Ancestry has updated its FindAGrave indexes for the first time this year. Its UK and Ireland Index received a total of 374,863 new records in the last two months.
The updated Index for Northern Ireland now stands at 838,517 entries. For the Republic of Ireland, the figure is 1,314,468.
To search the Index, click the logo, right.
A History of St James's Church and Graveyard, by genealogist, historian and lecturer Sean J Murphy MA, is now available in hardback and paperback formats.
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| Paperback £10.50/ Hardback £15.40 via Amazon |
Dublin's St James’s Church and Graveyard were founded between 1189-92. Following the Reformation in the sixteenth century, it came under the control of the Protestant Church of Ireland. However, during the Penal Era Catholics were not permitted their own graveyards in Dublin, so St James's had a multi-denominational clientele until modern times. The last burial was in 1989.
About 100,000 people were buried here, including Bishop Conor O’Devany, Sir Toby Butler, the courtesan Peg Plunket, the architect of Kilmainham Gaol Sir John Trail, the distiller James Power and the Easter Rising Volunteer John J O’Grady. Dublin City Council acquired the site in 2010 and it is now being restored as a place of public access.
This book also covers topics such as the pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela in Spain, St James’s Fair, the Fountain in James’s Street, body-snatching for purposes of medical research, the building of new St James’s Protestant and Catholic churches in the nineteenth century, World War 1 and the War of Independence.
St James’s Church closed as a place of worship in 1963 and in 2013 it was purchased by Inchicore native Dr Pearse Lyons; he and his wife, Deirdre Lyons, converted the restored the church building into the Pearse Lyons Distillery.
The book can be ordered in paperback and hardback versions from Amazon.com and from Amazon's Spanish, French and German sites.
Only the hardback version can be ordered from Amazon UK.
Saturday morning openings of the National Library of Ireland Reading Rooms and Ticket Office during March will be on 9 March and 23 March.
If you don't have a valid Reader's Ticket, you can apply for one using the online application form, but will need to attend the Ticket Office with photographic id to collect it.
The Family History Room is not open on Saturdays.
The free-to-access database of the volunteer-led Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project has been updated. The main index now holds 580,808 indexed entries gathered from 59,952 memorials of deeds. Looks like there's a big milestone just around the corner!
The Townland Index was updated at the beginning of the month and now has 456,572 entries. These index books 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 under 20,000 entries have been added to the database since mid-November.
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.
This month's highlighted memorial is a marriage settlement dated 27 December 1783 and relates to land and properties in Ballyhaise, Co Cavan.
View the Index entry here and consult the memorial's full text on the FamilySearch image here.
Now here's some news to get you excited! A huge collection of Irish railway company records, held by the Irish Railway Record Society Archive (IRRSA) is being digitised by Ancestry. I don't know exactly which sets of records are involved, but if they are personnel registers, as I suspect, we're going to be in for a treat.
My grandad worked as a clerk for the railway for about 20 years, and when I visited the IRRSA premises near Heuston Station in Dublin some years ago, I was able to find details (start and end dates of each posting, salary, promotions etc) that saw him, a Tipperary lad of just 15 years of age, start his career at Dungarvan station, then moving on to Maryborough (now Portlaoise) and Bagenalstown, where he met and married by grandmother, and then moved with his growing family to Athlone. If your ancestors spent any time employed by the various railway companies from 1880, this collection shouldn't be missed.
As Irish genealogists will be aware, collections involving several unconnected business enterprises often display a lack of uniformity in the records they kept. Their storage choices may also have been sub-optimal in some locations. Either way, the IRRSA's holding of personnel records is not complete; not all the records for each Irish railway company have survived.
The Dublin-based Irish Newspaper Archives has added another title to its online database. It's The Connaught Journal, a regional paper published in Galway and also known as the Galway Advertiser.
It was published from 1754 to 1840 in the city's Cross Street Lower, a stone's throw from the Spanish Arch, and only a relatively small number of hard-copy editions survive. The holding now available at IrishNewsArchives.com provides access to papers published in 1793, 1795 and 1828.
While this is a small holding, the newspaper gives us an insight into the Ireland our ancestors knew, and would have influenced their world view through its reporting of news and events in London and Europe and even further afield. It also published obitaries and local news of social and economic concerns. It also carried classified advertising, which can also be infomrative of the times.
The entire archive holds some six million pages of newspaper articles and other content from titles published across the island of Ireland. It is available on subscription and much of the holding can be accessed free at local libraries. To find out more, click the image.
Ancestry has created a searchable surname index to another record collection held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. It's the Armagh and Londonderry Absent Voters Lists, 1918.
In that final year of WW1, special provision was made for people serving in the military, the Merchant Marine and the Red Cross to vote while away from home, and these lists survive for just two Irish counties.
The index for Armagh holds c.3,500 names; the list for LondonDerry c.4,500.
The Ancestry collection links to the relevant page of the original lists, while on PRONI a pdf of the lists for each constituency is freely available to download for Armagh and LondonDerry.
Some £12.7million of funding and a formal green light have been confirmed for a new museum that will celebrate the story of Derry City and the island's north west region's unique connection with the sea.
Nearly £3m of this funding has come from the UK's National Lottery Heritage Fund, a sum that will see the repair and refurbishment of the space at Ebrington where the Derry-Londonderry North Atlantic Museum* will be created. This location (see image below), which is linked to the famous Walled City by the pedestrian Peace Bridge across the River Foyle, will help to extend visitors' experience to the Waterside.
Work is expected to start on site in November, with construction and fit out completed in time for Summer 2026.
The funding will also make the City’s archive and collections more accessible, highlighting its role as the gateway to the Atlantic and sharing its lesser-known international history and global connections. Work is already underway on the interpretative content for all of the galleries.
A series of engagement sessions and events with key stakeholders and citizens will begin shortly aimed at raising awareness of the status of the Museum project and its interpretative content. This process will continue during the Foyle Maritime Festival and beyond.
Commenting on the project reaching this milestone, Economy Minister Conor Murphy said: “This museum will add to the already vibrant tourist offering in this beautiful and historic city. The interactive attraction will showcase the significant heritage of the city and region and it will tell the story of how it has been shaped, with particular focus on the stories of people who have lived and worked in the area."
* While delighted this important project is now going ahead, I think its ungainly name needs to be reconsidered. Quite apart from its failure to stir any excitement, the name of the delivery phase has already been abbreviated to the DNA Project. This is quite likely to stick, and simply misleading.
Last month, some five million records from residential and trade directories published between 1744 and 1899 were added to TheGenealogist database.
Although the bulk of the additions related to England, Scotland and Wales, together with the Channel Islands and a small number of former British Empire colonies, there were also a number of Irish publications in the mix.
I can't confirm the new additions, but the following titles make up the site's updated holding of Irish Directories:
Below is a three-week summary of newly-released and updated genealogy collections for England, Scotland and Wales from the major family history database providers. (For previous list, see 26 January blogpost.)
My regular summary of releases and updates relating to British collections is designed to help researchers 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.
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.
Newspapers.com, Ancestry's specialist database of historical news publications, is free to access until 11:59pm MT on Monday 21 February.
The online archive holds images from more than 24,000 titles and 924million pages of newsprint from around the world. More than 90% are from the USA, but there are also 550-ish titles from Great Britain and another 30 from the island of Ireland, while Canada is the source of up to 200 more.
When searching, you can focus on obits only, BMD announcements only, your preferred location, or really go for it with a search of the full collection.
If you don't already have one, you'll need to register with Newspapers.com to take advantage of the free access. This is a quick and easy process.
Click the image above right to reach the free access landing page.
Tony has been hosting his popular course from Waterford for some years, and it has a customer-friendly formula. Classes are presented live from 6:30 to 9pm (GMT/IrishTime) on Wednesdays, but the course is designed to also accommodate those with a busy schedule and those who are in different time zones.
Each weekly class is recorded and the recording is shared with all participants the following day, along with a PDF of the presentation. This gives participants the option of catching a live class or indeed the whole course at their own time and pace.
To book your place, contact Tony by phone, email or Facebook PM, as noted in the image above.
In the example below, I've screengrabbed some of the townlands of Aghada parish, which overlook Cobh Harbour and lie about 5km southwest of Midleton, in East Cork. The older map, on the left, captures Aghada as surveyed in 1841-42 and published in 1845. The map on the right shows the same area as surveyed in 1896-97, and was published in 1902. In the intervening years, the small rural community had hardly changed, except perhaps for a bit of development around the pier. Even today, despite a bigger population and a good sprinkling of housing along some of the old roads, the layout of the area has hardly altered.
You can explore the 1841 and 1897 maps by clicking on the image below. On the landing page, make sure the Swipe On is highlighted to move slider left or right. To zoom in, move the toggle up and down on the far left of the screen (the toggle may be behind the 'Side By Side - Help' pop up).
The state-managed IrishGenealogy.ie database has received its annual rolling years update. The additions are civil records of Births for the year 1923; Marriages for 1948; and Deaths in 1973.
Disappointingly, register images for deaths recorded from 1864 to 1870 have still not been uploaded; this is the long-awaited update most Irish genealogists would prefer to see.
Here, then, is a summary of the records available, free of charge, at IrishGenealogy.ie:
Births:
1864-1921 – index and register images, all-island
1922-1923 – index and register images, Republic of Ireland only
Marriages:
1845/1864*-1921 – index and register images, all-island
1922-1948 – index and register images, Republic of Ireland only
Deaths:
1864-1870 – index only, all-island
1871-1921 – index and register images, all-island
1922-1973 – index and register images, Republic of Ireland only
Civil BMD records registered in Northern Ireland from 1922 are available online via the General Register Office in Northern Ireland (GRONI), subject to the 100-75-50-year rule. Details.
*Civil registration of non-Catholic marriages started in 1845 across the island. Catholic marriages were added to the civil registers from 1864.
The collection holds 746m historical records in more than 250 record-sets from across the globe.
While there are four Irish marriage related record-sets, the wide geographical coverage of the collection could mean you'll find yourself some ancestral connections in far-flung and maybe surprising corners of the world.
Take a dip by clicking the image, right.
If the headline above gets you excited, please take a moment to downsize your expectations.
Yesterday saw the start of a new opening timetable for the Reading Room at the National Archives of Ireland. At least, I think that's the case.
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| Home page of the National Archives of Ireland (my blue circles) |
The NAI's website isn't sure, and if you phone the Bishop Street offices for clarification, you'll hear a recorded message* that doesn't seem aware of any change. According to the message, the opening hours are Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, with a one-hour shutdown (and 'everyone out' rule) from 1pm to 2pm.
However, if you explore further on the website – and you really shouldn't have to – you might be intrigued by a new notice on the home page declaring the Reading Room semi-open across the 1pm to 2pm period on Mondays.
This will allow reserchers to continue their work without having to leave the building. No materials can be requested and no real service will be provided during that hour, but you won't have to interrupt your research.
Remember: Mondays only. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, out into the cold you go.
I suppose offering the opportunity of one nearly-full-day-of-research-a-week is better than none, but c'mon, this is pretty rubbish, isn't it? We're talking about the National Archives, not a weeny heritage centre staffed by volunteers on some remote Atlantic view peninsula.
The fact that this one extra hour of uninterrupted research will be available each week is positive, if measly. And if someone at the NAI updates the website and recorded message, pronto, maybe next week some researchers may even know to take advantage of it. Otherwise, that member of staff working the lunch hour shift will be eating his/her sandwiches in an empty Reading Room.
*The recorded message works hard. It seems to kick in no matter what time of day you call. No humans available, it seems. Contact is by email only. This is shameful. It also made me cranky this morning.
Yesterday was St. Brigid's Day, or Imbolc in the Gaelic calendar, which traditionally marks the beginning of spring in Ireland. Usually the weather doesn't play along with this, but never mind. The weekend ahead will see many celebrations and events tied in with Ireland's only female patron saint, and Monday will see a second outing of the now annual Lá Fhéile BrÃde, a national holiday.
As such, all local public libraries will be closed in the Republic of Ireland, as will archives and most national institutions and state agencies including the National Archives of Ireland and the National Library of Ireland (except exhibitions), schools and most businesses. Public transport schedules are also restricted.
All will return to normal opening hours and timetables on Tuesday morning.
This public holiday does not apply in Northern Ireland, where normal working hours will be the norm.
The first monthly upload of 2024 to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives has seen newly-donated material made available from nine of the 32 historical Irish counties. Quite a haul. If you are exploring ancestors from counties Carlow, Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Tipperary, Tyrone or Wexford, there could be some headstones and church records of interest to move on your research.
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| From St Enoch's graveyard, Killinick, Co Wexford. Sacred | to the memory of | REBECCA FELTUS alias BALL | the beloved Wife of | ADAM BLOOMFIELD FELTUS | of Hollybrook | in the County of Carlow Esqr. | who departed this life | September 15th 1815 | aged 78. Photo courtesy of Michelle Meadows Rousseau and IGPArchives |
CARLOW Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Ballon Cemetery
CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Joseph's Cemetery Pt 1, Loughduff
DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Church Records & Headstones
Raphoe Cathedral CoI Marriages 1845-1921
Holy Cross Graveyard, Dunfanaghy
FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Roslea R.C. Marriages (Dio. of Clogher) 1857-1881
KILKENNY Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Old Dunkitt Graveyard, Kilmacow
LEITRIM Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Patrick's Graveyard, Newtowngore (Additional)
TIPPERARY Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St Mary's RC, Ballyneale, Pt 2 (Finished)
TYRONE Genealogy Archives - Church Records
2nd Ardstraw [Drumlegagh] Presbyterian, 1845-1921
WEXFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Enoch's Graveyard & Plaques, Killinick
St. Stephen's Graveyard (partial), New Ross