NEHGS opens up AmericanAncestors.org for free search

The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is opening up its online database of more than 1.4million records for free until Wednesday 10 January.

The website – AmericanAncestors.org – contains some of the most important online databases for researching American ancestry, with records covering 18 countries, including Ireland and Britain. Among them are census, tax and voter lists; court, land and probate records; journals and periodicals; military records; genealogies, biographies, heraldry, and local histories; immigration records; and vital records. Many databases include original content created by the experts and scholars at NEHGS, and all are open for eight days of free research to anyone who registers as a Guest Member.

Guest Membership is free, and easy to set up, with no financial questions. Just click the image above, follow the link to the registration page and get started.

New course explores Ireland's Land Wars, 1876-1909

A new course from UCD Adult Education – The Land Wars in Ireland 1876–1909 – will be starting on Wednesday 10 January at the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Led by Dr Brian Casey, the eight-week course explores the background and various stages of the Land Wars from 1876 to 1909. In addition, it examines the role that local activists as well as people like Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell played in the mobilization of the countryside to demand peasant proprietorship and the end of landlordism in Ireland.

Each session will be held on Wednesdays, from 10:30am to 1pm. The course fee is €195.

You can find out more about the course at the NLI website. Bookings should be made through UCD Adult Education (01 716 7123).

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: last 2017 update

There's just no stopping the volunteers at Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives. Despite the festive holiday, they still managed to upload the following files to the free website during the last two weeks of 2017.

Headstone to Mordacai Jones* in St James
Walled graveyard, Athboy, Co. Meath.
Photo by Kev Murray.
Transcribed by Valerie Ackroyd.
Click for larger image.

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Killeshandra (CoI) Graveyard

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Saggart Cemetery, Dublin County, Part 2 (partial)

MEATH Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St James Walled - Text file added
St James Old - Text file added

SLIGO Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Sligo Cemetery: New Pt, Section A4 (Surnames M)

WEXFORD Genealogy Archives - Newspaper
Workhouse Entries - Assorted Dates (Updated)

* While transcribing the headstones photos for St. James Walled Cemetery, Athboy, Co Meath, volunteer Valerie Ackroyd discovered a murder story connected to Mordecai Jones.

C19th editions join online Church of Ireland Gazette

What a great start to the new Irish family history year!

The Church of Ireland's record repository, Representative Church Body Library (RCBL), has announced that all 19th-century editions of the Church of Ireland Gazette have been added to the online archive of the weekly newspaper.

This upload means a full archive of editions published from 1856 to 1923 is now freely accessible.

The RCBL holds the only complete hard-copy run of this newspaper, and through incremental digitization has gradually endeavoured to share its rich content with a wider audience.

Last April it confirmed funding had been allocated for the older copies to be digitised in time for the 150-year anniversary (in 2019) of the Church of Ireland's dis-establishment as the island's state church.

Now all editions for the 70-year period between March 1856, when the paper first appeared, up to and including the end of the Revolutionary period in December 1923 are shared for all.

The has been managed by the RCB Library in collaboration with the Editor and Board of The Church of Ireland Gazette.

Genealogists don't need to have Church of Ireland ancestors to find the Gazette valuable to their research. As well as exploring the major national and international issues of the day, the paper also carried localised church and social news, which would have been of relevance to all local communities whatever their beliefs.

To mark this significant enhancement of the newspaper's online database, this January's RCBL Archive of the Month provides insight to the relationship between the Church's laity and clergy, as revealed through Gazette articles.

Irish genealogy and history events, 2-14 January

Few societies/institutions have confirmed their 2018 events yet. I'll update the list below as I receive details.

Tuesday 2 January: Research Centre of the North of Ireland Family History Society closed. Normal Tuesday afternoon openings (2–8pm) will resume on 9 January 2018. Details.

Sunday 7 January: Irish research: Female Connections – the best roads to research success, with Kevin Cassidy. Host: Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society. Venue: Walt Branch Library, 6701 S 14th St, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. 2pm–4pm. Free. All welcome. Details.

Monday 8 January: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures are to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service operating as normal. Details.

Monday 8 January: Practical workshop, presented by branch members. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Newtownabbey Branch. Venue: Drama Theatre, Glengormley High School, 134 Ballyclare Road, Newtownabbey, BT36 5HP. 7–9pm.

Monday 8 January: My experience with familly history, with George Busby. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Killyleagh Branch.Venue: Masonic Hall, 50 High Street, Killyleagh, Co Down, BT30 9QF 8pm. Free. All welcome.

Monday 8 January: Celebrating Irish nurses and Irish women in nursing in the UK; part of the Illuminate Herstory Light Festival – Ireland’s annual new global light festival. Host: Irish Diaspora Foundation and Irish World Heritage Centre. Venue: Irish World Heritage Centre, 1 Irish Town Way, Manchester M8 0AE, UK. 6:30pm–8pm. Free but need to register. Find out more.

Tuesday 9 January: Pre-1800s records, with Dr William Roulston. North of Ireland Family History Society, Lisburn Branch. Venue: The Bridge Community Centre, 50 Railway Street, Lisburn, BT28 1XP. 7:30pm. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 9 January: Newspapers, with Georgina Scally MAGI. Host: Genealogical Society of Ireland. Venue: Dun Laoghaire Further Education Institute, Cumberland St, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin. 8pm. All welcome. €3.

Wednesday 10 January: Land Wars in Ireland 1876-1909, an 8-week course with Brian Casey. Host: UCC Lifelong Learning. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Fee: €195. 10:30am to 1pm on Wednesdays. Details.

Wednesday 10 January: Using family and local history resources online, a practical workshop. Host and venue: Public Reocrd Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 11am to 1pm. Free. Booking is full, but you can join the waiting list in case there's a cancellation.

Thursday 11 January: Despicable jackals, gallant submariners, and Waterford in the WW1 U-boat campaign, with Julian Walton. Host: Dunhill History Lectures, Series XII, 2018. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre (opposite GAA grounds), Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm. Admission €5, includes light refreshments. All welcome.

Saturday 13 January: The Stewart, Mountjoy and Blessington Family Connections, with Frank Collins. Host: NIFHS Tyrone Branch. Venue: Seminar Room, First Floor, Omagh Library, Dublin Road, Omagh, BT78 1HL. 10am to noon. All welcome.

New Year savings: Up to 50% off Ancestry subscriptions

Ancestry.com is offering savings of up to 50% on two of its six-month subscription packages.

The US Discovery saving is 50%, while the World Explorer package (probably the most useful for those with ancestors on both sides of the Atlantic) attracts a 30% discount.

Both offers are available only to new/lapsed subscribers.

US Discovery package – 50% Off – This subscription allows you to explore all US content and collections ie bmds, census, occupational records, and much more. The discounted six-month price is $49, down from $99.

World Explorer package – 30% Off – This subscription includes access to all the collections in the US Discovery package, plus international records including those for Ireland, Canada, Britain and Australia and many other countries. With the discount the regular price for a six-month subscription ($149) is reduced to $99.

There is no discount available for the All Access subscription, which includes the World Explorer access plus Fold3 and Newspapers.com.

The offer runs until 11:59pm ET on Sunday 7 January 2018.

FindMyPast ie & com.au: 10% off annual World subs

FindMyPast Ireland and Australia/NewZealand are offering a Christmas/New Year discount of 10% on all annual World subscriptions. The offer expires on Saturday 6 January 2018.

To take advantage of the offer, use the following links:

FindMyPast.ie:
10% saving on annual World package

FindMyPast.com.au:
10% saving on annual World package

Festive closures at major Irish genealogy repositories and research facilities

See below for details of the closures arrangements of the major repositories and research facilities over the festive season.

BELFAST

PRONI
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland will close at 4:45pm on Friday 22 December and re-open at 10am on Thursday 28 December. It will also be closed on Monday 1 January 2018, re-opening at 10am on Tuesday 2 January.  (Note: the usual Thursday late nights will not resume until 11 January.)

NIFHS
Usually open on Tuesday afternoons, the North of Ireland Family History Society's Research Centre in Newtownabbey will be closed on 26 December and 2 January. Next opening will be 2pm–8pm on Tuesday 9 January.


DUBLIN

RCB Library
The Representative Church Body Library in Churchtown will close at 1pm on Friday 22 December and re–open to the usual schedule at 9:30am on Tuesday 2 January 2018.

National Library of Ireland
All NLI reading rooms (and the free Genealogy Advisory Service) will be closed from Saturday 23 December to Monday 1 January 2018 inclusive. NLI exhibitions will be open 10am to 4:45pm daily from Wednesday 27 December to Friday 29 December inclusive, and closed from Saturday 30 December to Monday 1 January 2018  inclusive. Normal hours resume at all NLI sites on Tuesday 2 January.

National Archives of Ireland
The Reading Room (and the free Genealogy Advisory Service) will be closed to the public from 12:30pm on Friday 22 December and re-open at 9:15am on Tuesday 2 January 2018.

Military Archives
The Reading Room at the Military Archives closed for the festive season on Tuesday 19 December. It will reopen for appointments on Thursday 4 January 2018.

Dublin City Library & Archive
The DCL&A will be closed from Saturday 23 December to Monday 1 January 2018, inclusive. It will re-open on Tuesday 2 January.


LONDON

The National Archives UK
The UK National Archives will be closed from Saturday 23 December to Wednesday 27 December inclusive, and open for regular hours on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 December. It will also be closed from Saturday 30 December to Monday 1 January inclusive, reopening at 9am on Tuesday 2 January.

Society of Genealogists
For its Christmas break, the Society will be closed from 6pm on Thursday 21 December until 9am on Wednesday 27 December. It will be open for regular hours 27-30 December. As the New Year break will be immediately followed by the SOG's annual stocktaking, the library will be closed from 6pm on Saturday 30 December until 10am on Tuesday 9 January 2018.

IGRS Library
Based at the Society of Genealogists (see above), the library of the Irish Genealogical Research Society is closed until 1:30pm on Saturday 13 January.

British Newspaper Archive adds Evening Telegraph

After a lull of some months, during which it's been concentrating on English, Scottish and Welsh papers, the British Newspaper Archive has added another Irish title – The Evening Telegraph – to its online database.

This paper, published in Dublin, was launched in 1871 as a weekly and had a strong Irish nationalist outlook. While it retained its political stance, it soon changed to a daily paper. It was a successful title, but ceased publication in 1924, after Independence.

The BNA plans to bring all editions from 1871 to 1924 to its online database. So far, it has digitised and uploaded editions published in 1871, when it was still a weekly, and 1876-1880 when it was a daily.

This historical newspaper will also join FindMyPast's Irish Newspaper Collection, which is available as part of some subscription packages.

FindMyPast Friday brings a mixed Xmas package

This weeks's 'FindMyPast Friday' has delivered nearly one million church records from Manchester, a major destination for Irish migrants both before and after The Famine, and still a region with a sizeable Irish population.

Two collections have been added. The first is the Greater Manchester Burials, 1570–1990 collection, which holds records of more than 50,000 death and burials. They come in the form of transcripts and, where available, images of the original registers.

The larger collection is the Greater Manchester Marriages 1570-1936 collection, which holds transcripts of more than 913,000 banns and marriage records.

UPDATE, 19 Jan 2018: FindMyPast uploaded Greater Manchester Baptisms, 1571–1910. Nearly 1.8million records are included in this record set, and they include both transcription and image.

In addition, FindMyPast's Billion Graves Cemetery Index has grown by a further 1.1million records. The largest chunk of the upload (941,000 entries) relates to headstones in the USA, but there are also significant uploads for Australia (84,000 new entries); England (65,000); Canada (41,000); Scotland (37,000); and New Zealand (12,000). The indexes for Ireland and Wales grew by more than 3,000 and 2,000 entries respectively.

Other updates to FindMyPast's database this week include 13,000 memorial inscriptions from the English county of Northamtonshire, some 65 new British history and reference guides, and images for 35 volumes of Allen County Lines, which is published quarterly by the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana.