Three volunteers sought by PRONI for six-month roles

PRONI's state-of-the-art offices are in
Belfast's Titanic Quarter

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has developed a Volunteer policy and is seeking enthusiastic volunteers to carry out three distinct roles. One will assist with Absent Voters' Lists; another will be allocated to PRONI's Digital Library Library, and the third will assist with the Young & Mackenzie architectural collection.

Each volunteer will be given appropriate training and will be assigned a mentor.

The PRONI Volunteer Policy, together with the three volunteer role descriptions and application forms are available on the PRONI website here.

The closing date for receipt of completed application forms is Friday 8th December 2017. It is expected that potential volunteers will be invited to a volunteer selection meeting with PRONI staff during the week commencing 8 January 2018.

First 15,000 user-submitted census corrections are live

Validation of the user-submitted
corrections started in September

As regular readers of Irish Genealogy News will be aware, genealogist John Grenham started working back in September on a vast backlog of corrections to the 1901 and 1911 census, all submitted by researchers.

The National Archives of Ireland has announced that the first 15,000 corrections are now live. These relate to emails submitted between 25 October 2016 and 11 September 2017.

In his Irish Roots blog today, John makes some observations about the original transcribers and the recent submitters*, and says he'll be making monthly instalments of corrections going forward.

*The East Galway crowd he speaks of sound like the kind of people who ring you up to make sure you received their email. Jeez.

Registry of Deeds Index Project: latest update

A weekend update to the Registry of Deeds Index Project shows the database now holds 257,261 index entries from 28,665 memorials of deeds, all submitted by volunteers.

All entries are freely accessible via:

• The main index
  
• The grantors index
  
• The townland index

Irish genealogy, history & heritage events, 20 Nov-3 Dec

Monday 20 November: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures are to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service operating as normal. Details.

Monday 20 November: Getting the most from your DNA results, with Paddy Waldon. Host: Irish Genealogical Research Society. Venue: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. 6:45pm. Free. All welcome. No booking required.

Monday 20 November: The Dail Eireann Courts of County Offaly, 1920-1922, with Steven Egan. Host: Offaly Historical & Archaeological Society. Venue: Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co Offaly. 8pm to 10pm. All welcome. €2 Members / €5 Non-members. Includes tea/coffee. Details.

Monday 20 November: Genealogy and family history advice service, with Margaret Bonar and Betty Craven. Host and venue: Donaghmede Library, Shopping Centre, Grange Road, Dublin 13, or Raheny Library, if preferred. All welcome but you need to book by phone: 087 6491605. Free.

Monday 20 November: Guided tour of St. Columb’s Cathedral, with Ian Bartlett. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Foyle branch. Venue: Lecture Room of Derry City’s Central Library, 35 Foyle Street, Londonderry, BT48 6AL. 7pm. Free. All welcome.

Monday 20 November: What's in a name? with Kathleen Morrison. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Larne branch. Venue: Larne Bowling & Lawn Tennis Club, 112-120 Glenarm Road, Larne, BT40 1DZ. 7:30pm. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 21 November: Sacred and Profane: Church art and architecture in Cork City, with Dr Ann Wilson. Signs and Symbols in Urban Cork lecture series. Host: City Library, Grand Parade, Cork City. 7pm. Free. All welcome. No booking required.

Tuesday 21 November: Poverty and the poor in pre-Famine Tipperary, with Dr Laurence Geary. Host: Tipperary People & Places Lecture Series. Venue: Tipperary Studies, The Source, Cathedral Street, Thurles, Co Tipperary. 7:30pm. Admission free. Tea served. All welcome. More details studies@tipperarycoco.ie.

Wednesday 22 November: The Registered Papers of the Chief Secretery of Ireland, their use in history and genealogy, and the updated online catalogue (1818-1830, with Vera Moynes. Host and venue: National Archives of Ireland, Bishop Street, Dublin 8. Free. 6pm. CANCELLED - will be rescheduled for 2018.

Wednesday 22 November: Birth, Baptism, Marriage & Death, with Tony Hennessy MAGI. Host and venue: Medieval Museum in Waterford's Viking Triangle, The Mall, Waterford City. All welcome. 1:15pm to 2pm. €5 admission on the door. No booking required.

Wednesday 22 November: Cork City and County Archives, with Brian McGee. Host: Bishopstown Historical Society. Venue: Bishopstown Library, Sarsfield Road, Wilton, Cork City. All welcome. 11:30am–12:30pm.

Friday 24 November: The sinkings of the Waterford steamers Coningbeg and Formby and the Great War off the Irish coast, with Dr Edward Bourke. Host: Waterford Archaeological & Historical Society. Venue: St Patrick's Gateway Centre, Patrick Street, Waterford City. 8pm. Members free / Non-members €5. All welcome.

Saturday 25 November: Coffin ships, orphan boys and the Lazaretto Point Lighthouse, with Luke McCusker. Host and venue: Irish Railroad Workers Museum, 918-920 Lemmon St, Baltimore, Maryland 21223, USA. 11:30–12:30 EST. All welcome. Free. Details.

Saturday 25 November: Genealogy workshop, with Lynn Brady. Host and venue: Glasnevin Cemetery Museum, Finglas Rd, Dublin 11. Tickets €5. 2pm. All welcome. SOLD OUT

Saturday 25 November: Archives of the Fenian Rising - 150 years on, a half-day seminar with panel discussion chaired by Tim Pat Coogan. Host and venue: National Archives of Ireland, Bishop Street, Dublin 8. Presented as part of the Explore Your Archive campaign. 10am to 1pm. All welcome. Free, but reserving a place is essential.

Saturday 25 November: Local history day. Host: DCL&A. Venue: Conference Room, Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2. Talks include: The 1867 Bray Head Train Derailment, with James Scannell; The Rebel Liberties, with Liz Gillis; Tom Ashe, with Frank Whearity; The Civil War in Dublin, with John Dorney; and The history of Keogh Square, with Liam O'Meara. Host and venue: Dublin City Library & Archive. 9.45am to 2.15pm. Tea/coffee will be served. Free. All welcome. No booking required.

Monday 27 November: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. On-going Monday closures are to facilitate extensive redevelopment of the premises. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service operating as normal. Details.

Tuesday 28 November: Belfast in the Twentieth Century, decade by decade, an illustrated talk with Norman Weatherall. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Belfast Branch. Venue: C. S. Lewis Room, Holywood Arches Library, 4-12 Holywood Road, Belfast, BT4 1NT. Free. All welcome. 7:30pm.

Tuesday 28 November: Using newspaper libraries for genealogical purposes. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Causeway Branch. Venue: Guide Hall, Terrace Row, Coleraine, Co Derry. Free. All welcome. 8pm.

Wednesday 29 November: Land records - Walk in your ancestor's footsteps, with Tony Hennessy MAGI. Host and venue: Medieval Museum in Waterford's Viking Triangle, The Mall, Waterford City. All welcome. 1:15pm to 2pm. €5 admission on the door. No booking required.

Wednesday 29 November: Pierhead to Pierhead: Killaloe to Liverpool in the Age of Steam, with Brian J. Goggin. Host: Killaloe Ballina Local History Society. Venue: Killaloe Public Library, The Lock House, Killaloe, Co. Clare. 7 pm. Free. All welcome.

Thursday 30 November: Researching Court Records, with Wesley Geddis. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Ballymena Branch. Venue: Michelin Arts Workshop, Braid Arts Centre 1-29 Bridge Street, Ballymena, Co Antrim. BT43 5EJ. 7:15pm. Free. All welcome.

Thursday 30 November: The origins of Presbyterianism in the Walled City and Foyle Valley, with Dr William Roulston. Host: Friends of the Derry Walls. Venue: First Derry Presbyterian Church, 6 Upper Magazine St, Londonderry BT48 6HY. All welcome. 7-10pm. Need to register.

Saturday 2 December: Irish Study Group meeting. Host and venue: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 101 Newbury St, Boston, Massachusetts 02116, USA. 9:30am–12pm. Non-members are welcome, and attendees are invited to stay and use the library resources afterwards. No registration necessary.

FindMyPast adds miscellaneous military collections

FindMyPast has added a number of military collections sourced from The National Archives (UK). You can see the full list and details here.

The two listed below are the most likely to be of interest to those with Irish-born ancestors who served in the British Army. You'll need either a UK or World subscription to view the records*.

British Armed Forces, First World War Soldiers' Medical Records
The collection holds more than 212,000 names and includes details of when, where and how individual servicemen were wounded, and where they were treated. The search page lists the medical facilities and hospitals represented in this record set.

British Armed Forces, First World War Widows' Pension Forms
Transcripts provide the following details about the serviceman and his family: service number, regiment, cause and date of death, spouse's name, marriage year and children's names, while images may provide further information about attestation and service. This collection of just under 9,000 records represents less than 2% of the original set; the rest were destroyed.


*This strikes me as unfair when the records cover an era when Ireland was still part of Britain. The records are every bit as Irish as they are Scottish or Welsh or English.

Explore Your Archive 2017, 16-26 November

The Archives and Records Association, Ireland (ARAI) has launched Explore Your Archive 2017.

The week-long campaign, which runs from Saturday, 18 November to Sunday, 26 November 2017, celebrates the role of archives in preserving Irish history and aims to highlight the unique potential of archives to tell exciting stories, surprise people and bring communities together.

Run jointly with the Archives and Records Association in the UK, the campaign seeks to encourage people to engage with the items held in archives around the country and discover what life in Ireland was like in days gone by. Participating organisations, both north and south of the border, will open their vaults to display collections of stories, films, photos and other rare artefacts throughout the campaign.

Felix Meehan, Outreach Officer, Archives and Records Association, Ireland, said: “This year marks the fifth Explore Your Archive week and it is fantastic to have more than 30 organisations from across Ireland offering a lively programme of activities for visitors to explore. We invite people to visit participating archives in person but also virtually, with many participating organisations hosting online exhibitions of digitised collections that can be easily accessed from home."

Events taking place during Explore Your Archive 2017 include:

• The National Archives of Ireland will host a free seminar to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Fenian Rising. Expert speakers will discuss the challenge of interpreting the historical record of the Fenians. 10am–1:30pm, Saturday, 25 November.
  
• UCD Archives is hosting an online exhibition entitled ‘The finest of men’. The exhibition will feature documents concerning those imprisoned in Irish and British jails following the 1916 Rising until the general amnesty of June 1917.
  
• Dublin City Library & Archive will host a conversation with artist Gavin Murphy on his research into the architectural and performance history of the now defunct Eblana theatre. To celebrate Explore Your Archive week, Gavin Murphy will donate a copy of his Eblana Theatre Productions Database to the Irish Theatre Archive for public access. 11am–12pm, Saturday, 18 November.
  
• The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is hosting a number of workshops (all now fully booked) and talks.
  
• NUI Maynooth Archive will host an exhibition showcasing the correspondence of Sir Edward Baker Littlehales (1764-1825), Private Secretary to Lord Cornwallis (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) 1798-1801 and Under-Secretary at the Military Department, Dublin, 1801-1819. 20–27 November.
  
• Tipperary Studies will hold drop-in sessions about the processing of the Murphy Ballinamona (Cashel) Negative Collection which was donated to Tipperary Studies in 2016. Pat Bracken of Tipperary County Council Library Service will show how the negatives were presented and the work which was undertaken to scan the negatives and convert them to online images. 3pm–4:30pm, Monday 20 November.

For more about the Explore Your Archive 2017 campaign, see the ExploreYourArchive website. For details of events, see Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland.

This year’s campaign will also see participating organisations take part in a colourful and creative social media campaign with different themes and prompts for each day of the week. Organisations will be delving into their collections and sharing some unique items with their online audiences. The campaign can be followed on Twitter: @archivesireland, #ExploreArchives; and on Facebook: facebook.com/ARAIreland.

Irish civil bmd records: latest on the recent upload

Late yesterday afternoon I spoke to the managers of IrishGenealogy.ie. It seems Monday's upload of additional GRO records was released to the public in error; a test site was supposed to be doing the rounds within the GRO, allowing any errors in function or delivery to be sorted out before it went live. Instead, it just went live.

Unfortunately, the test site had quite a few problems: an 'old style' index remains on the site, causing duplications; registration districts had gone awol in older index entries resulting in nil returns when searching by registration district; many of the new-release of records were not available, and where they were, they often were flying solo, ie without the image of the register entry.

These problems are now being resolved and it is hoped all will be ironed out by the end of the day. At that point, the records on the site should be:

• Birth records - index plus image of birth register page: 1864 to 1916
• Marriage records - Index only: 1845/1864 to 1869; index plus image of marriage register page: 1870 to 1941
• Death records - Index only: 1864 to 1877; index plus image of death register page: 1878 to 1966

This morning I can see the matter of the N/R registration districts appears to have been resolved. The older death records are also being uploaded but not all of them yet have images attached, and the duplicated index remains. So there's still some work to do but it's clearly in hand.

Once this upload is completed, we will inevitably start pining for the remaining parts of the collection (marriage register images 1845-1869 and death register images 1864 to 1877) to be fully available. I'm told these will be along in mid-2018.

I've also been asked to pass on that errors submitted via the feedback page of IrishGenealogy.ie have been actioned in this latest upload. The cut-off was July this year. So, if you submitted details of an error prior to the end of July, you should find it corrected; if it is not, please resubmit giving date of your original feedback submission.

If you sent such details from August onwards, it will be actioned as part of the 2018 upload.

I'll update on this page later today, or as necessary.

UPDATE, 19 November: Duplicated index seems to have been removed and all the death records seem to be present for the relevant years.

The duplication of the new and old indexes still needs to be corrected,
but at least the registration districts have been restored.

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: new files added

Mary Eliza White of Fethard, Co Wexford,
died and buried in Waterford, 1897.
Photo courtesy of Steve Rogers and IGP Archives
Click for larger image.

Below are the files added to Ireland Genealogy Project Archives (IGP-web) in the first two weeks of November. They have all been submitted and uploaded by volunteers and are available to the public to view without charge:

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Drung Old Cemetery (Updated)
Laragh (CoI) New Graveyard

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Alt Upper, Presbyterian Church Graveyard

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Mt Jerome, Dublin - Part 181

LEITRIM Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Gortletteragh Cem., Cloone (Additional)

MONAGHAN & FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Clones Registers, Burials 1811-1814 (E. Division)

MONAGHAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Corlea Presbyterian Graveyard

TYRONE Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Fivemiletown Cemetery (Additional)

WATERFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Johns Hill, Waterford City

WEXFORD Genealogy Archives - Newspapers
Work House Admissions & Deaths, 3 Feb 1864 , 6 Apr 1869

NLI secures funding for 'Towards a Republic' project

The National Library of Ireland has secured funding for its Towards a Republic project, which will see the digitisation of some of the personal papers of the signatories of The Treaty in preparation for the centenary of the foundation of the State.

The funding is part of the Government's €2million handout to a new cultural Digitisation Scheme; it will be shared among a number of digitisation projects planned by National Cultural Institutions and cultural heritage organisations.

Towards a Republic is the National Library’s next major cataloguing and digitisation project, marking the second phase of the Decade of Commemorations from 1917 to 1923.

The digitised papers will be made released online on a phased basis between 2018 and 2023. These rich archives will allow everyone to explore key moments such as suffrage, 1918 Elections, the First and subsequent Dáils, the Peace Conference, the Anglo-Irish War, the Treaty negotiations, and the Civil War.

Personal papers of John Devoy, Arthur Griffith, Rosamond Jacob, Annie O’Farrelly, John Redmond and the Sheehy Skeffingtons, amongst many others, provide complex insights into the events and personalities that shaped the later revolutionary period and Civil War. They go beyond the experience and perspectives of the individuals themselves through their correspondence and interaction with diverse and opposing figures and organisations.

Announcing the funding, Minister for Culture, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys TD, said: "I know that there is a large public appetite for these materials, which will reveal the social, cultural and political context of the period.

“The importance of digitisation was really underlined during the 2016 centenary year, when a number of our national cultural institutions made a wealth of material available online for the first time. The new scheme will help our cultural institutions, together with a number of other cultural heritage bodies, to build on this work and digitise their rich and varied collections for the benefit of the public.”

20% discount on Ancestry.com's Thanksgiving gifts

Expires 23 November

This Thanksgiving, Ancestry.com is offering a 20% saving on new membership subscriptions and DNA tests purchased as gifts. (Yes, you can purchase them for yourself as a gift... go on, you know you're worth it!)

Subscriptions: The discount is available only on 6-month and 12-month gift memberships (non-recurring). It is for new subscribers only and not for renewal of currect subscriptions. You select the date you want the subscription to start and provide only an email address of the recipient. Ancestry then contacts the recipient by email on the start date.

The discount reduces the cost of a subscription as follows:
US Discovery package:  12 months – pay $149, save $40, or, 6 months – pay $79, save $99.
World Explorer package: 12 months – pay $239, save $60, or, 6 months – pay $119, save $30.

DNA test kits: The discount reduces the price of a kit to US$79. Shipping costs are extra. You provide the name and address of your recipient (must be in USA) and the testing kit is sent to them, with full instructions of how to take the saliva test and where to send the kit once they've taken the necessary action. Six to eight weeks after the laboratory receives the dna sample, your recipient will receive his or her ethnicity estimate and details of the matches made in the huge Ancestry DNA database.

The discount will expire on Thursday 23 November at 11:59pm.