RootsIreland.ie adds RC baptisms from Kerry's Annascaul parish

RootsIreland.ie has added some 5,410 baptism records from the Roman Catholic parish of Annascaul to its database.

These additions span 1819–1899 and join recently uploaded marriage records. The latter collection has a slightly longer span: 1809–1911. In both cases, these records pre-date and post-date the National Library of Ireland's online imaged collection.

The parish is also known as Ballanvohir. It is located on the south side of Kerry's Dingle Peninsula.

For an up-to-date list of the Kerry records held on RootsIreland, click the image above.

County Kildare's Grand Jury Presentment and query books digitised

More than 6,000 pages of Grand Jury Presentments and Query Books have been digitised by Kildare County Archives. They are now online, free to download in pdf format and to explore to your heart's content. 

The Grand Jury system of local government was set up in the medieval period. It was initially concerned with the administration of justice, and juries were made up of wealthy local landowners. The Courts sat just twice a year, at the spring and summer assizes. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the Grand Jury had taken on more responsibilities including the management and maintenance of hospitals, asylums, dispensaries, gaols and some other public buildings, and the provision of roads.

The books contain the names of many individuals: contractors taking on public works, medical staff and those caring for deserted children. 

County Kildare's surviving and newly digitised Grand Jury materials can be downloaded from the link above. 

For more about the Grand Jury, see the People, Place and Power flip-book for an informative read, or view a video (here) of "Beyond 2022: People, Place and Power Grand Jury Records & Local History" event held in May 2021.

City Colleges' Certificate course in Family History starts next week

An online Family History course, run in collaboration between Accredited Genealogists Ireland and City Colleges, Dublin, will start on Thursday 28 September. It is a foundation course and will run for 10 weeks.

All lecturers hold credentials as Members of Accredited Genealogists Ireland. Students will be introduced to the building blocks of genealogy such as civil records, church records and census records, and are guided through other exciting resources such as land surveys and historic newspapers.

All training is provided live, online, with real-time instructor-student interaction.

Those who successfully complete the course receive the City Colleges Professional Certificate Award for Family History Research.

An Advanced Level Diploma course will run in the Spring 2024 term. Those that complete the foundation course in the Autumn term will have an option to continue their studies to the higher level.

For details of the course's structure, timetables, modules and lecturers, see the City Colleges website or phone 00 353 1 4160034.

More South Tipperary RC marriages join RootsIreland.ie

More than 2,220 marriage recordsd from the Roman Catholic parish of Boherlahan & Dualla have been added to RootIreland.ie's South Tipperary database. They join 11,000+ recently uploaded baptism records from the same parish. Both record sets span 1810–1900.

Take a look at the full menu of online sources for South Tipperary here, or learn more about the Bru Boru Heritage Centre, where these registers were transcribed, by clicking the logo above.

The Genealogist adds County Laois RC parish registers collection

TheGenealogist, best known for its collection of English, Scottish and Welsh records, especially land records, has this week added another big record set to its Irish collection.

The new record-set provides a fresh index to the National Library of Ireland's online images of Roman Catholic parish registers covering County Laois, previously known as County Leix and as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922.

Most of the Laois parishes have records from the 1830s, but there are many that start some time before this date; the parish of Rosenallis, in the north of the county and bordering County Offaly, reaches back to 1765 for marriages and baptisms.

In total, the new index provides entries for more than 500,000 individuals. Each entry links to the NLI's image.

This is the fourth Irish county to be included in the databases collection of RC parish registers. They join indexes and links for parish records in counties Carlow, Kildare and Wexford. You can view the full list of parishes included here.

Two new online resources free to access in County Clare libraries

Here's some great news for genealogists and historians living in or visiting County Clare.

Over the last couple of months, Clare Libraries have been busy rolling out two new resources across the county's 15 branch libraries and one Local Studies Centre. They are (drum roll, please) the Irish Newspaper Archives and FindMyPast, two of the most important digital resources for Irish family historians.

Both databases are now free to access on library computers. Researchers needs to have a library membership card, that's all, and they can then search and download and print or save articles to their account.

For more information visit ClareLibraries.ie or email localstudies @ clarecoco.ie.

2-week update summary for English, Scottish & Welsh genealogy

Below is a two-week summary of newly released and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales from the major genealogy databases. (Previous list, 4 September.)

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 parentheses in the New Collections section are the numbers of records (or images, if browse-only) in the new record set.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parentheses 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 so the figure is the new total. 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

• Tameside, Grtr Manchester, Burials, 1844-2017
• UK, World War II Army Casualty Lists, 1939-1945

BritishNewspaperArchive (and shared with FindMyPast)

• Four new titles: Schoolmaster and Edinburgh Weekly Magazine  |  Epsom Journal  | 
  East Essex Advertiser & Clacton News  | Kent Times, Tonbridge & Sevenoaks Examiner  | Liverpool Saturday's Advertiser  | 

FindMyPast

• Surrey, Southwark Baptisms (11,354 non-conformist records, 1801–1923)
• Surrey, Southwark Marriages (896 non-conformist records, 1867–1939)
• Surrey, Southwark Burials (1,915 records, 1781–1860)
• Surrey, Southwark Congregational Registers (24,844 non-conformist records 1804–1984)

MyHeritage

• United Kingdom, Deceased Estates Notices since 1998 (737,924)

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

Ancestry

• Worcestershire, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1997 (817,042)
• Worcestershire, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1947 (813,330)
• Worcestershire, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1812-1922 (3,247,586)
• Worcestershire, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1600-1812 (5,469,384)
• London, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-2003
• London, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1923
• London, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938
• UK, Postal Service Appointment Books, 1737-1969

FamilySearch

• Wales, Denbighshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1912 (718,898 including images)
• Wales, Glamorgan Parish Registers, 1558-1900 (929,889 no images)

FindMyPast

• Dorset Baptisms, 1568-1930 (38,873 / 615,707)
• Dorset Marriages, 1470-1974 (52,622 / 675,000)
• Dorset Burials, 1559-1993 (29,730 / 496,992)

FreeBMD Index

• Births, marriages & deaths, England & Wales (3,716,173 / 289,023,749 unique records)

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.

FindMyPast introduces 3-month Premium subscriptions

FindMyPast has launched a 3-month version of its Premum subscription. This new 'bitesize' option provides exactly the same 'all in' access as the annual Premium sub (until now the only option for those wanting to explore the 1921 Census of England and Wales) but for a shorter period.

The 38million records held in the 1921 Census is available online exclusively at FindMyPast.

A 3-month subscription is likely to suit those researchers who, for whatever reason, need only a short and sweet access to this census collection. I imagine it will be popular among Irish family historians whose ancestors may have hopped over the water on a temporary or permanent stay, and those other researchers trying to pin down extended family of their emigrant forbears. 

Whatever the attraction, this new option gives genealogists greater flexibility in planning and approaching their research.

Please note that if existing subscribers who wish to upgrade can do so on a pro-rata basis.

Find out more and place your order for a three-month premium subscription by choosing one of the flags or links below.

	FindMyPast Ireland – new 3-month PREMIUM subscription: €69.99.
	FindMyPast US/Canada – 3-month PREMIUM subscription: US$89.99.
	FindMyPast UK – new 3-month PREMIUM subscription: £59.99.
	FindMyPast Aus/NZ – new 3-month PREMIUM subscription: $109.99.

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. 

Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project continues to add records

The free-to-access database of the volunteer-led Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project has been updated. The main index now holds 565,018 indexed entries (up by nearly 35,000 since the start of the year) gathered from 58,403 memorials of deeds.

The Townland Index has also shown impressive growth over the same timeframe.

These indexes are one of the main finding aids for researchers, allowing them to search for memorials according to the townland location of property and land transferred by the paperwork. Just over 60,000 entries have joined the Project's index since January, and the total number is now 436,104.

To help researchers gain greater familiarity with the Registry of Deeds' material (and perhaps become a Project volunteer?), the founder and manager of the Project, Nick Reddan FIGRS, draws our attention to a particular memorial each time he updates the database.

For the most recent update, he has highlighted memorial number 376480, which was registered on 17 May 1804. Nick admits it's a complex one. "It's a little difficult to understand what is said and what is unsaid," he says. "It appears to be a blended family, with the eldest son of Charles Green being assigned rights to a property in county Tipperary having undertaken to make provision, when his father dies, for his stepmother and step-siblings."

View the Index entry here and consult the memorial's full text on the FamilySearch image here.

Submissions invited to consultation on creation of National Centre for Research and Remembrance at former Magdalene Laundry

Sorry for the late notification.

If you, or someone you know, wants to be part of a public consultation into how a former Magdalene laundry in Dublin's inner city could best be transformed into a place of commemoration for all those who went through all those who went through Ireland's brutal mother and baby homes and industrial schools, you'll need to submit a completed questionnaire by Friday 15 September.

The building, on Sean McDermott Street in Dublin 1, was the last such laundry to close in Ireland (in 1996). It is still owned by the state, and was saved from commercial redevelopment in 2019 and given the protection of Site of Conscience status.

Last year, the Government gave approval for it to become a National Centre for Research and Remembrance.

The National Centre will comprise:

• A museum and exhibition space, the development of which will be led by the National Museum of Ireland
• A research centre and repository of records related to institutional trauma in the 20th century, which will form part of the National Archives; and
• a garden space for reflection and remembrance.

In addition, social housing units, educational, family and parenting supports will be constructed, which will make a valuable contribution to the social and economic development of Dublin’s North East Inner City.

Work is underway to progress the planning and development stages of the National Centre, and a Steering Group is driving this work. The Group is now inviting submissions from interested parties, to an initial, open consultation process. Anyone who spent time in one of these institutions, as well as the relatives and advocates, is invited to respond, as their feedback will directly inform the ongoing work.

You'll find more information and a link to the questionnaire, on this gov.ie page.

Image courtesy of Google Street View

Accredited Genealogists Ireland welcomes two new members

Accredited Genealogists Ireland (AGI), the all-island organisation which both represents the interests of professional genealogists and monitors the standard of their work on behalf of their clients, has two new Members (MAGIs). Step forward Jillian Van Turnhout and Hilary O’Connor.

Jillian Van Turnhout’s interest in genealogy began almost two decades ago when she completed a course which equipped her to undertake her own family history research. She subsequently honed her skills through undertaking research for family and friends. In more recent times she availed of AGI’s Affiliate Programme, before successfully applying for formal Membership. Jillian is a former senator in the upper chamber of Ireland’s parliament, the Oireachtas, and in 2015 she was given Politician of the Year Award. Find out more, here.

Hilary O’Connor holds a Masters in History of Family (receiving 1st class hons.) from University of Limerick. In 2019 she founded her business Lifetimes Research, but before moving into professional genealogy she had a successful career in marketing where she specialised in consumer research. Although she undertakes research throughout Ireland, she particularly specialises in counties Dublin, Wexford and Wicklow. Find out more, here.

Congratulations to both.

More than 600,000 records for Glasnevin Cemetery join Find A Grave

Over the last week an estimated 620,000 records of individuals buried in Glasnevin Cemetery have been uploaded to the free-to-access Find A Grave (FaG) Index. There were previously under 50,000 indexed entries in the database, so this huge delivery of records is a significant development for Irish family history research.

And still growing...!

This morning, the total number of Glasnevin entries in FaG stood at 689,832, all of the new ones with Plot References and basic details about the deceased ie name, birthdate (if known) and date of death. Those in the new bundle are not currently accompanied by a headstone photo.

A further 2,222 records have been added since I took the screengrab, right.

I was alerted to this exciting news by BowWow, a regular contributor to the excellent Boards.ie's Genealogy forum. BowWow has since discovered that the uploader of these records is a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the total upload could top 800,000 new entries when finished.

The Boards conversation is on-going. Follow this link if you want to join in (it's free and you'll need to register... it's worth it).

Many thanks to BowWow for passing on the information to IrishGenealogyNews.

UPDATE 2 October 2023: the FindMyGrave holding for Glasneving Cemetery has topped out at 755,337 records inclusive following the above upload.

English, Scottish & Welsh genealogy: a 2-week summary of releases

Below is a two-week summary of newly released and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales from the major genealogy databases. (Previous summary, 17 August.)

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 parentheses in the New Collections section are the numbers of records/images in the new record set.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parentheses in the Updated Collections section reflect the number of records added to the collection in the recent update. Sometimes the supplier does not made this figure available so the figure provided is the new total. 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, Registers + Indexes of BMDs of Passengers & Seamen at Sea, 1891-1922 (200,260)

BritishNewspaperArchive (and shared with FindMyPast)

• Four new titles: Farnworth Chronicle  |  Western Echo   |  Skelmersdale Reporter   |  Sutton & Epsom Advertiser

MyHeritage

• England, Lancashire, Manchester Burials (855,713)

The Genealogist

• Lawyer Lists, 1780-1911 Judges, barristers and other court officials

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

Ancestry

• UK and Ireland, Find a Grave® Index, 1300s-Current (18,201,134)
• UK, Absent Voter Lists, 1918-1925, 1939 (174,695)
• Global, FindAGrave Index - Burials @ Sea & Select Locations 1300s-Current (15,090,205)
• UK and Ireland, Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current (6,127,518 / 22,596,689)
• Scotland, Burial Monument Inscriptions, 1507-2019 (619,169, no change)
• London, England, Selected Poor Law Removal & Settlement Records, 1698-1922 Unions of Bethnal Green (138,940), Hackney (43,397), Poplar (53,056), Shoreditch (223,940), and Stepney (4,396). Total now in collection, 583,354.

FamilySearch

• England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988 (2,010,432)

FindMyPast

• Norfolk Baptisms (3,853 records for year 1923)
• Norfolk Banns and Marriages (9,703 new records from year 1939)
• Norfolk Burials (239 / 2,748,308)
• Wales Births and Baptisms (15,428 records from 13 counties the year 1923)
• Wales Marriages and Banns (10,236 records from 13 Welsh counties from the year 1938)
• Norfolk Churchyard Graves and Memorial Transcriptions (30,149 / 295,758)

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.

Save 25% on a one-year subscription to RootsIreland.ie

RootsIreland.ie, the database widely regarded as the single most essential for Irish family historians, has the most complete and most accurate set of Roman Catholic church records online. It also offers access to the largest online collection of Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Congregational and Quaker records, plus census substitutes, land records and headstone inscriptions.

The site's user-friendly index holds more than 23 million records in total and additions join the database throughout the year. This year alone, more than 100,000 records have been added from Counties Kerry, Armagh, Tipperary, Mayo, Clare, Cork, Monaghan and Galway.

You can check the online sources available for each county here.

To take advantage of this offer, click the image above, register or login and then subscribe.

If you already have a subscription, click My Account, My Subscription and Start a New Subscription. When your current subscription expires, the special deal sub will start.

The 25% discount will be available until 11:59pm (Irish time) on Sunday 17 September.

Four new and updated Irish collections on Ancestry

Ancestry has added two new Irish record collections this week and updated two more.

Both debutantes are newly created indexes to record-sets held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. While the records have been searchable via PRONI's free online Name Search facility for some years, Ancestry's new index will extend access to more researchers.

NEW

Ireland, Ulster, Census of Protestant Householders, 1740 The original collection was destroyed in the 1922 fire in Dublin and only some transcripts survive. They include 46 parishes across Antrim, Armagh, Down, Donegal and Tyrone, and all parishes in County Londonderry. The returns record only the names of heads of household (no other personal information). Ancestry's new index holds 15,951 entries. See PRONI, here, for more information.

Ireland, Index of Religious Census, 1766
This new index holds 20,506 transcriptions of census returns from 35 parishes in the counties now in Northern Ireland, plus 38 parishes in counties now in the Republic of Ireland. The returns recorded religion as 'Roman Catholic' (also referred to as ‘Papists’) or Protestant.
Protestants were sometimes distinguished between 'Church of Ireland' and 'Dissenter', the latter usually meaning Presbyterian. For more details, see PRONI, here. See sample, right.

UPDATED

UK and Ireland, Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current This collection has grown by more than six million entries in the last three months. As usual with Ancestry's UK and Ireland Indexes, it's difficult to calculate how many entries relate to the island of Ireland. I can't even hazard a guess. Search return information is pretty good, although there may be more available in the full obituary, which you can view on Newspapers.com if you have an appropriate subscription.

Ireland, Royal Hospital Kilmainham Pensioner Discharge Documents, 1724-1924. This newly updated index holds 104,638 transcriptions of discharge documents for pensioners who served between 1724 and 1924. For each record, details may include a brief description of the pensioner together with age, place of birth, particulars of service and the reason for discharge. Searching the index returns good information (see right) but if you want to view an image of the document you'll need a Fold3.com or Ancestry All Access 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.

Seven counties feature in August updates to IGP Project Archives

The resources below have been donated by volunteers and uploaded to the ever-growing database of Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives during August. They are also free to access.

Stone in Kilfergus graveyard, Glin, Co Limerick
commemorating Dublin Metropolitan Police Constable Patrick
Sheahan's bravery (1905). Photo courtesy of Larry Kehoe and
IGP Archives. Click photo for enlarged view.

CORK Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Holy Rosary Cemetery, RC, Midleton, Part 14

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Urney Alt Presbyterian Baptisms 1845-1920

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Slavin Chapel of Ease (CoI) Marriages 1845-1921

KILDARE Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Confey Cemetery, Section S

LIMERICK Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Kilfergus Graveyard, Glin, Parts 5 & 6 - Completed

TIPPERARY Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Fethard Baptisms 1822-1823

TYRONE Genealogy Archives - Civil Marriages
Strabane Register Office 1845-1921