20% off one-month sub to British Newspaper Archive

The British Newspaper Archive is offering a 20% discount on a one-month subscription to its online database of 757 publications.

This could be a well-timed prompt for you to explore the full archive of British and Irish historical newspapers. Only last week, the BNA celebrated reaching the milestone of 20million archived pages.

More than 140 titles in the collection are from Ireland (106 from the Republic; 37 from Northern Ireland).

To take advantage of the discount and access millions of historical newspaper pages, click the image (or link above). You'll find the discount is automatically applied.

The discount will be available until Tuesday 20 June.

FindMyPast adds 1881 and 1891 Canadian Censuses

FindMyPast has added the 1881 and 1891 Canadian censuses to its USA & Canada collection.

The Canada Census of 1881 holds the details of more than 4.2 million Canadians, while the Canada Census 1891 contains more than 4.5 million records.

In both record sets, the areas covered are British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec. Each result includes a transcript and an image, hosted by Library and Archives Canada, of the original census form, which will reveal where your ancestor was living, who they were living with, their birth year, place of birth and religion, their occupation and marital status, and any infirmities.

FindMyPast's collection of Canadian censuses now comprises the 1881 to 1911 censuses, plus the 1825 and 1842 Lower Canada Censuses and some other regional census indexes. 1881

John D Reid of Anglo Celtic Connections published a handy blogpost yesterday setting out the online availability of Canada's census collections across the free and pay-to-view database suppliers.

Surveying Kilrush Churchyard: volunteers needed

There's a call out for volunteers to help with the photographing of headstones and recording of memorial inscriptions in the pre-Reformation Kilrush Churchyard in County Clare.

The volunteer team, organised by Kilrush & District Historical Society, will be working in the churchyard today, Wednesday and Thursday from noon until 4pm, conducting the second stage of a project to survey and map the burial ground. The work involves the use of digital cameras, hi-tech GPS systems, and low-tech carbon rubbing techniques. No experience is necessary as training will be provided. The information collected will enable KDHS to document all of the graves in the cemetery thereby safeguarding the rich history and heritage of the site for the future.

Documenting Kilrush Churchyard started back in 2014 with the help of the Historic Graves team, when nearly half of the graveyard was mapped and photographed. Images of more than 300 of the gravestones can be viewed on Historic Graves.com.

The inscriptions from many of these have been transcribed to paper on the ground. Many have subsequently been transcribed to historicgraves.com, either from the photographs or from the paper record sheets. Some inscriptions are clear enough that they can be easily read from the photographs; others require physical inspection.

Even if you can't come along to the graveyward this week to help with the ground work, you can help the team complete the project by signing up as a transcriber and working from the online photographs.

You'll find updates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1228580340602114/

Irish genealogy and history events, 12–25 June

Monday 12 June: Hermann Görtz, a German spy in Ireland during WW2, with James Scannell. Host: Clontarf Historical Society. Venue: Resource Centre, St John the Baptist Church. Clontarf Road, Dublin 3. Admission €5. All welcome. 8:15pm.

Tuesday 13 June: Irish Family History Group, monthly meeting. Host and venue: The Core Library, Theatre Square, Homer Road, Solihull, UK, B91 3RG. 10am to Noon. All welcome to attend for free genealogy help and support.

Tuesday 13 June: How online sources helped put flesh on the bones of the Beglan family tree, with Mary Beglan. Host: Genealogical Society of Ireland. Venue: Dún Laoghaire FE Institute, 17 Cumberland St, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. 8pm. All welcome. €3 donation requested.

Tuesday 13 June: Dublin housing in the 1800s, with Seán Bagnall. Host: Tallaght Historical Society. Venue: South Dublin County Library, The Square. Tallaght, Co Dublin. 7pm. Free. All welcome. No booking required.

Wednesday 14 June: Ireland's swinging sixties? – reimagining 1960s youth, with Carole Holohan. Host and Venue: Little Museum of Dublin, St Stephen's Green North, Dublin 2. Limited number of tickets on door, €15. 5:30pm. All welcome

Wednesday 14 June: Have you no homes to go to? – The evolution of the Irish pub, with Kevin Martin. Host and Venue: Little Museum of Dublin, St Stephen's Green North, Dublin 2. Limited number of tickets on door, €15. 7pm. All welcome.

Wednesday 14 June: The Way We Were, a special event celebrating Sligo's history. Venue: Hawsk Well Theatre, Temple Street, Sligo. Speakers include John McTernon, Simone Hickey and John Carton. County Sligo Heritage and Genealogy Society will be on hand to discuss family history research. Tickets €10, includes light refreshments. Details and booking.

Thursday 15 June: The Easter Rising through the eyes of Protestants in Dublin, with Ian d’Alton. Host: Leixlip History Club. Venue: Leixlip Library, Captain's Hill, Newtown, Leixlip, Co. Kildare. 7:15pm. All welcome.

Thursday 16 June to Monday 19 June: Great Canadian Genealogy Summit and Ontario Genealogical Society Conference. Host: Ontario Genealogical Society. Venue: Algonquin College, Ontario, Canada. Three days of inspiring lectures, workshops, displays, and other learning opportunities, plus excursions on Thursday 15 June and Ancestry Day Monday 19th. See full programme and details.

Monday 19 June to Wednesday 21 June: The Country House Revived? The 15th Annual Historic Houses Conference. Hosts: The Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates, Maynooth University, and the Office of Public Works. Venue: Dublin Castle, Dame Street, Dublin 2. Programme and details (pdf).

Tuesday 20 June: Tracing your Irish Roots, with Lorna Moloney. Host: Clans and Surnames. Venue: Hotel Mayrick, Eyre Square, Galway City. Superbly located, overlooking Eyre Square, 9:30am to 4:30pm. Book by email to irishroots@clansandsurnames.com or telephone 085-8721184.

Wednesday 21 June: Post-post conflict? The Contemporary Murals of Northern Ireland, with Tony Crowley. Host and venue: Irish World Heritage Centre, 1 Irish Town Way, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, UK, M8 0AE. Free, but need to register. All welcome. 7:30 to 9pm.

Friday 23 and Saturday 24 June: Oral Histories of Work and Leisure – conference, workshops, presentations and dinner. Host: Oral History Network Ireland. Venue: Connacht Hotel, Dublin Road, Galway City. Full programme. Registration closes on 16 July.

Saturday 24 June: Irish Genealogical Research Society at the Yorkshire Family History Show. Venue: York Racecourse, York, UK. The show includes more than 50 exhibitors (record offices, family history societies, retailers, online services, books etc) from across the geographical British Isles, plus expert talks. Admission £4.80. All welcome.

RootsIreland adds more East Galway parish records

Just three weeks after uploading a 32,000-strong mix of non-Catholic marriages, land and gravestone records (see blogpost), RootsIreland's East Galway database has uploaded an additional 30,000 Roman Catholic baptismal transcriptions.

The new baptism records are from the following parishes:

Abbey Duniry 1870-1909
Ballinakill 1838-1915
Ballymacward 1841-1900
Carrabane 1831-1902
Craughwell 1847-1895
Fohenagh 1827-1917
Kiltullagh 1884-1901
Kilchreest 1855-1917
Caltra 1840-1917

The date span of available baptism transcriptions for two parishes have also been extended, as follows:

Aughrim 1828-1917 (1908-1917 are new)
Clontuskert 1827-1917 (1908-1917 are new)

You can view the full menu of records in the East Galway database here.

National Archives of Ireland 2017 lecture programme

The National Archives of Ireland has announced its 2017 Lecture Programme. It contains an interesting mix of genealogical and historical topics, and five of the lectures will be presented by members of Accredited Genealogists Ireland (MAGIs).

All lectures will be held at the Reading Room of the NAI in Bishop Street, Dublin 8, on Tuesday evenings starting at 6pm. All are welcome and no booking is required.

Here's the line-up:

27 June	Tony Hennessey MAGI	My ancestors were sent to jail – Hurrah!
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4 July	Brian Mitchell MAGI	Irish emigration records: sources for researching an ancestor's migration from Ireland
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11 July	Georgina Scally MAGI	Newspapers as a source for genealogical research
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18 July	Nicola Morris MAGI	Tracing an Irish military ancestor: records for C19th and C20th British Army and Republican forces 1913-22
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25 July	Sandra Doble MAGI	Researching your Church of Ireland ancestors
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20 Sept.	Dr Michael Kennedy	Charles Doyle, an 1870s Irish Victorian cad, bounder, conman and convict
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4 Oct.	Dr Kate O'Malley	Ireland, Egypt and India: 1919 an anti-imperialist turning point
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18 Oct.	Dr Emmanuel Destenay	The frustrated return of WW1 Irish ex-servicemen

British Newspaper Archive clocks up 20million pages

Overnight, the British Newspaper Archive's count of pages available to reseachers clicked over the 20 million milestone (to 20,005,334 pages, to be precise), thereby marking the half way point of the British Library's project to digitise and present online its 40-million-page historical newspaper library. The latter collection, as well as including a vast holding of British newspapers, is home to the single largest collection of Irish newspapers and other periodicals.

The online, pay-to-view archive – a partnership between the British Library and FindMyPast – launched on 29 November 2011 with an impressive 3million pages ready for on-screen exploration. Just three Irish titles were included: the Cork Examiner (1841-1846), Freeman's Journal (1820-1900), and Belfast Newsletter (1828-1900).

Six years later, the online archive holds 143 titles published on the island of Ireland; 106 were published in counties that now make up the Republic of Ireland and 37 titles were produced in counties now within Northern Ireland. They make up 19% of the BNA's entire online holding of 757 titles, and they are available to search on both the BNA's dedicated website (link above) and via FindMyPast as part of a Britain, Ireland or World subscription.

Since the 2011 launch of the BNA, the British Library's Newspaper Library at Colindale in north London was closed (2013) and the entire physical collection was relocated to a hi-tech purpose built storage facility in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire.

Congratulations to the British Newspaper Archive team!

Father's Day savings on Ancestry DNA tests

Ancestry DNA is offering a Father's Day discount on its testing kit in Ireland, the UK, USA and Canada.

The discount is now available in all territories and runs until Sunday 18 June in all cases.

To place your order and pay in the local currency, click one of the following flags:



Ancestry Ireland: €80 (Regular price €95), excluding postage and packaging.



Ancestry UK: £69 (Regular price £79), excluding postage and packaging.



Ancestry Canada: $79 Cdn (Regular price $99), excludes taxes and shipping.



Ancestry USA: $79 (Regular price $99), excluding taxes and shipping.

€400k funding approved for Marsh's Library

The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys TD, has announced capital funding of €400,000 to Marsh’s Library to ensure the protection of its unique and irreplaceable collection of 25,000 books.

Marsh's Library, Dublin.
Photo courtesy Tourism Ireland.

The grant aid will go towards measures including damp proofing and the provision of a misting fire-prevention system.

While this isn't a genealogy library, it is one of my favourite places in Dublin to visit, so I'm delighted to hear of this funding. The Library is a magnificent example of a late Renaissance and early Enlightenmnet Library, filled with books bound in old leather.

Marsh’s Library was founded in the early C18th by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh (1638-1713) and when it opened in 1707, it was Ireland's first public library. It is one of Dublin's very few C18th buildings still being used for its original purpose. Many of the collections in the Library are still kept on the shelves allocated to them by Marsh and by Elias Bouhéreau, the first librarian, when the Library was opened 300 years ago.

More about Marsh's Library.

Free online genealogy course starts 3 July

The University of Strathclyde's well-regarded Genealogy - Researching your Family Tree online course is to be held again from 3 July. Hosted by The Open University's Future Learn, the course is free, and requires a commitment from participants of four hours study a week over a six-week period.

It is considered suitable for beginners but will also be of help to more experienced genealogists who want to learn new searching, analytical and communication techniques. It covers basic genealogy techniques, finding and analysing sources, adding historical context and exploring the potential of DNA testing.

This is not an Irish genealogy course. In fact, it does not concentrate on any specific country’s records. Instead the course looks to help participants define what it is they want to research, to consider the best ways of finding and storing relevant information and to overcome the key challenges of finding the right person among a number of possible candidates.

The tutor is Tahitia McCabe, who is also the Course Leader for the University's MSc in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies.