Thursday 15 September 2022

Celebrate the Registry of Deeds Index Project's major milestone

A few days ago, the main names index of the Registry of Deeds Index Project broke through the half-a-million-entries mark. It's taken 15 years for the Project to reach this exciting point, with 501,166 entries transcribed from more than 52,239 memorials of deeds by a band of generous volunteers and researchers.

Their donations of their free time enable other family historians around the world to search the index free of charge.

The number of names held in some 17,000 mighty tomes on the shelves at Dublin's Registry of Deeds is thought to run to several million, so the volunteer project still has plenty of work ahead!

It is already providing access to these records a lot more easily than it used to, and the growth of the main index over recent years has sped up enormously since 2017 when FamilySearch.org released online page-by-page images of the memorial volumes it microfilmed back in the 1960s. Using these images, accessible to anyone, anywhere, with an internet connection, has allowed more volunteers to come forward.

To celebrate this month's major milestone the Index Project team has arranged for four experts on the Registry of Deeds to offer their experience of using the Registry and its priceless archive.

The event will consist of four 20-minute presentations, each followed by a question and answer session. The presenters will be:

  • Nick Reddan – project webmaster
  • Rosaind McCutcheon – the project's greatest contributor
  • David Rencher – Chief Genealogical Officer, FamilySearch
  • Steven C. Smyrl – Chairman Irish Genealogical Research Society

Each of these experts is a Fellow of the Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS).

This will be a great opportunity to learn about using the Registry of Deeds and ask questions about the collection and its value to Irish family history.

The event will be held online and is free to attend. Its timing has been chosen to allow the widest possible audience from Irish genealogists around the globe. See Start Times below.

Registration is via Eventbrite, here. Tickets are limited in number, so be sure to book your place in good time.

Start Times:

  • Ireland and UK – 21:00 on Wednesday 21 September 2022
  • New Zealand – 08:00 on Thursday 22 September 2022
  • Eastern Australia – 06:00 on Thursday 22 September 2022
  • Halifax, Canada – 17:00 on Wednesday 21 September 2022
  • Vancouver, Canada – 13:00 on Wednesday 21 September 2022
  • Winnipeg, Canada – 15:00 on Wednesday 21 September 2022
  • New York, USA – 16:00 on Wednesday 21 September 2022
  • Salt Lake City, USA – 14:00 on Wednesday 21 September 2022