RootsIreland adds 13,500 Catholic records from Co. Tipperary

RootsIreland.ie has uploaded an additional 13,500 records of Roman Catholic baptisms and marriages to its South Tipperary database. They are:

• Baptisms: 11,000+ records spanning 1814-1900 (with gaps).
• Marriages: 2,500 records spanning 1814-1900.
  

All have been transcribed by genealogists at the Brú Ború Heritage Centre in Cashel from locally-held registers for the parish of Ballingarry.

Transcriptions dated up to 1880/81 include a link to the register images held by the National Library of Ireland.

Click the logo above to view the full menu of records searchable in the RootsIreland.ie database.

Note, 31 January: This blogpost has been updated with details of the newly-transcribed baptism records which were not included in the original update notification.

English, Scottish and Welsh genealogy: 3-week summary of updates

Below is a summary of new and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales released by the major genealogy databases over the last three weeks (see previous summary, 7 January).

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

• UK, Portraits and Photographs, 1547-2018 (156,645 images)

BritishNewspaperArchive, shared with FindMyPast (total 47,292,474 pages)

• New titles in main collection ($£€)

	Romsey Register And General News Gazette	Skegness News
	Langport & Somerton Herald	Yorkshire Factory Times
	Aldershot News	Magnet (London)
	Skyrack Courier	Hoddesdon and Broxbourne Mercury
	Liverpool Merc. Gazette & Myers's Wkly Advtr	Finchley Press

FindMyPast

• Police Gazette 1921

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

Ancestry

• UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 (new total 16,201,620)
• UK and Ireland, Find a Grave Index, 1300s-Current (new total 13,696,805)
• England & Scotland, Select Cemetery Registers, 1800-2016 (new total 3,606,769)

FamilySearch

• England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988 (228,246 added)
• England, Northumberland Non-Conformist Church records, 1613-1920 (14,753 added)
• England, Lincolnshire, Marriage Bonds & Allegations, 1574-1885 (3,545 added)

FindMyPast

• Berkshire Baptisms(nearly 1million transcriptions added)
• Berkshire Burials (new total 1,456,503 transcriptions)
• Berkshire Marriages and Banns (new total 956,431 transcriptions)

FreeBMD

• Civil BMDs, England & Wales: (3,686,691 added. New total: 286,836,234 distinct records)

General Register Office

• Births and Deaths in 2020 – Indexes for England and Wales

TheGenealogist

• Landowner and occupier property tax records, 1910, from IR58 for Camden and surrounding London areas. (72,000 records)
  Includes Albany, Belsize, Camden Town, Chalk Farm, Euston, Grays Inn Road, Highgate East, Highgate West, Kilburn, Priory & Adelaide (Hampstead), St Andrew East and West, St Giles East/North/South, Saffron Hill, Somers Town, and Tottenham Court Road.

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National Archives of Ireland's Reading Room returns to full capacity

Over the weekend, the Irish government has removed most Covid-related public health measures that have impacted libraries and archives over the last two years, and a steady, phased return to workplaces started yesterday.

With the relaxing of social distancing rules, the National Archives of Ireland's Reading Room in Bishop Street, Dublin 8, will return to full seating capacity from next Monday, 31 January. Mask wearing by researchers and staff will remain compulsory, for the time being.

The online appointment booking system will also remain in place. It will offer four weeks’ availability on a rolling basis, with new dates added every Friday around 9am.

Currently opening times are: Monday to Friday 10am-5pm, but closed for lunch 1pm-2pm when researchers are required to vacate the Reading Room.

To complete a booking you need to have or have applied for a Readers’ Ticket.

Irish genealogy, history & heritage events, 24 January to 9 February

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.

JANUARY

Monday 24 January: Morristown Lattin: the estate & its tenants in the 18th century, with Dr Emma Lyons. An online lecture hosted by Offaly History as the first of its 2022 Spring programme. All welcome. Free. 7:30pm via Zoom. Email info@offalyhistroy.com for the link.

Tuesday 25 January: Family History through Old Newspapers, with Dr David Hume 7:30pm-9pm. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Causeway Coast and Glens Branch. 7:30pm-9pm. Free. All welcome. Send email to Causeway@nifhs.org for link. Details.

Tuesday 25 January: Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors, an online class for intermediate researchers, with John Beatty. Host: Allen County Public Library, Indiana, USA. 2:30pm –3:30pm EST. Free and all welcome. Need to register.

Tuesday 25 January: Fate Unknown: Tracing the Missing after the Holocaust, an online talk with Elise Bath, marking Holocaust Memorial Day. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 2-3pm. Free. All welcome. Booking essential. Details.

Tuesday 25 January: The life and times and musical influences of John Kelly, the noted traditional musician from West Clare, with his grandaughter, Aoife Kelly. Host: Kilrush and District Historical Society. 8pm. Online. All welcome. Free, but donations always welcome. Details and link.

Wednesday 26 January: Getting Started Workshop - Using Online Resources. A free online workshop designed to help beginner researchers identify, locate and explore the collections held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 12:30pm. Need to register. (This regular event is usually over-subscribed, so book early.)

Wednesday 26 January: The Buildings of Georgian of Cork City and County, 1714-1830, with Frank Keohane. Host: Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. 7:30pm. Online. All welcome. Register here or email info@corkhist.ie for zoom link.

Thursday 27 January: Launch of Belfast Workhouse Indexes, a collection with downloadable files that was recently added to PRONI's ecatalogue. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 1pm. Free. All welcome. Details and registration.

Thursday 27 January: Researching your Roman Catholic ancestors, an online talk with Joan Sharkey MAGI. Host: National Archives of Ireland's evening lecture series 2022. 6pm. All welcome. Book your free ticket here.

Thursday 27 January: Possessing Ireland: George Petrie and the Translation of Landscape, with Dr Elizabeth Tilley. Hosts: Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Annual Lecture) and National Library of Ireland. 7pm. Free. All welcome. Need to book. Details.

Friday 28 January: WB Yeats: Folklore and Fairy Tales, with Ruth Concannon. An online talk to mark the 150th anniversary of the poet's death. Host: National Library of Ireland. 2pm. Free. Need to book. Details. Fully booked.

Friday 28 January: The experience of Waterford loyalists in the revolutionary decade 1912-1923, with Dr Pat McCarthy. Host: Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society. An in-person event to be held at St Patrick's Gateway Centre, Patrick St, Waterford City. 6pm. Free. All welcome. Seats allocated on a 'first come' basis. Details.

Monday, 31 January: The traditions and folklore associated with St Brigid's Day (1 Feb), with artish/folklorist Michael Fortune. Host: National Library of Ireland. An online presentation. Free. Starts 7pm. Need to book.

FEBRUARY

Tuesday 1 February: Glasnevin Cemetery – Women’s Tour, as part of Brigit 2022, Dublin City Celebrating Women programme. A special in-person tour of some of the influential women are buried in the nation's necropolis. Free. Starts 10:30am. Host: Glasnevin Cemetery, Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11. Booking required. Details.

Tuesday 1 February: Ireland 1922: Women in independence, partition and civil war, an online discussion with Fionnuala Walsh, Lindsey Earner-Byrne and Mary McAuliffe. Chaired by Darragh Gannon. Hosts: Royal Irish Academy and Department of Foreign Affairs.. 6pm to 7pm. No booking required. Free. All welcome. Details.

Tuesday 1 February: Smart Women, French Letters and Fast Commission – the second wave of Irish Feminism, Catriona Crowe in conversation with Suzanne Lynch. Host: Embassy of Ireland, Belgium, marking St Brigid's Day. 6pm in Belgium. 5pm Irish time. Online. Free but need to register.

Wednesday 2 February: Antrim - the Irish Revolution, 1912-23, with Dr Brian Feeney, author of a newly published book of the same name. The online talk will explore how the Ulster Crisis, Great War and Irish Revolution in Antrim shaped the political, economic and social aspects of people’s lives from 1912 to 1923. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). Free. All welcome. 7pm to 8pm. Booking required. Registration closes one hour before the event and an invite link will be sent to everyone registered one hour before the beginning of the event.

Wednesday 2 February: Getting Started with Irish Genealogy Research, an online workshop with Miles Davenport. Host: Irish Cultural Center and McClellan Library, Phoenix, USA. 11am to 1pm. Cost: Members: $15 | Non-Members: $20. Find out more, here.

Wednesday 2 February: Mapping Death: Burial in the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval Ireland, with Dr Elizabeth O'Brien. An online lecture hosted by Rathmichael Historical Society. 8pm. Free. All welcome. Details and link.

Monday, 7 February: H & J Martin, the Builders, with Joanne Martin talking about her Martin family. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Killyleagh Branch. 8pm - 9:30pm GMT. Free. All welcome. To join the online meeting, send email to Killyleagh@nifhs.org.

Tuesday 8 February: DNA – Life, Death, Disease & Genealogy, with Professor Anthony Bjourson. An online lecture. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Foyle Branch. 7pm - 8:30pm GMT. All welcome. Free. To join the meeting, send email to Foyle@nifhs.org. Details.

Tuesday 8 February: Belfast and the Slave Trade, with Clifton House. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Lisburn Branch. 8pm - 9:30pm GMT. Free. All welcome. To join the online meeting, send email to Lisburn@nifhs.org.

Tuesday 8 February: Newfoundland and Labrador: A mosaic founder population of an Irish and British diaspora from 300 years ago, an online lecture by Dr Edmund Gilbert. Host: Genealogical Society of Ireland. 8pm. Non-members can email (to Membership@familyhistory.ie) for link.

Wednesday 9 February: Oral history – an introductory workshop with Dr Tomás Mac Conmara who will discuss the value of oral history and the key skills required. Free. 7pm to 8:30pm. Online. To book a place email heritage@westmeathcoco.ie.

Maintenance may impact GRONI's online systems this weekend

The General Register Office of Northern Ireland (GRONI) has advised that essential maintenance may knock out some of its online systems this weekend.

The work may affect customers wanting to use the record search facilities or place online orders for certificates between 7am on Saturday 22 January until 6am on Sunday 23 January.

Irish adoptees given right of access to birth certificates and more

After far too many years of campaigning by adopted people for the right to know their full birth and early childhood details, Ireland has introduced new laws giving adoptees automatic access to their birth records for the first time. The Birth Information and Tracing Bill was launched last week by Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman and came exactly one year after the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes report was published.

The new legislation provides for the release of the person's birth certificate, information about their birth, early life and care, and medical background. These details, which will be unredacted, will be provided even if the mother or genetic relatives object.

Early life information will include the release of baptismal certificates and copies of entries in the parish baptism register.

The latter, as all Irish genealogists know, often provide names and other details of family and friends.

A comprehensive statutory tracing service will now be set up for anyone who wishes to make contact, or share or seek information about their birth and early life. This will establish a Contact Preference Register to allow people to “register their preference for contact with family, as well as a mechanism to lodge communications and contemporary medical information which can be shared with family members.”

This register will supersede the existing national Adoption Contact Preference Register; all current entries will be transferred to the new version.

Funding of €4million has been allocated to the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, and the Adoption Authority of Ireland, which together will need to recruit upwards of 30 additional staff to provide the new services.

When the legislation has passed all the formalities, a three-month-long public awareness campaign will advertise the new rights in Ireland, Britain, the USA and Australia. Adopted people and their mothers will be encouraged to register their preferences on whether or not they want contact. At the end of that campaign, the new service should be ready to launch. It is hoped it will be up and running this year.

For more information, see the Government's detailed Press Release and accompanying pdfs.

APCL's Periodical Source Index (PERSI) to return home soon

Last week, the Allen County Public Library (ACPL) in Indiana presented a workshop and Q&A session to announce a major development affecting their PERiodical Source Index, better known as PERSI. The database has been accessible on several online sites over the years and is currently hosted as a free collection at FindMyPast, but it is finally going home, and will soon be accessible via the ACPL website.

    PERSI is the creation of the Allen County Public Library

I wasn't able to attend the workshop myself, but Library staff have told me that a recording will be live on YouTube in a matter of days (link here).

Meanwhile, ACPL staff continue to rejig and clean up the website before PERSI's homecoming launch. When all is ready, a direct link to the PERSI page will be placed on the ACPL Home page and on the Free Databases page.

If you would like to check out the new PERSI before the behind-the-scenes work is finalised, you can do so at https://www.genealogycenter.info/persi/, or click the image right.

PERSI is the largest subject index to genealogy and local history periodical articles in the world.

Its index of nearly three million entries offers articles, how-to guides, genealogies, biographies, family stories, cemetery and church records, deeds, local histories, maps, obituaries and much more. All have appeared in family, social and local history periodicals published by societies around the world. These publications cover the area or subject specific to that society, and often go into considerable details, some of which may contain information about your ancestral family, the places or communities in which they lived or other relevant subjects.

The 10,000+ journals and newsletters held in the database date back to 1800. Most of the articles are from societies based in the USA and Canada, but there are also thousands of entries from Ireland, Australia and the UK.

Bang on 100 days, my certificates.ie order has been fulfilled

  Part of the long-awaited birth certificate

Pass the smelling salts.

This morning the 'full standard' €20 birth certificate I ordered on certificates.ie on 7 October finally arrived in my postbox.

When I placed my order, the website said it would take 10 days to despatch, which I considered fine for a certificate that wasn't (then) urgently required and would save me the hassle of travelling to a local civil registration service office.

What a mistake. Exactly 100 days later, and after experiencing the poorest customer service I have ever encountered, I finally have the document in my mits, and I can be absolutely certain that I won't be using the 'service' again.

As it turns out, no one can use it at the moment. The certificate.ie online 'service' is currently suspended.

Project launched to encourage use of Irish language in Dublin City

A new project to encourage the use of the Irish language in Dublin City has been launched today by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Some €325,000 of approved funding has been secured for Conradh na Gaeilge to establish and develop the BÁC le Gaeilge project between 2021 and 2024.

The establishment of BÁC le Gaeilge is seen as an opportunity to increase the use of the language in Dublin city where there is a large Irish language community due to a wide range of Irish language establishments being located there.

These include early education services, gaelscoileanna and Gaelcholáistí, Irish language organisations, two radio stations broadcasting in Irish, Na Gaeil Óga GAA club, third level courses in Irish and many other bodies.

Conradh na Gaeilge, in partnership with Dublin City Council, has set out a programme of activities to ensure that the language is heard and seen more around Dublin city.

Its Head Office at 6 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2, will be used as a centre for businesses and the public to provide information about the services available in Irish and to encourage them to use those services.

Businesses will be encouraged to use Irish in signage, websites, advertising and menus in cafes and restaurants, and an Irish Language Quarter/Area will be developed.

Niamh O'Kennedy, spokesperson for Murphy's Ice Cream, a local business supporting the initiative, says she believes the launch has come at the perfect time: “We have been seeing a huge increase and interest from both our customers and staff in the Irish language. So much so we are now offering all our staff the opportunity to avail of free Irish language lessons. With support of organisations like Baile Átha Cliath le Gaeilge, we believe the Irish language can be accessible and enjoyable for all.”

The company plan to use more Irish in its retail marketing material both online and in store.

Burning the Big House: free lecture series (online) and exhibition

The Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates (CSHIHE) will host an interesting lecture series this spring exploring the burning of nearly 300 country mansions – long-time symbols of power and oppression – in the last years of Ireland's Revolutionary Era.

The Burning the Big House lecture series is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media as part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme. The free, online lectures will be presented on Thursday evenings (7pm to 8pm), from 24 March to 19 May and are open to all.

You need to register in advance and can make a donation to CSHIHE at the same time, if you so wish.

The first and last lectures will be delivered live, online. All the others will be pre-recorded and aired according to the following schedule:

24 MARCH: Burning the Big House: the story of the country house during the Irish Revolution, 1920-23, with Terence Dooley

31 MARCH: Revolution, agrarianism and the burning of Ballydugan House, Co Galway, 1922, with Ann O’Riordan

7 APRIL: ‘A barbarous mania of incendiarism’: house burnings in Co Louth, 1921-23, with Jean Young

14 APRIL: ‘A smouldering mass of charred stones’: The burning of country houses in Offaly, 1920-1923, with Ciarán Reilly

21 APRIL: Munster’s ‘Campaign of Fire’: Big House burnings in Counties Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford, 1922–23, with Gemma Clark

28 APRIL: ‘Ours must go in time’: the burning of Sir John Keane’s Cappoquin House, Co Waterford, with Glascott Symes

5 MAY: The ruined Irish country house: reality and perception, with Robert O'Byrne

12 MAY: ‘Such troubled times’: the burning of big houses in Northern Ireland 1921-1981, with Olwen Purdue

19 MAY: Ablaze! Fire and the country house: a perspective beyond Ireland, with Christopher Ridgway.

These talks will run in tandem with Burning the Big House: The Story of the Irish Country House in Revolution, 1920-23, an exhibition curated by Professor Terence Dooley. This will be hosted by the Irish Architectural Archives, 21 March–29 April, and by Maynooth University Library in May.

Book your free tickets, here.

(Terence Dooley's 386-page book, 'Burning the Big House: The Story of the Irish Country House in a Time of War and Revolution', will be published by Yale University in March 2022.)

RootsIreland adds 386 surname histories to Derry database

RootsIreland.ie has added 386 surname histories to its Derry Genealogy database of more than 910,000 records. These histories have been compiled by Brian Mitchell MAGI who manages the Derry family history centre and is well-known for his many excellent genealogical publications, some of which relate only to Derry while others have an all-island focus.

Click to view menu of online sources

These surname histories (see an introduction to the topic here) cover mostly Gaelic and Planter names from the north-west of Ireland and are an invaluable guide to those researching their family from these areas. The surnames and their numerous spelling variations have been recorded in Derry Genealogy's database of church and civil registers spanning 1628–1930.

They are free to subscribers. You'll find a list of the included surnames here.

There is some repetition on background to surnames in each surname history as the intention was to create a surname history for each surname that enabled the bearer of that surname to understand the wider origins of their surname as well as its connection to a particular locality.

Although only detailed family history research will confirm the actual origins of an ancestor, surname histories are a very useful first step in any exploration of Irish roots. Surnames, as they are very much connected to place in Ireland, are an integral part of Irish identity and family history; hence they further cement a connection with Ireland among the Irish Diaspora.

Also included on the RootsIreland.ie site is a list of the top 60 surnames of Derry City.

Free online launch and workshop: Belfast Workhouse Indexes

If you've been enjoying (or even struggling with) PRONI's recently released Belfast Workhouse Admissions Indexes, here's the online workshop to help you get the best out of this collection.

PRONI will officially launch the Register Indexes and present the workshop on Thursday 27 January at 1pm; Janet Hancock, Jayne Hutchinson and Joy Carey will outline the importance of the Board of Guardian archive and navigate users through the search facility.

The one-hour workshop will be on zoom. It is free, but you need to register your place. As a brand-new release of records that have never been online before, I imagine the workshop will be over-subscribed, so book early to guarantee your place.

Details and booking.

New and updated US family history collections: 5-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 five weeks. (The previous summary list was published on 10 December 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

• Dartmouth, MA: Quaker Records, 1699-1920 (5,500 records in launch package) Free.

Ancestry

• Oregon, County Births and Deaths, 1855-1970 (415,484)
• Wisconsin, Birth Records, 1812-1921 (441,036)
• Wisconsin Marriage Records, 1820-2004 (4,836,848)
• Wisconsin, Death Records, 1959-2004 (1,930,365)

FindMyPast

• USA California Immigration Office Special Inquiry Records (66,304)

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

AmericanAncestors

• Massachusetts: RC Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 (84,500 names added)
  Parishes: Immaculate Conception, Everett (prev. St Mary's | St Cecilia, Ashland | St James the Apostle, Arlington | St Mary, Franklin.
• MA Catholic Cemeteries Association, Archdiocese of Boston, 1833-1940 (177,000/760,000)

Ancestry

• Arkansas, Naturalization Records, 1907-1968 (Performance improved. No new records)
• Wyoming, Territorial Census 1869 + City of Cheyenne Censuses 1875 & 1878 (13,099)
• South Carolina, Birth records, 1915-1919 (new total 726,942)

FamilySearch (added records)

• Alaska, Vital Records, 1816-2005 (5,987)
• Georgia, Tax Digests, 1787-1900 (332,438)
• Hawaii, Registrar of Bureau of Conveyances, Deed Records, 1846-1900 (2,452)
• Illinois, Cook County, Birth Certificates, 1871-1949 (20,511)
• Iowa, Delayed Birth Records, 1850-1939 (679,673)
• South Carolina, Charleston Dist. Bill of sales of Negro slaves, 1774-1872 (2,284)
• Virginia, County Marriage Records, 1771-1989 (40,385)
• Washington, County Death Registers, 1881-1979 (7,551)
• Missouri, Phelps, Crawford, Dent, Washington Counties, Obits, 1880-1990 (514,832)
• Texas, Grimes County, Deed Records, 1869-1917 (1,377)

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Two more Irish papers join BritishNewspaperArchive database

It was good to see two more historical Irish newspapers join the BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk's online database this week. The two new titles are noted below:

The Bray (and South Dublin) Herald, 1876-1915. Over its 40 years of publication, this paper mainly served the coastal town of Bray but also noted Kingstown, Dalkey and Arklow as its advertising and reporting areas. So far, the online BNA holding runs, with gaps, to 1901, but the fully digitised holding will eventually extend to 1915.

The Irish Emerald: One of the best-known and earliest of the Irish 'story paper' genre, the Irish Emerald published fiction and 'true' tales set in Ireland and with Irish characters. Largely aimed at youngsters and the less well educated, the paper also ran some factual and educational pieces. In its earliest incarnation (1877–91) it was known as Young Ireland, before changing its title to The Emerald and finally, from 1891-1912, to The Irish Emerald.

Both these titles are also now available to search and view at FindMyPast, the BNA's sister company, by researchers with a Pro subscription.

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.

NIFHS launches Spring 2022 programme of classes and courses

The North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS) has announced its Spring 2022 Programme of online (zoom) classes and courses, and it offers a good line-up of topics for researchers of all levels. Each class/session typically lasts for about 90-minutes, with questions and answers following a one-hour talk. They are all presented live, online, and are not recorded.

Below is a brief summary:

Free Classes (no charge)

• More Online Resources – Morning option
• More Online Resources – Afternoon option
• NIFHS Look Up Service
• What’s New in Family Tree Maker
• DNA Day – Beginner’s Talk

One-Session Classes – £10 per class

• Griffith’s Valuation Records
• Introduction to Scottish Online Records
• Emigration to Australia and New Zealand*
• PRONI Online Records
• Using Ancestry DNA
• Five Top Tips for Analysing your DNA

Two-Session Courses – £15 per course

• Strictly for Beginners – Mornings option
• Strictly for Beginners – Afternoons option
• Family Finder

A Class Notes booklet £5) is available as an optional extra fo those attending the “Emigration to Australia and New Zealand” Class. See booking details.

Bookings are now open, and it's a good idea to book early as the NIFHS classes are always popular and often book out very quickly. For more about the content of each class and course, the names of presenting tutors and how to book, see the NIFHS website.

Ancestors from Co. Monaghan? See new records on RootsIreland.ie

RootsIreland.ie has uploaded 5,861 records to its County Monaghan database. The additions are an attractive mixed bundle of records featuring transcrptions from Church of Ireland (CI), Presbyterian (PR) and Roman Catholic (RC) registers of baptism, marriage and burial. There is also a list of CI parishioners in Monaghan dating from 1802.

The details are below:

Baptisms:

• Errigal (Shanco) (CI, 1877-1961): 145 records
• First Ballybay, Derryvally & Cahans (PR, 1799-1831): 1924 records
• Monaghan (First) (PR, 1860-1915): 1068 records
• Stonebridge (PR, 1821-1916): 1043 records

Marriages:

• Ballymackney (Killanny) (CI, 1853-1955): 36 records
• Derryvally (PR, 1846-1918): 178 records
• Muckno (Castleblayney) (CI, 1811-1845): 1036 records
• Muckno (St Mary’s Oram) (RC, 1901-1918): 42 records
• Stonebridge (PR, 1821-45): 284 records

Burials:

• Ballybay (CI, 1823-1931): 703 records

Census Substitutes

• CI Parishioners Monaghan (1802): 190 records

For a full menu of the Co Monaghan holding of records on RootsIreland, click the logo above.

 

MA, Catholic Cemetery Association Records, 1833-1940 digitisation completed

The New England Historic Genealogical Society has completed its two-year project to digitise the Massachusetts: Catholic Cemetery Association Records, 1833-1940 collection, which is now available to search and view on AmericanAncestors.org. The database has been created in partnership with the Catholic Cemetery Association of the Archdiocese of Boston (CCA).

Click to view sample page from St Mary (Beverly) Lot Sales & Interments

A final upload of 177,000 indexed records and images from 34 volumes came from four cemeteries: North Cambridge Catholic (Cambridge), St. Mary (Lynn), St. Mary (Salem) and St. Patrick (Watertown).

The 706,555 records in the completed database are primarily lot sales and interments, and may include information about lot owners, date of burial and location of burial.

Some of the people represented in these written records may not have purchased a grave marker or their marker may have eroded with time, making this collection essential for research into Catholic burials in the region. It is particularly fruitful for those with Irish emigrants, and must rank as one of the most important collections for Irish family historians to turn to for records of their ancestors.

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

If you have a free Guest membership to AmericanAncestors.org you can browse the images and search the index, but you need an individual or above (paid) membership to search the index and view linked images.

A how-to video is available via the link above; it provides instructions for navigating the database and using the cemetery maps.

FindMyPast & BritishNewspaperArchive: what's new/what's to come

While browsing round the FindMyPast website today I came across a New Year message from CEO Tamsin Todd. It contains some statistics for both FindMyPast its sister company BritishNewspaperArchive (BNA), the online home for the still-being-digitised newspaper collection of the British Library. I've noted below some of those likely to be of most interest to Irish genealogists.

I was surprised and pleased to learn that the newspaper database, currently approaching a page count of 47million after 5.6million were added in 2021, will continue to grow to 56million pages by 2023. This must surely mean there are more Irish titles yet to appear. (At present, there are 226 titles from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the online holding, either at the BNA site, or via FindMyPast's top subscription package site.)

I'll keep my fingers crossed there are many new titles from Ireland in the pipe. Historical newspapers have been extremely useful for establishing ancestral facts and details not recorded elsewhere, as well as stories, colour and context.

FindMyPast released 10.7 million new Scottish birth, marriage and death records last year, plus some 32 million searchable Electoral Registers from England and Wales covering the period between the 1911 and 1921 Censuses.

In addition, more than 800,000 crime records were added. This, says the company, makes FindMyPast's Crime, Prisons and Punishment collection  the largest searchable archive of British crime records available anywhere online. Another popular collection to have made its way into the database is the Francis Frith Collection of 300,000 vintage photographs, which records life in 19th-century Britain.

Exclusive to FindMyPast, the greatly anticipated 1921 Census of England & Wales launched yesterday after a mammoth 3-year project with The National Archives of the UK. Its 38million records are now being avidly searched by goodness knows how many researchers, including many Irish, around the world.

View the full Message and a selection of videos about the 1921 Census.

English, Scottish & Welsh genealogy: 3-week summary of updates

Below is a summary of new and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales released by the major genealogy databases over the last three weeks (see previous summary, 15 December).

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

• UK, Royal Air Force Operations Record Books, 1911-1963 (758,658)

BritishNewspaperArchive shared with FindMyPast

• Gateshead Observer
• Louth Standard
• Bexhill-on-Sea Chronicle

FindMyPast

• 1921 Census of England & Wales (38,443,240)

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

FindMyPast

• Warwickshire Baptisms, in Coventry Union Workhouse (1,778)
• Warwickshire, Coventry Workhouse Deaths 1845-1943 (8,292)

FreeBMD

• Civil BMDs, England & Wales: 361,179 added. New total: 283,149,543 unique entries

National Library of Scotland

• Ordnance Survey 1:500 Town Plans of England & Wales, 1840s-1890s: More than 380 towns, each with 4,000+ inhabitants
• Ordnance Survey maps, 1944-1971: 1,481 maps at 1:1,250 and 1:2,500 (Scotland) | 728 at 1:10,000/1:10,560 (England, Wales & Scotland)

Scotland's People

• BMD registers 262,978 register records added: Births in 1921. Marriages in 1946. Deaths in 1971.

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Church of Ireland parish registers list updated with details of materials accessioned during the last two years

In its first Archive of the Month of 2022, the Representative Church Body (RCB) Library has released its invaluable List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers, complete with details of its 54 “new” parish collections added to the Library's holdings since the first pandemic Lockdown in March 2020. It means the RCB Library now holds 1,214 individual parish record collections.

Click to download the fully revised edition

Other additions of historical materials came from more than 90 parishes during this period. Among these were large tranches from parishes in the dioceses of Ardfert, Emly Killaloe and Limerick, and some of the city parishes in Limerick.

The fully updated and colour coded List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers holds details and live links to records of baptism, marriage and burials for each of the 1,214 parishes now in the Library's custody; these parishes are colour-coded yellow.

Additional information is also provided about the whereabouts of all other Church of Ireland parish materials, with details of where copies, transcripts and indexes can be located, and what remains in local custody and other locations. As such, it is an essential reference material for every Irish genealogist to keep in a readily accessible folder on their computer device, and it is free to download by clicking on the image, right.

The January Archive of the Month feature also offers researchers access to lists showing precisely which materials have been accessioned in each of the past two years, as well as providing more details about some of the newly accessioned materials.

PRONI releases indexes to Belfast Workhouse Admission Registers

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has delivered a very welcome New Year gift to Irish genealogists: the first instalment of Indexes for Belfast Workhouse Indoor Relief Registers have been scanned and made available to view, free of charge.

Small sample from an Index page

These indexes have not been fully digitised; they cannot be searched by name. Instead, the pages of each register have been scanned (by date) into high quality pdf files which you can download to your device and search at your leisure, or explore on-screen through PRONI's pdf viewer.

Spanning 1892 to 1921, the available 106 indexes record those who applied for Indoor Relief (meaning admission to the Workhouse). Each register is indexed alphabetically by first-letter-only of surname and then by date of admission. See the image, right. The information noted in the register is limited but hopefully sufficient to help you identify your ancestors or provide some direction for follow up research.

With the date of admission, register number, name and age of an individual, you should be able to locate the corresponding original records held by PRONI.

To search the Indexes: 

1. Go to PRONI's eCatalogue 
2. Where indicated, type in the PRONI ref: BG/7/GK/1 and click the Browse button, top right of page 
3. On the landing page, you'll see PRONI's reference entered. Immediately to the right of that box, click the Search button (don't use the one top right of the page) 
4. You'll see your Search Results for each register with a 'View' link to download the respective pdf.

Should you have any difficulty using the eCatalogue (as a non-regular user of the PRONI eCatalogue, I frequently get caught in a loop, so you're not on your own!), watch this How-to video on PRONI's YouTube channel.

PRONI has told IrishGenealogyNews that an online Belfast Board of Guardians Records demo event will be held towards the end of this month. It is currently being worked on, and when the date is confirmed, I'll make a note on this page and include details in my regular Events listing.

UPDATE, 14 Jan: PRONI's workshop will be on 27 January. Details.

The 1921 Census of England & Wales is nearly here: Register now

As I'm sure most readers of Irish Genealogy News will already be aware, the 1921 Census of England and Wales will be released early tomorrow, exclusively online at FindMyPast. All 18,235,242 images, fully indexed, will be live at 00:01 GMT.

FindMyPast's traffic is going to be heavy, not only from both sides of the Irish Sea but from around the globe, so if you're intending to be one of the first to dip in, and haven't already done so, be sure to register for a FindMyPast account in advance of midnight.

Happy hunting!

	FindMyPast Ireland		FindMyPast North America
	FindMyPast UK		FindMyPast Australia/NZ

Tenth President of Accredited Genealogists Ireland elected

Dublin-based Nicola Morris has been elected President of Accredited Genealogists Ireland (AGI), the island-wide accredited body for professional genealogists which also acts as a regulating body to maintain high standards amongst its members and to protect the interests of clients.

Nicola began undertaking work as a professional genealogist in 1999 after obtaining a degree in history from Trinity College, Dublin. She joined AGI in 2010 and has served on its governing Council as an ordinary member, as Hon. Secretary, and most recently as the Association’s Vice-President.

 Nicola Morris MAGI - new President of Accredited Genealogists Ireland

Over the past decade Nicola has worked closely with the TV production companies for Who Do You Think You Are?, facilitating ancestral discoveries for many well-known public figures and celebrities with Irish forebears.

She has also appeared on several Irish TV shows involving genealogy and history, the most recent being RTE's The Great House Revival.

She also lectures on the Family History Diploma course at City Colleges, Dublin and on similar courses at University College Cork and University of Limerick, and is a frequent speaker on the various lecture series run by National Archives of Ireland and National Library of Ireland.

Nicola also contributes to Who Do You Think You Are? and Irish Roots magazines.

In 2017 she was appointed to the Board of the Irish Manuscripts Commission and in 2022 joined the Genealogy and Heraldry Committee, which advises the Board of the National Library of Ireland.

In welcoming her successor, out-going President Joan Sharkey, who has completed her three-year term, said “I wish Nicola all the best for her term as President of AGI. Despite the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, AGI has been very active, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the past three years. I have no doubt at all that Nicola will do the same. Her clear head and ability to instantly grasp detail will serve her well in guiding our Association in the years ahead.”

Irish genealogy, history and heritage events, January 2022

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.

January

Relatively few events for 2022 have been organised or posted as the New Year begins, but I'll update the list below as the month progresses and more are confirmed.

Saturday 1 January to mid-March: The Treaty 1921: Records from the Archives, an in-person exhibition at the Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle Gardens, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2. Open daily (7/7) 10am to 5pm. All welcome. Need to book free tickets.

Monday 3 January: Bank holiday across the island. All repositories, archives and libraries closed. Some exhibitions and tourist sites open.

Tuesday 4 January: Nearly all archives, libraries and similar repositories reopen after the festive holiday.

Thursday 6 January: Release of the 1921 Census of England and Wales. Hosts: FindMyPast for online searching. TNA in Kew for in-person research.

Monday 10 January: Imbolc/St Bridget’s Day, an online talk with Fiona Byrne. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Newtownabbey Branch. 7:30pm–8:30pm. Free. All welcome. Email Foyle@nifhs.org for zoom link.

Tuesday 11 January: Serendipity follows me on my journey. Family History in British India, an online talk with Jenny Mallin. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Lisburn Branch. 7:30pm–9pm. Free. All welcome. Email for zoom link. Details.

Thursday 13 January: Online tour: From Turmoil to Truce: Photographs of the War of Independence. Host: National Library of Ireland. Free. 2pm. All welcome. Find out more.

Friday 14 January Tipperary in 1921, with Denis G. Marnane. An in-person event. Part of the Tipperary People and Places Lecture Series. Host: Tipperary Studies. Phone or email to book your place. Starts 7pm. All welcome. Free. Postponed.

Friday 14 January and Saturday 15 January: The Handover of Dublin Castle: A Centenary Conference. Part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme, the conference will explore the immediate reactions, the expected consequences, and the implications of this dramatic shift in the centre of power. Host: Trinity College Dublin and Dublin Castle OPW. Free. Friday 2pm to 5:30pm; Saturday 9am to 5:30pm. In-person venue: Printworks, Dublin Castle – these tickets must be booked by 13 January. Live-stream of conference free and no booking required. See programme and other details.

Monday 17 January: Who do you Think You Are? and online talk with Dr Nick Barrett. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Larne Branch. 7:30pm-9pm. Email for Zoom link. Free. All welcome. Details.

Tuesday 18 January: Beyond 2022 - The National Archives, with Dr Ciarán Wallace. Host: Foxrock Local History Club. A free online talk starting at 8pm. Non-members welcome - send email to info@foxrocklocalhistory.ie requesting zoom link.

Wednesday 19 January: Tenement beginnings, first session of four-week online course on the history of housing in Dublin, with Donal Fallon. Hosts: Culture Connects/Dublin City Council. 7pm to 8:30pm on consecutive Wednesdays. Details.

Wednesday 19 January: The buildings of Georgian Cork 1714-1830 - city and county, with Frank Keohane. Host: Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. Free and online at 7.30pm. All welcome. Follow @CorkHistArchSoc for zoom link prior to event.

Friday 21 January: National Archives of Library's Reading Room will be closed for an official event from 10am to 2pm.

Monday 24 January: Morristown Lattin: the estate & its tenants in the 18th century, with Dr Emma Lyons. An online lecture hosted by Offaly History as the first of its 2022 Spring programme. All welcome. Free. 7:30pm via Zoom. Email info@offalyhistroy.com for the link.

Tuesday 25 January: Family History through Old Newspapers, with Dr David Hume 7:30pm-9pm. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Causeway Coast and Glens Branch. 7:30pm-9pm. Free. All welcome. Send email to Causeway@nifhs.org for link. Details.

Tuesday 25 January: Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors, an online class for intermediate researchers, with John Beatty. Host: Allen County Public Library, Indiana, USA. 2:30pm –3:30pm EST. Free and all welcome. Need to register.

Tuesday 25 January: Fate Unknown: Tracing the Missing after the Holocaust, an online talk with Elise Bath, marking Holocaust Memorial Day. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 2-3pm. Free. All welcome. Booking essential. Details.

Wednesday 26 January: Getting Started Workshop - Using Online Resources. A free online workshop designed to help beginner researchers identify, locate and explore the collections held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 12:30pm. Need to register. (This regular event is usually over-subscribed, so book early.)

Thursday 27 January: Launch of Belfast Workhouse Indexes, a collection with downloadable files that was recently added to PRONI's ecatalogue. Host: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 1pm. Free. All welcome. Details and registration.

Thursday 27 January: Researching your Roman Catholic ancestors, an online talk with Joan Sharkey MAGI. Host: National Archives of Ireland's evening lecture series 2022. 6pm. All welcome. Book your free ticket here.

Thursday 27 January: Possessing Ireland: George Petrie and the Translation of Landscape, with Dr Elizabeth Tilley. Hosts: Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Annual Lecture) and National Library of Ireland. 7pm. Free. All welcome. Need to book. Details.

Friday 28 January: WB Yeats: Folklore and Fairy Tales, with Ruth Concannon. An online talk to mark the 150th anniversary of the poet's death. Host: National Library of Ireland. 2pm. Free. Need to book. Details. Fully booked.

Friday 28 January: The experience of Waterford loyalists in the revolutionary decade 1912-1923, with Dr Pat McCarthy. Host: Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society. An in-person event to be held at St Patrick's Gateway Centre, Patrick St, Waterford City. 6pm. Free. All welcome. Seats allocated on a 'first come' basis. Details.

Monday, 31 January: The traditions and folklore associated with St Brigid's Day (1 Feb), with artish/folklorist Michael Fortune. Host: National Library of Ireland. An online presentation. Free. Starts 7pm. Need to book.

Final 2021 update from Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives

During December, volunteers donated a mix of transcriptions and photos from five counties to the IGPArchives database, as you can see below. An important milestone was also noted with more than 6,000 images of headstone in County Donegal now available to search and view.

Sweeny family stone in Doe RC graveyard, Cresslough,
Co Donegal. Photo courtesy Valerie Ackroyd and IGP Archives.
Click for larger view.

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Doe R.C. Graveyard, Creeslough

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Miscellaneous
Destitution - Persons visited in Meenacung, Ardun & Upper Doore

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Kilbarrack Cemetery, Sutton, Part 2 (Updated)

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Marriages
Enniskillen Registry Office Marriages 1847-1921
Lisnaskea Registry Office Marriages 1845-1920

MEATH Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Church of the Nativity of Our Lady Graveyard, Kilmessan

MONAGHAN Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Stonebridge Presbyterian Marriages - 1845-1942

Half price New Year's Sale on Ancestry.com 6-month memberships

Ancestry.com has announced a whopping 50% off its 6-month membership subscriptions.

Similar savings are not available via the co.uk site, but they may be on those of other Ancestry 'territories'... I haven't checked.*

The discount reduces the cost of the half-year packages, all to be paid upfront, as follows:

US Discovery: Sale price $49 - reduced from $99
World Explorer: Sale price $74 - reduced from $149
All Access: Sale price $99 - reduced from $199

To take advantage of this half-price offer, be sure to place your order before 11:59pm ET on Monday 10 January. Click the image above to view the terms and conditions.

* 3 January: A similar half price sale has been announced for Ancestry.ca. Details on my Toolkit website. Nothing yet for UK or Australia.

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Early plans to digitise Irish Land Commission records announced

Happy New Year indeed!

The Irish Times has this morning published a feature about the Land Commission archive and its early-stage plans to digitise its vast collection. As one of the BIG trio of major collections still unavailable online (the others being the Registry of Deeds and the Church of Ireland registers), this announcement is absolutely mind-blowing. If the plans run their course, Irish genealogists will have a fabulous new resource at their finger tips.

Read the IT story for more information.

Obviously, I'll be following this story closely and will report news of all developments here on IrishGenealogyNews.