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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Merry Christmas!