve and make these archives more accessible in the public interest, will be implemented in the medium to long term." Also, under a list of the new body's High Level Objectives, we have the following: "Publication and implementation over the time of Registry of Deeds Archives Digitisation Strategy."

I think we can take it as read that searching a fully indexed and digitised database of the Registry of Deeds huge archives is still a looooonnnnnnnggggggg way from becoming a reality.

 


Saturday 18 December 2021

The Witness joins BritishNewspaperArchive

The Witness newspaper has joined the BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk (BNA). It is also automatically included in FindMyPast's Irish newspaper collection.

Published in Belfast by Alex McMonagle for the Belfast Steam Printing Company in Royal Avenue, this fortnightly paper is a great source for Presbyterian news over the period 1874-1941. When fully digitised, the BNA holding will contain all editions.

The paper includes presbytery reports; news of congregations in Ireland and of missionary connections; birth, marriage and death notices; and observations and comments on national political and social events.

To explore a free sample edition, click the image, right.


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 16 December 2021

Boston Provident Savings Bank, 1817-1882 records now fully online

Records from the Boston Provident Institution for Savings, 1817-1882 launched on AmericanAncestors just over a year ago, and the latest upload of material to the database was reported here on IrishGenealogyNews only two weeks ago. I wasn't expecting another update just yet! But the final volumes of Signature Books have speedily been added to the database to complete the online collection.

It's great news because this is an excellent resource for Irish-American family historians (and others) and I feel confident it will help many researchers discover the name of the place their immigrant ancestors called home.

The Provident Institution for Savings in Boston was one of the first savings banks to be incorporated in the United States. About 80% of the individuals represented in the early records were immigrants to Boston and it is soon evident when looking at the names and places of former residence that a very large proportion of them were from Ireland.

This final upload sees three Signature Books added. They are:

  • Signature Book 1, 1817-1823
  • Signature Book 4, 1836-1841
  • Signature Book 26, 1880-1884

The Waste Books provide lists of transactions that occurred at the bank. Often this records one person depositing money for the benefit of another person, and these connections may suggest family or friend relationships.

Signature Books typically give the account holder's name and account number, place of origin (usually a county in Ireland, but sometimes a town), residence in Boston, occupation or marital status, and the amount being deposited.

In total, this collection holds 70,086 records.

Wednesday 15 December 2021

England, Scotland & Wales: 3-weeks of new and updated 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 three weeks (see previous summary, 25 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


Ancestry

BritishNewspaperArchive, shared with FindMyPast (total 46,650,244 pages)
  • New titles in main collection ($£€)

FindMyPast

Fold3

National Library of Scotland

UPDATED COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

FamilySearch

FindMyPast
  • Kent Burials (16,013) Dartford's Watling Street Cemetery, extension Brent/East Hill)

TheGenealogist


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.

Tuesday 14 December 2021

South West Cork Graveyards Database adds more burial grounds

Now I know Christmas is coming! Skibbereen Heritage Centre has just delivered a gift that will keep me busy throughout the festive holiday! I have a stoopid grin on my face, just thinking about it.

More than 10,500 more burial records have been added to the West Cork Graveyards Database. These are records from local authority burial registers, and the top-up means that 89 burial grounds are now covered. 

Kilkerranmore: Not a good place for a dainty ankle
The delight for me is that the small 'closed' graveyard of Kilkerranmore, where my paternal family are buried alongside the church ruins, is included. This graveyard is, in the main, a muddle of uninscribed stone markers – the type you stumble over into the long, usually wet, grass, and turn your ankle – and headstones crafted by skilled masons.

While some of my Santrys and extended families have inscribed headstones, most do not. Now, with the help of these new registers, I should be able to work out who is where because, very helpfully, the clerk has noted the type of marker, approximate place of marker, and, in some cases, the name of the newly-deceased's eternal neighbour.

I'm not just excited about Kilkerranmore. There are now 51 Santrys in the database, all in this fairly tight area of southwest Cork. For someone with such a rare name, it is incredibly exciting to see so much potential in just one record set.

The geographical area covered by the database has been significantly expanded by this latest update. Previously all the records were from southwest Cork, and within about 30 miles of Skibbereen. While some of the newest additions are also within that area, a good number reach slightly to the north and over towards the east of the region. All of them have been kindly made available to Skibbereen Heritage Centre by Cork County Council, who are now responsible for each of the sites.

For anyone with ancestors from this area, the West Cork Graveyards Database is a wonderful resource. And it is free.

CavanTownlands.com adds detailed guides to the county's 22 towns

The founders of CavanTownlands.com, family historian Michael McShane and data scientist Catherine Kerr, have been very busy expanding and developing their site since I last wrote about it (here) in August.

With all 2,000 townlands in the county having their own individual page on the site, recent work has seen the addition of a dataset of census and census substitute records relating to 22 of the county's towns, each of which now has its own homepage where all the surviving 19th-century records for that locality can be viewed.

Find out about Virginia Town

Michael told IrishGenealogytNews: "The records include the 1821 census, which survives for 17 of the county's 36 parishes; Tithe Applotment Book records of c1832 covering most towns of the county; the 1841 census of the parish of Killashandra which covers the towns of Killashandra and Arvagh; and Griffith's Valuation covering most of the towns."

An historical map of most towns with townland boundary overlays has been included to help family or local historians in locating records. Other additions see lists of populations and numbers of houses in each town for each decade from 1821 to 1911, and a description of the town from Samuel Lewis's 1837 Directory.

Click the image, above right, to view a typical town homepage, in this case for Virginia.

There is also an overview and introduction to the site's Towns of Cavan pages, which gives a list of the towns, a guide to the records, and an overview to the records available for each.

Michael says the next stage in the site's development will see the 1901 and 1911 census records added.


Friday 10 December 2021

Ancestry UK offers discounts on one- and six-month subscriptions

Ancestry UK is offering savings on one-month and six-month subscriptions across its range of packages. To take advantage of the discounts, click the image below or go to Ancestry's subscribe page to find out which record types are included in each of the packages and how the ubscriptions renew etc.

The discounts will expire at 11:59pm GMT on Tuesday 14 December.


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 IrishGenealogyNews online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

Irish Genealogy Matters: news from Ireland's family history centres

The Irish Family History Foundation's occasional newsletter, Irish Genealogy Matters, has been very occasional this year. In fact, this is the first newsletter of a difficult 2021, when most of the IFHF's island-wide network of genealogy and heritage centres had to close their doors and keep them closed for many months until late summer.

Behind those doors, or, more likely, behind the home doors of centre staff and volunteers, transcription work and research commissions could still continue, of course, and resulted in more than 103,000 records from five counties being transcribed and added to the IFHF-managed database at RootsIreland.ie.

I've reported on all the updates here on IrishGenealogyNews as each instalment was uploaded, but if you missed those posts, you'll find the details in the newsletter.

Other activities at the centres are covered, too, including the opening of two newly built archive premises in Wicklow and Offaly, and restoration to Kilkenny's centre, and other news from around the IFHF network.

To download the pdf, click the cover image.

Three-week summary of new & updated USA 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 three weeks. (The previous summary list was published on 19 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


Ancestry

FamilySearch


UPDATED COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

AmericanAncestors

FamilySearch

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

Thursday 9 December 2021

Eight new Irish titles join online British Newspaper Archive

You read that correctly. Eight. After six months with not a hint of a new Irish paper joining the BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk, eight come along at once.

The delivery lifts this year's total debut titles from across the island to 32, and pushes the current total number of Irish papers in the British Library's online newspaper collection to 224 (63 Northern Ireland / 161 Republic of Ireland).

The new titles are listed below. The dates shown reflect the span of the holding when the digitisation of all editions is completed.

The BritishNewspaperArchive, including the Irish News Collection, is shared with some of FindMyPast's subscription packages.

 

 

Wednesday 8 December 2021

Winter edition of Irish Roots magazine has been published

The winter edition of Irish Roots magazine has been published, and is, as always, an informative read full of articles about Irish genealogical sources, Irish political and social history, DNA, overcoming brickwalls, and how-to guidance for family historians.

Here's a run-down of the main features in this issue:

  • NOW is always the best time to draw your family tree!
  • Researching your ancestors in County Cavan 
  • Revolutionary era records at MilitaryArchives.ie
  • Australian Irish connections - Modern (AU) censuses
  • DNA: What have the Vikings ever done for us?
  • A child’s Christmas in 19th-century Ireland
  • Where to visit when researching your ancestors in Ireland
  • A review of recent record releases and other developments

There are also comments and observations on the Irish genealogical community, news from Irish societies and organisations, letters to the Editor, a round up of newly published books, questions from readers and answers from professional genealogists, and much more.

Irish Roots is published quarterly and is available in print and digital formats, in single issues or on subscription, and in gift packs. To find out more, and to download a sample copy of this new edition, click the cover image.


Monday 6 December 2021

New exhibition: 'The Treaty 1921 - Records from the Archives' opens

Today at Dublin Castle, a new exhibition – 'The Treaty 1921 – Records from the Archives' – has opened. The great and the good have been there this afternoon, so the doors open to the public tomorrow.

The exhibition marks the centenary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921. Its piece de resistance sees the first public presentation of both the Irish and British copies of the Treaty document.

Around this centrepiece, the National Archives presents an exhibition that marks its role as the official repository of the records of the State, one hundred years since its formation. Using contemporary reportage, images and footage, it places the Treaty negotiations in the political context of the Irish revolution and a world turned upside down by the First World War. Beginning with the exploratory talks between Éamon de Valera, President of Dáil Éireann, and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George during the summer of 1921, it details the work of the Irish delegation and their secretariat, by presenting the documentary record they left behind.

Additionally, the exhibition chronicles day-to-day life in London for the Irish emissaries, from the social whirl of parties, dinners, theatre and gala performances, to the tense final days and hours leading to the signing of the Treaty just after 2am on 6 December 1921. Finally, it documents the delegation’s return to Dublin, and the Dáil Éireann cabinet meeting that pointed to the split in the independence movement that emerged over the terms of the Treaty, and the divisions that would lead to Civil War.

'The Treaty 1921 – Records from the Archives' is presented by the National Archives in partnership with the Royal Irish Academy, the National Library of Ireland and the Office of Public Works, with records from the collections of the Military Archives and University College Dublin.

Admission is free, but tickets are needed. Booking can be made via NationalArchives.ie

Opening on Tuesday 7 December 2021, the exhibition will run until 27 March 2022 at Coach House Gallery in Dublin Castle Gardens (Dame Street, Dublin 2). Monday to Sunday opening hours are 10am to 5pm. Closed 25 & 26 December only.



Friday 3 December 2021

Church of Ireland Gazette, 1856-2010, to remain free online to 2033

The RCB Library has confirmed that its digital archive of the Church of Ireland Gazette, 1856-2010, will remain free until at least the end of 2033. Funding to cover the costs associated with e-cloud hosting have been committed by the Ministry for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

The Church of Ireland Gazette, formerly The Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, covered the activities of the Church of Ireland across the island and it is an important resource for genealogists and historians. Researchers don't need to have Church of Ireland ancestors to find The Gazette valuable. As well as exploring the major national and international issues of the day, the paper also carried localised church and social news, which would have been of relevance to all local communities whatever their beliefs.

In addition to keeping the Gazette portal online, the funding will secure similar free public access to another database (here) hosting the Journals of the General Synod from 1912 to 1922, and to six online exhibitions examining various aspects of the Decade of Centenaries:

  • The Birth of Partition: the Southern Experience Through the Eyes of the Church of Ireland Gazette;
  • The Foundation of Northern Ireland: Two Jurisdictions – One Church;
  • The centenary of the Easter Rising, when the Gazette’s editor, Ware B Wells, witnessed first-hand events as they unfolded in Middle Abbey Street, where the Gazette’s premises were located
  • The centenary of the General Convention, 1917-18, as the last time all-Ireland representatives (including church leaders) participated in political negotiations before Partition in 1921;
  • The centenary of the sinking of The Leinster in 1918.
  •  Christmas 1921, focusing on events in Ireland at the end of the pivotal year, through the lens of the Church of Ireland Gazette and other sources available at the Library.

These exhibitions can be viewed here.

Thursday 2 December 2021

Certificates.ie: despatch turnaround has lengthened to 100 days

If, in the immediate future, you have need to purchase an official birth certificate – not the much cheaper photocopy of an entry in the civil registration register known as a 'research copy' – you need to be aware that the HSE-managed certificates.ie is currently working on a 100-day despatch cycle.

Yep, 100 days.

This has increased since Monday (29 November), when, as you'll see from the tweet, right, I was told delays were running at 'an average of up to 8 weeks', ie 56 days. I received the tweet after I queried the non-arrival of a birth certificate I'd ordered on 7 October. The order auto-acknowledgement had said the cert would be issued within 30 days, so when I hit 53 days with no advice about additional delays, I felt entitled to an explanation.

Four days later, the service delay has moved on by another 40! See the image below, which is not a grab the Home Page of the certificates.ie site. No, that still says the HSE aims to complete orders within 10-30 days. It's only when you go to place an order that you discover it could be 100 days. Nearly a quarter of a year.

I have sympathy for the chaos caused by the cyber attack. But there's no excuse for not keeping your customers informed. I mean, come on. How long does it take to update one line of a website? Or an auto-response email? Or the answering message of the customer service contact telephone.

The turnaround time has gone from 10, to 30, to 60, to (this week) 100 days.

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: November update of new files

Unusually, most of the files added to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives during the past month are of Church of Ireland baptisms and marriages. As you can see below, these include transcriptions of registers from parishes in Counties Cavan, Fermanagh and Tyrone. Also newly added to the free archive are Presbyterian marriages for Enniskillen and photos and transcriptions from two graveyards in county Donegal.

All the transcriptions and images were gathered by volunteer researchers with the aim of helping other Irish family historians.

18th-century stone in St Anne's Graveyard,
Ballyshannon, Donegal to James Moore and his
wife MART. Stout, who died 1723 and 1746
respectively. Photo courtesy of Valerie Ackroyd
and IGP Archives. Click for larger image.

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Church Records

  • Killinagh CoI Marriages 1845-1921

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Headstones

  • St Agatha RC Graveyard, Clar
  • St Annes CoI Graveyard, Ballyshannon

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records

  • Enniskillen Presbyterian Marriages, 1845-1921
  • CoI Marriages for Monea, 1845-1890, and St Molaise, 1891-1921
  • Newtownbutler (Galloon) CoI Marriages, 1845-1921

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records

  • CoI Marriages for Monea, 1845-1890, and St Molaise, 1891-1921
  • Trory CoI Marriages, 1845-1921

TYRONE Genealogy Archives - Church Records

  • Trillick Church of Ireland Marriages - 1904-1920


Wednesday 1 December 2021

Christmas savings on Ancestry DNA kits for researchers in Ireland

Ancestry DNA test kits are on sale with a 25% discount until the close of St Stephen's Day for researchers based in Ireland.

The offer reduces the price of the test kit from its regular €95 to €69. Shipping is extra, and you even get a choice of packaging: either the standard box or the more festive version if you're intending to give it as a gift to friend or loved one.

To take advantage of the saving, click the image, right, and place your order before 11:59pm Irish Time on Sunday 26 December.


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.


MyHeritage offers free access to its US City Directories, 1860-1960

MyHeritage is offering six days of free access to its US City Directories collection this week. It will start tomorrow* and run until Tuesday 7 December.

The collection contains records from 25,468 public directories published between 1860 and 1960. City directories were distributed to help residents find local individuals and businesses, and while they come in many different formats, they typically list names (and names of spouses), addresses, occupations, and workplaces.

As such, they constitute a rich source of information for anyone seeking to learn more about their immigrant ancestors in the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. They can serve as an important alternative to census records where those records are not available — for example, most of the records from the 1890 census, which were destroyed in a fire in 1921. (It wasn't only the Irish who couldn't keep their records safe!)

MyHeritage used algorithmic methods to identify and consolidate records from a total of 561,503,516 entries into one set of records per individual. It has resulted in about 560 million aggregated records, each featuring the same individual who lived at the same set of addresses over the span of multiple years. The records also include images of the original directory pages.

* The free access is officially supposed to start on the 2nd, but appears to be fully open a day early.


More Kerry baptisms join RootsIreland.ie

RootsIreland.ie has added a further 6,121 Roman Catholic baptismal records to its County Kerry database.

The new records are for Abbeydorney Parish, about four miles north of Tralee, the county town, and they date from 1835 to 1900. (They match, almost seamlessly, with the parish marriage records, 1836-1900, which were uploaded to the database in July.)

All those dated up to 1880 link to the National Library of Ireland's online images of register pages.

To view the full menu of records – they are currently all Catholic records from 27 parishes – click the image above, right.

And don't miss out on RootsIreland's 25% discount on 6- and 12-month subscriptions. The offer is still live and runs to Friday 10 December.