Easter closures

Just a week to go until the Easter break, so here's a note of opening and closing arrangements for the major institutions and specialised libraries/research centres over the Easter period.

IRELAND

National Library of Ireland
The Reading Rooms will close at 4.45pm on Thursday 17 April and will reopen at 9.30am on Tuesday 22 April. Library exhibitions in both Kildare Street and the NPA sites will be open from 12pm–5pm on Saturday 19 April, Sunday 20 April and Easter Monday 21 April, otherwise normal hours.

National Archives of Ireland
The Reading Room will close on Thursday 17 April at 5pm. Closed Good Friday 18 April and Easter Monday 21 April. Reopening Tuesday 22 April at 9:15am. (And moving on one week, the NAI will close a little early, at 4:30pm, the following Monday 28 April.)

Registry of Deeds
The Registry of Deeds will close at 4:30pm on Thursday 17 April. Closed Good Friday 18 April and Easter Monday 21 April. Reopening Tuesday 22 April at 10am. 

General Register Office Research Room
The Werburgh Street office will close at 5:45pm on Thursday 17 April. Closed Good Friday 18 April and Easter Monday. Reopening Tuesday 22 April at 9:15am.

Dublin City Library and Archives
The main DCL&A on Pearse Street, along with all Dublin City's public libraries, will be closed on Good Friday 18 April until Easter Monday 21 April inclusive. All libraries will return to normal hours on Tuesday 22 April.

RCBL
The Reading Room of the Representative Church Body Library will be closed on Good Friday 18 April and Easter Monday 21 April. Reopens at 9:30 on Tuesday 22 April.


NORTHERN IRELAND

PRONI
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland will be open from 9:00am to 4:45pm on Good Friday 18 April but will be closed on both Monday 21 April and Tuesday 22 April. It will reopen on Wednesday 23 April at 9:00am.

GRONI
The Public Search Room of the General Register Office of Northern Ireland will be open normal hours (9:30am–4:00pm)on Good Friday 18 April. It will then be closed until Wednesday 23 April, reopening at 9:30am.

Linen Hall Library 
Open normal hours (9:30am to 5:30pm) on Good Friday 18 April. Closed Easter Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. Reopening  9:30am on Wednesday 23 April.

NIFHS Research Centre
The North of Ireland Family History Society Research Centre will be closed on Wednesday 16 April and will remain closed through Easter week; re-opening on Saturday 26 April. 


ENGLAND

IGRS Library
Closed on Saturday 19 April. Reopening Saturday 26 April.

The National Archives, Kew 
Closed from Good Friday 18 April to Easter Monday 21 April, inclusive. Otherwise, normal hours.

Irish Association of Professional Historians to launch

The Irish Association of Professional Historians will launch next Tuesday, 15 April.

As it's name tell you, the association is for professional historians (those with a PhD or those who have made a significant contribution to historical studies) and graduate historians (those enrolled in a PhD programme). Membership is open to those who have trained or are working in Ireland as well as international historians and scholars with an expertise or interest in historical studies.

Among the benefits of membership are these:

• Affiliation to an association of professional historians
  
• Access to and advertisement through a personal and updateable profile page hosted on the IAPH website
  
• Access to professional development training subsidised by the association
  
• Access to IAPH networking events.

Membership fees are set at €50 for professional historians; €25 for 'early career' or unwaged professional historians; and €25 for graduate historians.

The official launch of the association and its website, www.iaph.ie, will take place place at Academy House, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2 next Tuesday at 6pm. Prospective members can join on the night (cash only) or through the website (click logo).

FindMyPast to release 100 record sets in 100 days

Click logo to see details of today's releases

FindMypast has launched 100 in 100, a plan to release 100 record sets in the next 100 days.

This ambitious initiative will see millions of new records, many of them exclusive to FindMyPast, newly available to subscribers. Among them will be military, census, parish and civil records, and no doubt many other types of collections.

Irish records will feature in the mix.

The first upload brings nearly 50,000 records across eight British WW1 Pals Regiments collections, as follows:

• Birmingham Pals 1914-1918
  
• Birmingham Employers Roll of Honour 1914-1918
  
• 1st Bradford Pals (16th West Yorkshire Regiment)
  
• Edinburgh Pals (15th and 16th Royal Scots Regiment)
  
• Glasgow Pals 1914-1918
  
• Liverpool Pals (17th, 18th, 19th and 20th King's Liverpool Regiment)
  
• Salford Pals (15th, 16th, 19th and 20th Lancashire Fusiliers)
  
• Southdown Battalions (11th, 12th and 13th Royal Sussex)
  

Colonial Duchesses: Book launch in Dublin

Dublin launch by the Australian Ambassador
to Ireland, 23 April

A new book, Colonial Duchesses by Elizabeth Rushen, tells the story of migration of Irish women to New South Wales before the Great Famine.

In just two years, 750 young Irish women sailed from Cork to Sydney &ndash on the Duchess of Northumberland in 1834 and again in 1836, and the James Pattison in 1835. For the women who took the courageous decision to emigrate, the pain of leaving Ireland was mixed with the excitement of forging a new life in the colony of New South Wales.

This book, published by Anchor Books Australia, examines the backgrounds and lives of these young women whose experiences are representative of countless single women who migrated to Australia during the 19th-century.

It is to be launched by Dr Ruth Adler, Australian Ambassador to Ireland, at O'Connell House, Keough Naughton Notre Dame Centre, 58 Merrion Square South, Dublin 2, on Wednesday 23 April, 6pm–7:30pm. If you wish to attend, please email by 21 April.

Colonial Duchesses can be purchased from the publisher's website for AUD $34.95/€23/£16 plus postage. (Special launch price until 23 April: AUD $30/€20/£16)

ISBN: 9780992467104

Some 1911 Census images 'temporarily unavailable'

I appreciate that the words 'census' and 'lost' must never be used carelessly in earshot of an Irish genealogist, so I'm going to tread very gently here. Please read the entire post before panicking or crying.

Images of non-household returns have gone missing

It seems some images from the 1911 census on the National Archives of Ireland's Genealogy site have gone AWOL ie performed a disappearing act. We're talking here of the non-household forms ie B1 Return of House and Buildings, which recorded the condition and features of each dwelling (numbers of windows, roofing materials etc), and B2 Return of Out Offices, which recorded deails of piggeries, cow sheds etc.

They were there under 'View census images'. And now they aren't.

I'm told that the matter has been referred to the NAI's web team and a fix is awaited. So the data is not lost. The images are just temporarily unavailable.

'And breathe.'

UPDATE: 10 April 9:25am: Speedy reaction from the National Archives of Ireland's web crew... the images have been restored to their rightful place, as per below:

PRONI adds videos of workshop lectures to YouTube

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland is in the process of uploading recorded videos from its highly-regarded and popular “Exploring Your Archives in Depth” workshops that were held in PRONI in January/February of this year.

Lectures by Dr Annaleigh Margey and Valerie Adams have now been uploaded to the PRONI YouTube channel and are available by following the links below:

The 1641 Depositions, by Dr Annaleigh Margey

1641 Depositions Part 1

1641 Depositions Part 2

1641 Depositions Part 3


Using Church Records, by Valerie Adams

Using Church Records Part 1

Using Church Records Part 2

Using Church Records Part 3

Using Church Records Part 4


All other recorded talks will be uploaded to the PRONIonline channel in due course.

GRONI's new online service enjoys official celebration

Minister Hamilton launches GRONI's new online service
Picture: Matt Mackey/Presseye.com

Did you know that the very first birth registered in 1864 in what is now Northern Ireland was that of John McAnenny in Plumbridge, Co Tyrone? Did you know the first death registered was that of Mary Roorke in Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh?

Some of you clever clogs out there may have already known these facts, but I'll admit that I didn't before today. They were among the details offered up at this morning's official 'Ministerial' launch of GRONI's new online service, which went live last week.

The launch reception at Oxford House, Belfast was attended by around 50-odd people including Finance Minister Simon Hamilton and Registrar General for Northern Ireland Dr Norman Caven. The BBC TV was there and some of the interviews will, presumably, be shown on this evening's news programme.

Minister Simon Hamilton was in charge of the formalities. 'The General Register Office and District Registrars have provided and continue to provide an invaluable service to the public,' he said, 'giving individuals and families information about family history since 1864. In marking 150 years of civil registration we have progressed from hand-written records to a new online service, which facilitates searches of Northern Ireland’s historical records.

'As Finance Minister I have been promoting the need for Public Sector Reform as an essential element in the delivery of high quality public services to our citizens in the face of increasing expectations and reducing budgets. Engaging with the citizen and adopting more innovative ways of delivering services, as demonstrated through GRO’s new Family History online service, is an excellent example of this.'

Speaking to me after the formalities, GRONI's Alaistair Butler told me that thousands upon thousands of people have used the online service since it launched on 31 March and the project team has received many emails of thanks from around the world. 'Of course, there have been a few niggles – comparatively few, considering the numbers using the site – but many of them can be answered or explained in the Help text we've provided.  We'd urge people to read it. All in all, we're very happy with the way the site has been received.'

He was able to quickly answer a couple of my queries. On the subject of the 'five-year search' restriction, he says this is fixed by 40-year-old legislation* so we'll have to live with it for the foreseeable, and on the varient surname options, he says all the varients they know of were included in the program, but not all vaguely similar surnames are variants. (Here's my example of this: Santry and Sanders may be vaguely similar, but they're not varients of the same surname.)

The new online service enables searches of civil records for births over 100 years old, marriages over 75 years old and deaths over 50 years old. Researchers who visit the public search room can additionally access records right up to current. You can find out more at GRONI online.

*Different legislation applies to the online and Search Room versions of the search facility. The online version has the 5-year search restriction and includes only 'historical' records (the rolling 100/75/50 year); the Search Room version has a wider search restriction and includes all records up to current.

History Festival of Ireland ready for booking

The History Festival of Ireland will take place on the weekend of 7–8 June at Huntington Castle, Clonegal, Co. Carlow.

Now in its third year, this summer's event is being curated by Angus Mitchell and will see 50 well-regarded historians and thinkers from Ireland and the UK contributing to more than 40 discussions, interviews and performances. A dedicated stage will see an in-depth two-day exploration of World War One, there's a History Ireland Hedge School and a number of presentations specially for the Vintage Car or Motoring enthusiast.

A day-ticket costs €22.50 and provides access to all events being held that day.

Parking is free and food and refreshments can be purchased on site.

Find out more on the History Festival of Ireland website.

Minister launches site dedicated to the Irish Famine

A new online project called Heroes of the Great Irish Famine has been launched to pay tribute to the individuals and communities whose compassion and generosity sustained the lives of those who suffered during the famine when they were most in need.

Speaking at the launch, Jimmy Deenihan, TD, Minister for the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Chair of the National Famine Commemoration Committee, said: "To start this project I have submitted a piece on the work of the Quakers who did so much to help victims of the Great Irish Famine by setting up soup kitchens and distributing aid to those in some of the worst affected areas in Ireland. Many of those in receipt of this aid would otherwise have starved and we should be thankful to those brave men and women who stood up for the impoverished during this terrible time in our history.

"It is fascinating to learn that groups such as the Chocataw Indians, the Jewish Community in New York, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the Committee of Colored Citizens in Philadelphia were all affected by the plight of the Irish people during this time. I would urge members of the public to delve into this part of our history and take part in this project".

Heroes of the Great Irish Famine will have an online life as a section of a new website – irishfamine.ie –, which the Minister also launched today. The website will provide information about the Great Irish Famine and details of events in the run up to the National and International Famine Commemorations.

The Heroes of the Great Irish Famine section will be dedicated to those who showed kindness and humanity to the Irish people in response to the Great Irish Famine. Members of the public will be invited to provide brief accounts of those individuals and communities at home and abroad who they feel should be recognised for their generosity. At each location of the National and International Famine Commemoration, local communities will be encouraged to provide accounts of local 'heroes' to coincide with the planned events. Schools will also be invited to provide information and material on people local to their area who helped those during the Great Irish Famine.

Perhaps giving an idea of how IrishFamine.ie might develop, there's a link on the site to one of Skibbereen Heritage Centre's databases: The Loan Funds. The Loan Funds were originally set up by Jonathan Swift in Dublin in the early 18th century to provide credit to the poor, and their use gradually spread across the island. In the years just before the Great Hunger, there were several Loan Funds operating in Cork. The records in this database are for the Kilmoe & Crookhaven, Schull, Durrus, Creagh, Baltimore, Castletownsend, Glandore and Ballineen funds in the far south west of Cork. (Thanks to Genealogist Joe Buggy at Townland of Origin for alerting me to this.)

British Newspaper Archive launches mobile app

The British Newspaper Archive (BNA) has launched an app called Here & Then for iphones and ipads.

Since I have neither, I haven't been able to check it out, but it sounds interesting and fun.

The BNA says the app allows you to read stories from over 200 years of historical newspapers (it remains to be seen how often Irish titles will feature).

Users will:

• Learn what happened on this day in history
  
• Discover reports reflecting today’s news
  
• Enjoy interesting and amusing snippets dating back to the 1700s

The app is free to download and to use.

Click the image to visit the App Store and find out more about Here & Then.