Making sense of the GRO database... your attention will be rewarded

History, history. There's always some historical background to consider in all developments in Irish genealogy, and yesterday's launch of the General Register Office's civil registration indexes (see blogpost) is a perfect example. The history is, I'm afraid, rather complicated; it's worth getting to grips with, however, because it will explain why some information is available in the indexes for some years and not others.

So stand by, and take notes, because you may find yourself being tested on this later:

As we all know, the Church of Latter Day Saints (Family Search) microfilmed the GRO's birth, marriage and death indexes from 1845/1864 up to 1958. In due course, the microfilm was scanned and digitised and has been available on Family Search for the last several years. Ancestry and FindMyPast's versions originate from the same microfilms. In effect, researchers have had just one set of the index available to them up to 1958, whether they searched online or lifted the hard back books from the shelves of the GRO's Research Room in Dublin.

Just a few years after the LDS created their microfilms, the GRO decided it was time for an update and set out to improve the annual indexing method. From 1966, GRO staff started to enhance their paper indexes by including actual dates of birth, marriage and death, the surnames of both marriage partners, and the marital status of the deceased. This process became the standard from the mid-60s and continued until the early 1990s.

Because this new 'standard' was such an improvement, the GRO set up a project to give historical indexes the same treatment. Work started on the 1900 to 1902 birth indexes. For whatever reasons, this first batch of 'improved' indexes did not apply consistencies. Maiden names might be included in some cases; the actual date of birth for others.

The project continued with the 1903 to 1928 birth indexes and was generally done to a higher standard. Not perfect, but better. Although maiden names and dates of birth should be available in the vast majority of entries, there are loads of mistakes (guesses?) in spellings of names, and even some examples where a date of birth has been incorrectly read ie the abbreviation Jan for January may have been mis-transcribed as the abbreviation Jun for June, etc.

The GRO's first 'modernisation' project ended with the 1928 birth indexes. This means that the indexes used by the GRO themselves for births from 1929 to 1958 are the same as those microfilmed by the LDS. Those from 1958 to 1965 follow the same format. In other words, from 1929 to 1965 maiden names were automatically included in the birth indexes but dates of birth were not.

In recent years, other 'enhancements' have been made to the indexes used by GRO staff. Whereas older marriages (1845 to the turn of the 20th century) are still recorded with each partner to the marriage entered separately, necessitating the need to cross-check the reference details to find a match, GRO staff started indexing the bride and groom as a couple. For example, the marriage of John Doyle and Catherine Faul on 01 October 1904 is found whether you search for his name or her name – no need to cross-check. These 'joint' entries have been indexed back to 1912; they're a bit hit and miss from 1903 to 1911.

These 'improved' indexes have only ever been available to GRO staff. Until now. These are the indexes now available at IrishGenealogy.ie.

The final part of the history lesson takes us to 2005 when the GRO decided that, going forward, the old system of indexing according to Registration District, Volume and Page numbers was obsolete. Instead, a Group Registration ID was introduced. As its name suggests, every individual registration would, in future, be allocated its own identifier. To introduce an element of security, the numbers are not continuous, I'm told.

To create this new database, Group Registration IDs have been created retrospectively for all births, for marriages since 1903 and for deaths since 1924 only. I imagine these identifiers will eventually be allocated to all entries in the the historic registers.

In future, then, if you're applying for a certificate to the GRO, you'll need in principle to quote only the name of the person to which the event relates and the Group Registration ID, where one exists. (Personally, I'd give them that info plus the SRD/PLU, Volume and Page number, just for certainty!)

One irritation of the 'enhanced' indexes is that, even where a date of birth, marriage or death has been provided from the registers, the database is stuck in a 'year of registration' groove. An example from the birth index will explain this: You're looking for your ancestor John Martin Ryan who you know was born on 12 December 1928 but you don't know where. So you search for him using his name and the year 1928. You won't find him.

The reason you won't find him is that his birth was registered in 1929 and you have to use that date in the search fields to locate his birth record, the very birth record which will show the December 1928 birthday! Infuriating, but definitely worth remembering when you can't find someone. This applies for births, marriages and deaths.

I am hugely indebted to Steven Smyrl, President of APGI and Executive Liaison Officer of CIGO, for helping me to make some sense of apparent inconsistencies in the new database (many thanks for this morning's history class, Steven!) and hope the resulting explanation above will help many researchers understand the new resource.

If you've read this far, you deserve another treat. You might need to sit down for this one. I did. I thought I'd misheard!

Joan Burton, Minister for Social Protection (and, as of half an hour ago, the new Leader of the Labour Party, and Tánaiste) made a surprise announcement at last night's launch of the online GRO database. This is what she said:

“This [the GRO indexes online database] is an investment for the future which allows us to access our past from the comfort of our living rooms. The availability of electronic records is essential for the development of modern genealogy services. With this in mind, I will shortly be publishing the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill 2014 in which I will be providing for certain historic records to be made available online direct to the public. I look forward to further developments on this wonderful initiative which will allow us, and future generations, access to invaluable information regarding our ancestors."

She went on to say that these historic records would be full register records for births up to 100 years ago, marriages up to 75 years ago, and deaths up to 50 years ago.

I hope to bring you more about this in due course.

You read it here first!

'Enhanced' online bmd indexes searchable up to 2013

The General Register Office's 'enhanced' indexes to Ireland's civil registration records are in the process of being uploaded to IrishGenealogy.ie. Test pages are running at the moment so the site is a bit wobbly and probably won't be up to full speed until later.

Like the Church Records, the Civil Records have their own dedicated section of the site, which is reached via the horizontal menu.

I'm just about to start making my way into the City ahead of tonight's formal launch at the Royal Irish Academy, so I haven't time to play with this as much as I'd like, but here are some brief details of what this version of the indexes holds:

Geographical coverage: Indexes to the registers of births/marriages/deaths from 1845/1864 to 1921 for the entire island of Ireland. Indexes to the registers of births/marriages/deaths from 1922 for the 26 counties of the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland ie not counties Antrim, Armagh, Derry-Londonderry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone.

Births: From 1864 to 2013 with the mother's maiden name and actual date of birth included in the returns from 1903. As it happens, one of my searches found an entry dated 1842 (really!) and a 1901 record with a mother's name, so I guess the criteria aren't set in stone.

Marriages: From 1845/1864 to 2013. Names of both partners show up in search returns in some instances (haven't quite worked out the date limitations)

Civil Partnerships: From 2010 to 2013

Deaths: From 1864 to 2013. Search results show marital status.

With the extended range of dates, this is a huge improvement on what we've had up to now. But I've a number of queries. Hopefully I'll get these resolved this evening. I'll do a fuller post tomorrow, along with any other info gleaned from the official 'do' tonight.

Friday 4 July: Please see follow-up post. It's a long one, and requires some effort from you, but I promise it's worth it!

July/August issue of Irish Lives Remembered published

The July/August edition of Irish Lives Remembered has been published. No whimsical black and white photo on the front this time; instead, there's a smiling George Clooney. He's earned his position on the cover not only because he'll send many female researchers into a dreamy dither, but also because this issue includes a feature about his connections in County Kilkenny.

The main research focus in this edition is County Tyrone, with several pages detailing some of the available records and other sources of help for those with ancestors from this area of Northern Ireland. The USA feature this month looks at Kentucky, while the Australia feature looks at post-1901 military records.

To view or download the digital magazine, click the image.

Ireland Genealogy Projects: end of June update

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives has made only a handful of updates in the second half of June due to the team being on holiday. Here they are:

LEITRIM Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
1849 Irish Constabulary Enlistees

LIMERICK Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
1849 Irish Constabulary Enlistees

OFFALY/KINGS Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
1849 Irish Constabulary Enlistees

Northern Ireland institutions: closures in July

Some notes for your diary if you're intending to carry out any research in Northern Ireland in the next couple of weeks...

All departments of both the General Register Office of Northern Ireland (GRONI) and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) will be closed on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 July 2014. Both institutions will close at normal time on Friday 11 July and re-open to regular schedules on Wednesday 16 July.

The Linen Hall Library will be closed on Saturday 12, Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 July. It will close at 5:30pm on Friday 11 July and reopen for normal hours at 9:30am on Wednesday 16 July.

All Northern Ireland public lending libraries will also be closed on Saturday 12, Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 July, returning to normal timetables from Wednesday 16 July.

WW1 Roadshow at Trinity College Dublin, 12 July

On Saturday 12 July, a World War One Roadshow will be held at Trinity College Dublin. It's hosted by RTE, TCD and the National Library of Ireland, and features a day-long programme of events that include short talks, WW1 cookery demonstrations, music, theatre, full-length lectures, family activities and genealogy advice.

The latter will be provided in the Trinity Long Room Hub from 10am to 4pm by Timeline Research, FindMyPast and others, and Nicola Morris, MAPGI, will give a brief introduction to Searching for your WW1 Ancestors at 10:50am in one of the scheduled 'pop up' (15-minute) talks.

At 11:30am, Catriona Crowe of the National Archives of Ireland will give a short talk about the Soldiers' Wills collection, a record set which is now freely available on the NAI's Genealogy website.

In addition, the programme features a Family Memorabilia event. Members of the public are invited to bring along items relating to World War 1 to be catalogued for an online European archive. Experts from the National Library of Ireland will be on hand to review and record memorabilia. Booking for this component is essential (update: fully subscribed at 7 July).

Download the full programme (pdf).

Mapping city, town and country since 1824

The Royal Irish Academy (RIA) has launched an exhibition called Mapping city, town and country since 1824: the Ordnance Survey in Ireland. It's been organised by the RIA Library and the Irish Historic Towns Atlas (IHTA), and focuses on the Academy’s extensive collections relating to the mapping of Ireland at a scale of 6 inches to one mile.

The 6-inch maps are an essential source for the investigation of 19th-century Ireland's cities, towns and countryside. Every headland, mountain, river, field, plot, bleaching green and public building is recorded for posterity. 

The exhibition, which is accessible Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, except on conference days at the Academy, sets out to illustrate the scope and depth of the Ordnance Survey engagement in the 19th-century island. It continues until 30 January 2015.

Mapping city, town and country – lecture series
To complement the exhibition, the RIA has organised a Mapping city, town and country lecture series. The lunchtime lectures will cover all aspects of the Ordnance Survey project. The lectures will be held on Wednesdays, 1–2pm, in the Meeting Room, Academy House, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, and will be recorded for podcast purposes. All welcome, and no need to book.

27 Aug:  The map-making of the OS: challenges on every front, with Dr Jacinta Prunt
1 Oct:    The OS 6" Mapping Project: political & cultural agendas, with Prof. William Smith
8 Oct:    Translations? The Ordnance Survey & Irish place-names, with Prof. Nollaig Ó Muraíle
15 Oct:  George Petrie’s “Topographical Department” (1835-42), with Paul Walsh
22 Oct:  Glimpses of Ireland's past: drawings in the OS Memoirs, with Angélique Day
29 Oct:  John O'Donovan's work for the Ordnance Survey, with Prof. Michael Herity
5 Nov:    From Rocque to the OS: mapping Dublin 1756 to 1847, with Rob Goodbody
12 Nov:  Dublin in 1847: city of the Ordnance Survey, with Dr Frank Cullen
19 Nov:  The OS now and in the future, with Colin Bray

Ancestry's US census collection is free until 6 July

To celebrate 4th of July in the USA, Ancestry is offering free access to its US Federal census collection until Sunday 6 July.

The collection spans from 1790 to 1940 and includes more than 700 million names.

To take up the offer, click the image below. If you already have an Ancestry account, you'll get immediate access, otherwise, you'll have to register.

The offer expires on 6 July at 11:59 ET.

Create your own family's WDYTYA? story online

Findmypast and TV Production company Wall to Wall are planning to mark 10 years of the internationally successful Who Do You Think You Are? TV programme by launching a commercial website and online product: the 'Who Do You Think You Are? Story'.

This site will allow family historians of all levels to create their own personalised Who Do You Think You Are? story quickly and easily, and share it with friends and family. The researcher adds details about their own immediate family and the 'Who Do You Think You Are? Story' will create a unique visual representation. This will feature key events in the family's history but will also pull in contemporary issues which would have impacted on the individuals' lives.

Wall to Wall has commissioned Findmypast to draw on its extensive archive of historical records, British newspaper cuttings, exclusive images, war records and much more, so that the new website brings personal history to life.

The site will go live in the next few weeks. If you wish to receive news of the site's launch, you can sign up at http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarestory.com.

Church of Ireland releases Parish Registers list online

As promised last month, the Representative Church Body Library (RCBLibrary), the main repository for the written heritage of the Church of Ireland (CofI), has released an updated list of CofI parish registers. The new list has been painstakingly prepared in an extensive project by amending and cross-checking the lists of baptism, marriage and burial registers across the island and has been achieved through collaboration with the National Archives of Ireland.

The new list, which can be downloaded, free of charge, from the Archive section of the Church of Ireland website is arranged alphabetically by parish name (with additionally parishes within the main cities alphabetically listed under the name of each city). Furthermore, the list has been colour–coded as far as records in the Republic of Ireland are concerned for the first time, making it easier to see at a glance what has been transferred to the RCB Library; the small number of collections available in the National Archives of Ireland; what was destroyed; and finally what collections continue to be held in local custody.

It may be considered to be definitive as far as registers in the Republic of Ireland are concerned. The RCBLibrary will continue to work with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast to account for materials available in microfilm and in original format available through that repository for parishes in the nine counties comprising Ulster.

The electronic list will now be maintained, amended and updated on a regular basis by the RCBLibrary and will be permanently available on the Church of Ireland website where it will be extensively consulted by Irish family historians.

Many thanks to all concerned for this work. The list will be a great boon to genealogists.