Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: final 2020 updates

Headstone belonging to Daniel O'Neil of Caple (sic)
St., Dublin, in memory of his wife, Jane Sweetman of
Clontarf who died 19 May 1762, and 3 children.
Photo courtesy Eadaoin Breslin and IGP Archives..

The final 2020 batch of volunteer-contributed headstone photos and transcribed records has been added to the free Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives database.

It brings pix and transcribed inscriptions from County Dublin and parish records from Counties Fermanagh and Tipperary, as follows:

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Kilbarrack Graveyard, Sutton (35 additional)

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Mount Jerome Cemetery - Part 268, 269 & 270

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Aghavea (CoI) Marriages 1845-1921
Mullaghfad, (CoI) Marriages, 1845-1916

TIPPERARY Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Fethard Parish Baptisms (RC) 1815 - 1816

US genealogy collections update: last 3 weeks of 2020

Below is a summary of US family history collections that have been released or updated by the major genealogy databases in the last three weeks. (The previous summary list was published on 10 December, see blogpost).

My regular summaries are designed to help family historians whose Irish ancestors emigrated, temporarily or permanently, to the United States.

By default, they should also be useful to anyone carrying out research in the US, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

The figures in parenthesis in the New Collections section are the numbers of records/images in each new record set, if provided by the database.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parenthesis in the Updated Collections section reflect the number of records added to the collection in the recent update, if a number has been clearly noted by the supplier. I do not include updates of fewer than 1,000 records.

NEW COLLECTIONS

Ancestry

• North Dakota, Red River Valley Genealogical Society, Pioneer Files, 1880-1953
• Washington County Military Records (33,939)
• Washington, U.S., World War I Service Statement Records (47,912)

FamilySearch

• Hawaii, Chinese Immigration Labor Permit Records, 1893-1898 (16,988)
• Indiana, Voter Registers, 1850-1931(187,003)
• Virginia, Various Counties, Marriage Bonds, 1706-1901 (1,600)

MyHeritage

• Michigan, Kent County Death Index, 1935-2019 (382,115)

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

AmericanAncestors

• Massachusetts: (Image-Only) RC Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920
  Nearly 8,000 new pages to browse from 9 parishes:
  In Hyde Park – Most Precious Blood
  In Boston – St Stephen.
  In East Boston – Most Holy Redeemer, Sacred Heart, St John the Baptist, and St Mary Star of the Sea.
  In Dorchester – St Gregory, St Margaret and St Peter.
• Massachusetts: RC Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920
  20 new volumes from 7 parishes. All dating from 1900-1920 (116,000 names).
  In Dorchester – St Ambrose, St Gregory, St Mark, and St Leo
  In Brockton – St. Casimir
  In Lynn – Sacred Heart, and St Patrick.

Ancestry

• North Dakota, U.S., Select County Marriage Records, 1872-2017
• U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current
• Southwest Louisiana, U.S., Deaths Index, 1861-1905
• Maine, U.S., Revolutionary War Land Grants, 1776-1780 (2,679)
• Boston Arrivals of Jewish Immigrants from HIAS Records, 1882-1929 (31,120)
• Vermont, Death Index, 1981-2001 (112,298)
• Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999 (28,032,506 new. Total 248,817,136)

FamilySearch

• Arkansas, Military Discharge Records, ca.1917 - ca.1969 (31,817)
• California, County Birth & Death Records, 1800-1994 (31,544)
• California, LA, Angelus-Rosedale Cem/Crem, 1884-2002 (25,797)
• Georgia, County Voter Registrations, 1856-1941 (222,835)
• Hawaii, Honolulu, Voter Registration Applications, 1920-1966 (29,264)
• Illinois, Chicago, Voter Registers, 1888-1892 (312,175)
• Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007 (333,633)
• Mississippi, County Marriages, 1858-1979 (49,030)
• Mississippi, Voter Registration, 1871-1967 (48,749)
• New Jersey Naturalizations, 1796-1991 (9,468)
• New Jersey, Death Index 1901-03; 1916-29 (5,684)
• Texas, Voter Records, 1867-1918 (7,391)
• Texas, Various Counties, Military Discharge Records, 1916-1990 (2,582)
• Utah, Cemetery Abstracts (1,406)
• Washington, County Birth Registers, 1873-1965 (53,100)

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Festive brain food: Irish history - videos and podcasts

With so many restrictions on movement and travel this festive season, I thought some readers of Irish Genealogy News might find themselves with a rare bit of quiet or spare time over the next couple of weeks. So here's a list of recent videos and podcasts, all freely available online, covering Irish history topics that genealogists may find of interest. I hope they'll help keep your brain supple!

Videos

Man, maps and map history: John Andrews, 1927–2019. Host: Royal Irish Academy. Lecture about John Andrews, a founding member of the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, presented by Arnold Horner. Filmed November 2020. RIA. 1hr 13mins.

Behind the Scenes of PRONI's Conservation Studio, a virtual tour with Sarah Graham, head of conservation. Host: Public Record Office of Nothern Ireland. YouTube PRONI Online channel. 9 minutes. Filmed October 2020.

How to use PRONI's e-catalogue, with Gemma Eaton, workshop tutor. Host: Public Record Office of Nothern Ireland. YouTube PRONI Online channel. 6mins. Filmed August 2020. 

Landholding in the new English settlement of Hacketstown, Co. Carlow, 1635–1875, with Oliver Whelan. Host: Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society (CHAS). Filmed November 2020. YouTube CHAS channel. 1hr 11mins.

Beyond 2022, and the hunt for lost records, with Ciarán Wallace. Presented at the AGM of the Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) in August 2020. YouTube/IrishAncestors. 1hr 9mins.

Offaly in the Military Service (1916-23) Pensions Collection, with Cécile Gordon. Host: Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society. Presented October 2020. YouTube OffalyHistory channel. 55mins.

Carlow and the Crusades, c1095-1291, with Aoife Haberlin. Hosted by Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society (CHAS). Filmed December 2020. YouTube CHAS channel. 8mins. 

In Search of the 1490: Tracking the Famine Migrants from Strokestown to Canada in 1847, with Professor Mark G McGowan. Host: Irish Embassy, Canada. YouTube. Recorded October 2020. 1hr 12mins. 

The Butlers of Kilcash in the 18th century, with John Flood. Hosted by Tipperary Studies. YouTube TippStudies channel. 32mins.

The Irish DNA Atlas – Revealing Irish History through Genetics, with Dr Edmund Gilbert. Host: Genealogical Society of Ireland (GSI). Recorded March 2020. YouTube. 39mins.

DNA for beginners, with Andy Hochreiter. Host: Genetic Genealogy Ireland. Presented February 2020. YouTube. 57mins.

Death and the Irish, with Professor Salvador Ryan. Hosted by Tipperary Studies. Filmed November 2020. YouTube TippStudies channel. 58mins.

Podcasts

John Charles McQuaid - A Ghost of our Catholic Past, with Finn Dwyer interviewing Dr Aoife Bhreathnach. Through the mid 20th century, the archbishop of Dublin come to symbolise not only the power of the Catholic Church at the time but also for many the abuse of that power. IrishHistoryPodcast. 30mins. December 2020.

Dead and buried in Dublin, with Donal Fallon exploring the history of the capital's cemeteries. ThreeCastlesBurning. 41mins. October 2020.

Bloody Sunday: the day that shook Dublin, with Padraig Yeates, John Borgonovo and Michael Foley. Dublin Festival of history. 1hr 9min

The Forgotten Lives of the Women of Cahir. Finn Dwyer interviews three women contributors to a book profiling 20 Tipperary women. Irish History Podcast. 45 mins.

The Vegetarian Restaurant of the Irish Revolution. Donal Fallon explores the significance and history of the place where the 1916 Proclamation was signed.ThreeCastlesBurning. 25mins. November 2020.

The Connaught Rangers mutiny — 1920, 1970 & 2020, a panel discussion of the events and their subsequent commemoration with John Gibney, Cécile Gordon, Brian Hanley and Kate O’Malley. HistoryIreland. 1hr 9mins. June 2020.

In Mountjoy Jail one Monday morning — the Irish Revolution in ballad and song, with Liz Gillis, Eunan O’Halpin, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc and Fintan Vallely. But who was Kevin Barry? Why was he immortalised in song? And what has been the significance of the ballad tradition generally in the Irish Revolution and, indeed, of the Irish Revolution in the ballad tradition? HistoryIreland. 1hr 16mins. October 2020.

Belfast and the North 1920-22, with Tommy Graham in discussion with Marie Coleman, Kieran Glennon, Brian Hanley and Brian Walker. As the War of Independence raged in southern Ireland, a different type and more deadly form of conflict erupted in the northeast, and in Belfast in particular. Should this be considered part of the overall Irish revolution? HistoryIreland. 56mins. November 2020.

Terence MacSwiney — martyrdom, civil resistance & the Irish Revolution. The centenary of his death, after 74 days on hunger strike, fell this October. John Borgonovo, Dr Sarah-Ann Buckley, Dr Kate O’Malley and Dr Pádraig Yeates discuss his legacy and the relationship between passive, civil and physical resistance. HistoryIreland. 1hr 7mins. August 2020.

By the way, the Famine's not funny. Jason Burke interviews comedian, actor and historian Tim McGarry. Historical Belfast. 27mins.

A Short History of Ireland in 250 episodes, a popular and recommended book written by Dr Jonathan Bardon, who died earlier this year. BBC Radio Ulster presents two series of podcasts, each of 5 minutes to 30 minutes duration. Some 61 podcasts are now available here Each podcasts covers a number of topics, as you can see from the examples below.

• Series 1: Omnibus 8 ● Famine ● The Black Death ● Gallowglasses ● More Irish Than the Irish Themselves ● The Statute of Kilkenny
• Series 1: Omnibus 23 ● The Battle of the Boyne ● Galloping Hogan and the Walls of Limerick ● Athlone and Aughrim ● Limerick - A Second Siege ● The Wild Geese

British genealogy releases & updates: 2-week summary

Below is a summary of new and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales released by the major genealogy databases since 5 December (for the last summary, see 4 December blogpost).

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

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parenthesis 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. 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

BritishNewspaperArchive (also at FindMyPast)

• Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette
• Northern Weekly Gazette
• East kent Times and Mail
• Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette
• Bridlington and Quay Gazette
• Atherstone, Nuneaton, and Warwickshire Times
• Blackpool Gazette & Herald
• Liverpool Weekly Courier
• Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express
• Birkenhead News

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

Ancestry

• UK and Ireland, Obituary Index, 2004-2019 (6,029,096)
• UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current (8,527,468)(763,188 in Ireland)
• England, Cambridgeshire, Electoral Registers/Rolls/Poll Books, 1722-1966 (6,234,037)
• Wales, Anglesey, Electoral Registers, 1832-1977 (1,602,837)
• Wales, Pembrokeshire, Electoral Registers, 1740-1978 (3,432,144)
• England, Berkshire, Electoral Registers, 1840-1965 (12,738,603)
• Scotland, Aberdeen City + former Ab'shire, Electoral Registers, 1832-1976 (14,346,425)
• Scotland, Edinburgh, Electoral Registers, 1832-1966 (19,784,218)
• England, Liverpool, Electoral Registers, 1832-1970 (32,578,653)

FamilySearch

• England, Essex Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1971 (1,765) (New total 82,863)
• England, Herefordshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1583-1898 (9,863)
• England/Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1640-1660 (9,251)
• England, Gloucestershire Non-Conformist, 1642-1996 (New total 71,691)
• England, Northumberland Non-Conformist, 1613-1920(New total 244,068)
• England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988 (New total 1,380,939)

FindMyPast

• Yorkshire Monumental Inscriptions (28,000+ new additions, dating 1663-2008)
• Sussex, Eastbourne Newspaper Notices (42,000 additions, 1865-1874)
• Nottinghamshire Baptisms (98,000 additions from 80 parishes, 1628-1904)
• Nottinghamshire Burial Index (66,000 additions from 73 parishes, 1542-1905)

FreeBMD

• Birth, marriage and death civil records (Total records now 366,551,777)

TheGenealogist

• England and Scotland, College, School & University registers

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.

Belfast and Ulster Directories join FindMyPast

FindMyPast has added a collection of Ireland, Belfast & Ulster Directories to it database. As far as I can tell, the directories have been sourced from the North of Ireland Family History Society.

The publications were produced by the Belfast Newsletter, and cover 1890 to 1947, a period that spans the decades either side of Partition and creation of Northern Ireland.

Before 1922, the publications were entitled The Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory and cover all nine counties of the historic province of Ulster.

From the 1890 Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory

In 1923 the publication dropped coverage of the three counties – Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan – which remained in the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland) and retitled itself as The Belfast and Ulster Directory and provided details about only counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, LondonDerry, Fermanagh and Tyrone.

Together, these directories hold some 1,666,724 indexed records, and can be searched by place, name and occupation. Each volume is divided into 

• Civil establishment (government, courts, institutions)
• Street directory (for Belfast only) 
• Residents list (for larger towns)
• Trades and professional directory.

Generally, you will discover the name, address and occupation of each person recorded. Each volume also provides a description, as well as important statistical, economic and social information, for each place with a special emphasis on Belfast city. 

While directories are not comprehensive and generally exclude women (unless they were in a profession), and many of the labouring poor, they cover a wide proportion of the population.

Irish Genealogy Matters: latest edition published

A new edition of Irish Genealogy Matters has been published. 

As always, it brings news from the Irish Family History Foundation's island-wide network of local genealogy and heritage centres, and of additions to the group's database at RootsIreland.ie. 

This edition includes an overview of the records added during the year, and it's a pretty impressive showing! 

 I'll let them tell you all about it. Here's the link to download the pdf or click/tap the image, right.

General Register Office of Ireland increases some fees

The General Register Office of Ireland reopened last week (on Monday 7 December) and has increased the cost of 'research' copies of entries in the birth, marriage and death civil registers. (Research copies are photocopies of entries in the civil registers, and contain all the genealogical information supplied on an official bmd certificate. They have no legal standing and are used only by researchers.)

Each research copy is now €5, up from €4. This new price will be charged for research copies whether supplied from the GRO at Roscommon HQ, local authority registration offices, or the GRO Search Room in Dublin.

The only other fee increase relates to the 5-consecutive-years search available only in the Search Room. This has risen from €2 to €5. The general search fee (all years, searchable on one day) remains €20. All payments must be made by card.

Under pandemic arrangements, drop-in access to the Werburgh Street Search Room is no longer allowed. All visits are on an appointment-only basis. There are two or three slots available each morning, with another two or three slots in the afternoon. The number of slots depends on staff availability. Appointments can be requested by emailing GROResearchRoom@welfare.ie.

That same email address can be used, under the current pandemic arrangements, to request 'research' copies of all Irish BMD events. This service is useful for those family historians whose research covers time-periods/events not presently available at IrishGenealogy.ie*, or for certificates relating to still-births, adoption, civil partnership etc. Full details here.

For those lucky enough to get an appointment, be aware that all visitors have to:

• wear masks at all times, 
• wear gloves (GRO provide them) when handling Index Books, and 
• socially distance at all times.

* Images of the following historic BMDs can be viewed and downloaded at www.irishgenealogy.ie, free of charge: Births 1864 - 1919; Marriages 1845 - 1944; Deaths 1870 - 1969.

h/t Claire Bradley, professional genealogist, via the online forum Boards.ie.

Four-month summary of new and updated Australian & NZ genealogy records

Below you'll find my summary of the new and updated Australia and New Zealand records released by the major genealogy database suppliers since my last update on 26 August.

These regular listings of additional sources are designed primarily to help family historians whose Irish ancestors emigrated to Australia or New Zealand, but you don't have to have heritage from Ireland to use them!

They may prove useful to any researchers looking for a brief update of what's relatively recently been made available for the two countries.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parenthesis reflect the number of records uploaded to a new or updated collection. Where there is a second figure in parenthesis, it is the revised total number of records in an updated collection.

NEW COLLECTIONS

Ancestry

• Australia, Royal Australian Air Force Personnel Files, 1921-1948 (4,002)
• Australia, Queensland, Index to Government Railways Workers, 1878-1946 (40,940)
• Queensland, Australia, Gregson and Weight Funeral Records, 1972-2010

BritishNewspaperArchive (shared with FindMyPast)

• British Australasian 1884–1900

MyHeritage

• Australia, New South Wales Marriage Index, 1788-1966 (3,679,225)
• Australia, New South Wales Death Index, 1787-1986 (5,097,584)
• Australia, New South Wales Birth Index, 1787-1916 (4,913,072)
• Australia, Outwards Passengers from Victoria, 1852-1915 (1,753,944)
• Australia, Victoria, Will and Probate Index 1850-2009 (1,389,178)

UPDATED COLLECTIONS 

Ancestry

• Australia and New Zealand, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current (7,745,001)
• Australia, WWII Second Australian Imperial Forces/Citizen Military Service Records, 1939-1947 (14,405)
• Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839-1923(1,856,643)
• Victoria, Australia, Death Index, 1836-1988
• Australia and New Zealand, Obituary Index, 2004-Current (1,891,525)

FamilySearch

• Australia, Victoria Coastal Passenger Lists, 1852-1924 (3,244,620)
• Australia Miscellaneous Genealogical Records, 1776-1980 (3,415)

NOTE: Researchers with Australian connections will also be interested to check out the Royal Australian Historical Society's launch of Finding Your Ancestors, a series of introductory videos and virtual seminars created to help the NSW Aboriginal community trace their ancestors. More...

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.

Two new Fellows for Accredited Genealogists Ireland

Accredited Genealogists Ireland (AGI) has elected Máire Mac Conghail and Helen Kelly as Fellows of the association. The award of Fellowship recognises “invaluable service...to AGI” or a “particularly outstanding contribution to the study of Irish genealogy”.

Máire and Helen have enjoyed long and successful careers as professional genealogists and have been members of AGI since the 1990s. Both have contributed much time and effort in senior AGI roles, including President, as the group continued to grow and develop its well-established status as an accrediting and representative body for professional genealogists across the island of Ireland.

Any genealogist with ambitions of becoming an accredited professional would do well to read AGI's announcement and the details it gives of the careers of the two new Fellows.

They clearly demonstrate how the benefits of joining - and actively contributing to - a group of your peers can help an individual extend their knowledge and professionalism, respond to changing technological and marketing developments, find new sources of genealogical work, and extend their own personal recognition as an expert within the field.

You'll find the press release at accreditedgenealogists.ie.

New online repository for Irish Roman Catholic archives

A new online repository – CatholicArchives.ie – has been launched to facilitate greater access to collections of material held by Roman Catholic congregations and religious communities in Ireland.

Click image of home page to visit the site

The benefits of such a central repository include the provision of a platform for smaller archives to receive greater exposure, while researchers can enjoy free online searching and browsing of a wider range of material, catalogued to international standards, from archives that normally have fairly limited access arrangements.

The catalogue is fully searchable, by name, places, events, subjects and archival institution, allowing for cross-referencing and browsing by users. It's been created using open-source software, so it's uncluttered in presentation and easy to move around and narrow down items of interest.

So far, the site holds collections from the following archives:

• The Passionists - Ireland & Scotland
• Glenstal Abbey
• The Sisters of St. Joseph Chambery
• The Irish Capuchin Provincial Archives

Among the existing catalogued material is an online gallery of photographs from the Dublin-based Archives of the Passionist Order in Ireland and Scotland and a collection of correspondence and papers of Capuchin Friars detailing their involvement with participants in the nationalist struggle for independence including material relating to the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War.

The next additions to the site will be from the archives of the Presentation Brothers.