Tuesday, 3 August 2021

Up to $50 savings in FamilyTreeDNA's summer test kit sale

FamilyTreeDNA's summer sale has arrived, and it covers the company's full range of ancestry DNA test kits, as follows:

Y-DNA*, for the paternal line 

  • Save $10 on the Y-67 test, reduced to $109; 
  • Save $30 on the Y-111 test, reduced to $219; 
  •  Save $50 on the Big Y-700, reduced to $399.

FamilyFinder, an autosomal test exploring both sides of your ancestry

  • Save $20 on the at-DNA test, reduced to $59. 

mtDNA, for the maternal line 

  • Save $20 on the mtDNA test, reduced to $139.

All prices shown are in US$ and exclude shipping costs. The savings will expire on 31 August. 

Follow the links above or click the image to learn more.

 

 * men only

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RCBL Archive of the Month: Killinane Union, Co Galway, 1836-59

The Representative Church Body Library (RCBL) has acquired a rare and unusual source of local and social history and made it the subject of this month's Archive of the Month. It is a Rector's register from the united parishes of Killinane & Kilthomas in County Galway, which was started in 1837 by the new-appointed Reverend William O'Grady and maintained until his death in 1859. (Some of his successors subsequently added to it, but with less detail.)

Acquired from private hands, the register has been accessioned as RCB Library P.0959.28.

The single volume captures details of the parishioners of the six parishes of Killinane union: Iserkelly, Kilchreest, Killinane, Killogilleen, Killora, and Kilthomas, complete with helpful notations, which sometimes refer to the conduct or character of individual parishioners. It also includes population information lost from national census material, as well as comment and data on topics such as foundlings and deserted children, local policing, converts from Rome, and emigration.

It provides a rare window into the religious and social history of the parishes of Killinane union and is also a valuable source of family history, and will be of particular interest to the descendants of all those who resided in the former civil parishes of Killinane union (and Kilconickny union after 1906), regardless of their religious background.

The online Archive of the Month presentation has been written by Gerry Kearney, a local historian who has produced several local and family history books. It includes a link to the newly digitized volume and highlights specific aspects of its content.


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Monday, 2 August 2021

Summary of July updates to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives

To the Memory of | THOMAS HENRY TORRENS |
Rector of Carnalway, Kildare | eldest son of |
JOHN TORRENS D.D. | Archdeacon of Dublin | Born
1(-) Jan. 1803 | Died 29th Nov. 1858 | Also his widow |
BARBARA MARIA TORRENS | of Somerset, Co. Londonderry |
daughter of the late | THOMAS RUMBOLT | RICHARDSON |
of Somerset | Born June 20th 1820 | Died May 2nd 1916
Mount Jereme Cemetery, Dublin.
Photo courtesy of IGP Archives.
Click for an enlarged view.
The files uploaded in July to the Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives are an eclectic mix of records from five of the island's historical counties.

They include details of evictions, land sold through the Encumbered Estates Court, a rental list of tenants dating to 1845, Church of Ireland marriages and more headstone photos and transcriptions from Dublin's Mount Jerome cemetery.

All these records have been donated by researchers to benefit other family historians and are free to access.

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Land
Encumbered Estate Relaghmore, Relaghbuoy & Shrahan, 1855

CLARE Genealogy Archives - Evictions & Miscellaneous
Evictions in Union of Kilrush 1848 (Finished)

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Mt. Jerome Cemetery Parts 271 - 273

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Land
Tenants on Estates of the Earls of Enniskillen & Belmore 1845

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church
Kilskeery (CoI) Marriages 1845-1921

GALWAY Genealogy Archives - Land
Encumbered Estates Dangan, Lecarrow & Kilmacknelly - 1855


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MyHeritage to be offline for several hours on Tuesday 3 August

MyHeritage has advised that scheduled maintenance and the implementation of infrastructure improvements will take its website and mobile app offline for several hours on Tuesday 3 August.

The downtime will start at 12:01am EST/6am CET/5am Ireland & UK, and the tech team will aim to successfully complete the work as soon as possible.

Unconnected to the above, the company has also announced that it has acquired the French genealogy site Filae. The Paris-based office will continue to work independently.


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Friday, 30 July 2021

Two-week summary of new and updated US genealogy collections

Below is a summary of US family history collections that have been released or updated by the major genealogy databases in the last two weeks. (The previous summary list was published on 12 July, 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


AmericanAncestors
  • Narragansett Historical Register, 1882-1891, “a magazine devoted to the Antiquities, Genealogy and Historical Matter illustrating the history of the Narragansett Country, or Southern Rhode Island" (5,500 records and names)

Ancestry

FamilySearch

Fold3

UPDATED COLLECTIONS


AmericanAncestors

Ancestry

FamilySearch

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.


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Thursday, 29 July 2021

BritishNewspaperArchive database races past 44m-page milestone

The BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk, the online version of the British Library's Newspaper Collection, passed the 44million-page milestone yesterday evening with a raft of debut titles joining the database. Today it stands at 44,073,418 pages.
From The Umpire, 29 July 1888

With most of the mainstream dailies and weeklies published in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland already available in the database at this stage of the digitisation project – it started in 2013 – it's not a big surprise to see several niche or short-lived titles in this latest eclectic batch of additions.

Among them are The Tailor and Cutter, an advertisement brochure which also carried news and educational features for the tailoring industry 1867-1918); The Standard of Freedom and The Public Cause, which took their politics, social views and themselves very seriously indeed; The True Sun, whose owner, printer and publisher were imprisioned for encouraging resistence to payment of a new tax, The Englishman, printed in Calcutta and sending colonial news back to the mother country; and, out of Manchester, The Umpire, which brought a truly bizarre style of journalism to newstands for a couple of decades over the turn of the 19th/20th centuries (see image, right).

You can see the latest additions here. No Irish titles in the latest crop, unfortunately.

Titles in the BritishNewspaperArchive database are shared with some FindMyPast subscription packages.


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.


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NEHGS: Catholic cemeteries collection (MA) grows to 675k records

In its third instalment of burial and cemetery records administered by the CCA in eastern Massachusetts (for details of the launch, see February blogpost), AmericanAncestors.org* has added a further 96,400 searchable records to its Massachusetts Catholic Cemetery Association collection.

The records are primarily lot sales and interments, and may include information about lot owners, date of burial and location of burial. Some of the people represented in these written records may not have purchased a grave marker or their marker may have eroded with time, making this collection essential for research into Catholic burials in this region.

Given the location of the burial grounds, it is also a major collection for Irish family historians looking for details of ancestors who emigrated to North America.

This latest upload adds records from three new cemeteries and completes one other, making a current total of 675,300 available searchable records from 16 burial grounds.

These cemeteries are: Calvary (Winchester), Catholic Mount Auburn (Watertown), St. Patrick (Stoneham), St. Paul (Arlington), Malden (Holy Cross) Calvary (Waltham), Sacred Heart (Andover), St George (Framingham), St James (Haverhill), St Joseph (Haverhill), St Jean Baptiste (Lynn), St Mary (Beverley), St Mary (Malden), Immaculate Conception (Marlborough), St. Francis de Sales (Charlestown) and St. Joseph (Lynn).

Records from just four CCA cemeteries remain outstanding: Cambridge (North Cambridge), St Mary (Lynn), St Mary (Salem), St Patrick (Watertown). These are expected to be available by the end of the year.

In addition to the searchable database, maps of each cemetery are being made available to help locate burial plots. They have been uploaded for ten of the grounds already. Where possible, maps include sections, ranges and in some cases narrative description of how headstones are arranged by row and lot number. Also included are points of interest such as entrances, exits, flag poles, monuments, offices and spigots. Special sections for the burials of infants, priests and religious are also noted.

* Subscription required

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Tuesday, 27 July 2021

RootsIreland adds more than 20,000 Catholic records for Co. Kerry

RootsIreland.ie has had another update (see yesterday's blogpost for new Laois and Offaly additions), this time for its County Kerry collection.

The new records have been transcribed from 20,893 entries in the Roman Catholic registers of the following two parishes:

  • Causeway baptisms, 1783-1900 (19,617 records)
  • Abbeydorney marriages, 1836-1900 (1276 records)

Transcriptions of records dated up to 1880/1 link to images of the relevant pages in the National Library of Ireland's RC registers' site.

To login and search these records, click the logo above.

You can see a full menu of the Co. Kerry record sets in the RootsIreland database here.

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Monday, 26 July 2021

RootsIreland adds trade directory records from Laois and Offaly

The records of nearly 18,000 traders working in Counties Laois and Offaly between 1788 and 1894 have been added to the RootsIreland database. 

These 'census substitute' records have been transcribed from the following trade directories:

County Laois:

  • Lucas's Directory, 1788 (79 records) 
  • Pigot's Directory, 1824 (559 records) 
  • Porter's Directory, 1908 (330 records) 
  • Slater's Directory, 1846-1894 (7744 records) 

County Offaly:

  • Birr Directory 1889 (324 records) 
  • Pigot's Directory 1824 (530 records) 
  • Porter's Directory 1908 (246 records) 
  • Slater's Directory 1846-1894 (7475 records)

To search these records, go to the County Laois or County Offaly search page and choose "Census Substitutes". Select an entry from the "Source" drop-down-list, if required. 

To login or subscribe, click the logos above.

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Sunday, 25 July 2021

British genealogy collections: updates & releases, 10-day summary

Below is a summary of new and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales released by the major genealogy databases over the last ten days (see previous summary, 16 July).

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



UPDATED COLLECTIONS


Ancestry

FamilySearch

FindMyPast

National Library of Scotland
  • Scottish maps Town plans: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, plus special series maps

TheGenealogist

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.

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