Wednesday 11 May 2022

Upgraded Placenames Database of Ireland - Logainm.ie - now online

The much appreciated Placenames Database of Ireland – Logainm.ie – has been redeveloped and will be officially launched tomorrow, 12 May, by Jack Chambers TD, Minister of State for the Gaeltacht and Sport.

Improved search functions, additional browsing facilities, and new maps from Ordnance Survey Ireland and OpenStreetMap have been part of the upgrade, and very welcome they are, too (the refreshed site is already accessible).

These upgrades helped me out yesterday when I was exploring a new dna match. The family surnames appearing in the match's online tree looked promising, but the place of origin was stated as Glen Givet. Hmmm. Never heard of that one.

Thanks to Logainm's suggestions and maps, I was soon looking deeper into records for the civil parish of Glenlealy, the neighbour of Wicklow parish, which my mother's maternal line called home for more than two centuries.

I still haven't made the link (I haven't had much time), but I'm reasonably confident I will.

To mark the launch of the improved site, a Place Names Workshop: Place names in bilingual areas will be presented by Dublin City University's All Hallows Campus. It will be held from 10:30am to 5pm in Irish on Thursday and and from 9:30am to 5pm on Friday in English. The programme is available to download here. Any queries, contact logainm@dcu.ie.