Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: latest updates

Cavan's Mount Nugent burial ground (KIlbride
parish) has many early 18th-century memorials to
Lynchs. This one above is to James Lynch, who
died in 1735, and Paul Lynch (date unknown).
Photo courtesy of Dave Hall and Ireland
Genealogy Projects Archives.

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives is on the lookout for more headstone photographers willing to donate their pix to one of the very best volunteer-based online projects. Summer's on its way (arriving this weekend, so the meteo folks say), so what could be better than strolling around a leafy country churchyard or quiet edge-of-town cemetery with your camera?

You don't even have to type up the headstone inscriptions; if your photos are clear enough, IGP-web volunteers will do that for you (although you're more than welcome to submit your transcriptions with your picture album).

You'll find information about contributing photos, some tips for taking photographs, and a contact email on the IGP Archives website here.

Below are the files – a mix of headstone photos and genealogical records – contributed by volunteers
in the second half of April:

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Drumlumman Graveyard
Kilbride Cemetery, Mount Nugent

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Conwal Parish Church (CoI), Letterkenny

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Mount Jerome, Dublin - Parts 196-198

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Galloon Register, Baptisms & Burials 1845-1881
http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/fermanagh/church.htm

MONAGHAN & FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Clones Parish Reg., E. Div., 1815-1820 Baptisms
http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/monaghan/clones.htm

TYRONE Genealogy Archives - Wills
Irish Wills in England

WICKLOW Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Kilquade Cemetery (New) Pt. 3 (B-K)

Ancestry updates search fields for US Federal Censuses

Ancestry's 1860 and 1870 US Federal Census collection can now be searched by occupation. Previously, trade and occupations were searchable only in the 1880 US Federal Census database.

As far as I can tell, this update to the search fields occurred in early January, but I haven't seen it mentioned by anyone. Maybe I missed it. But it seems worth highlighting to Irish family historians as this extra searchable field could be handy for a researcher trying to identify an ancestor with a common Irish name. I won't be alone in having been grateful 'my' John Doyle was a Master Coachbuilder, or 'my' Patrick Tierney was a butcher! Anything that narrows down the number of individuals needing to be researched is likely to be helpful.

Just for the heck of it, some results from the 1860 US Federal Census: The number of Ireland-born architects was 57; shoemakers 6,567 (plus 369 bootmakers), miners 12,300 and teachers 1,919.

(With thanks to John Rogers for alerting me to the update.)

National Archives of Ireland's websites suffer technical glitch

Both the National Archives of Ireland's main website and its Genealogy website are experiencing technical problems and cannot currently be reached.

The NAI has tweeted that it is aware of the problem and is trying to solve it as quickly as possible.

When this has happened in the past, the IrishGenealogy.ie website (civil and church records) has tended to share the glitch, but that doesn't seem to be the case on this occasion. It seems fine right now, anyway.

I'll update here when I know the NAI's sites are working again.

UPDATE, 15:30: The two sites are up and running again.

Half price: FindMyPast's Ultimate British & Irish sub

FindMyPast.com is offering a one-month subscription to its Ultimate British and Irish package at half price.

The package provides access to all FindMyPast's records, including exclusive collections such as the England and Wales 1939 Register and an unrivalled collection of British and Irish historical newspapers.

The regular price of a month's subscription to the Ultimate British & Irish collection costs US$19.95. With the 50% discount, it's just US$9.98.

To take advantage of the offer, you'll need to sign up before 11:59pm GMT on Tuesday 8 May, when the discount expires. Just click the Subscribe Now button above to find out more about the subscription package.

You should note that, after the initial offer period, your subscription will be automatically renewed at the normal price unless you un-tick the ‘auto-renew my subscription’ box in the 'My Account' section of the site.

10% off FindMyPast's 12-month World/Pro package

FindMyPast Ireland, UK and Australia are offering a 10% discount on their 12-month World or Pro subscription packages. Although these packages have different names, the content is the same: access to more than 2 billion records from Ireland, the UK, Canada and the US, Australia and New Zealand. Included are the 1939 Register of England and Wales, and US, British and Irish newspaper collections.

The discount is available only to new subscribers.

You can see details of the saving for each FindMyPast territory/site below. To take advantage of the offer, click the appropriate flag and sign up before 11:59pm GMT on Tuesday 8 May, when the discount offer will expire.

FindMyPast Ireland - 10% off 12-month World subscription. Single payment of €161.55 (normally €179.52)

FindMyPast UK - 10% off 12-month Pro subscription. Single payment of £140.40 (normally £156)

FindMyPast Australia - 10% off 12-month World subscription. Single payment of AUS$215.55 (normally AUS$239.52)

Be sure to note that at the end of the initial 12-month period, your subscription will be automatically renewed at the normal price unless you un-tick the ‘auto-renew my subscription’ box in the 'My Account' section of the FindMyPast site.

1718: Penal Laws, Poverty & Migration, conference

A free conference – 1718 - Penal Laws, Poverty and Migration – will be held on Saturday 12 May in Garvagh, County Londonderry.

Jointly hosted by Garvagh Museum and the Ulster Historical Foundation, the conference will start at 9:45am and finish at about 1pm.

Tea and coffee will be provided.

Everyone is welcome to attend and no booking is required.

The venue is the Garvagh & District Development Association Community Building, 85 Main Street, Garvagh, BT51 5AB.

The following lectures will be presented:

Migration in the generation before 1718, with Dr Patrick Fitzgerald

Economy and society in early 18th-century Ulster, with Dr William Roulston

The situation for Presbyterians in the early 18th century, with Alison McCaughan

Getting to know some of the 1718 people, with Dr Linde Lunney

Sources for studying families in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, with Brian Mitchell MAGI

For more information, see Garvagh Museum on Facebook or email 1718garvaghmuseum@gmail.com.

My Heritage DNA's Mother's Day sale - US, Ireland & UK

My Heritage DNA has a Mother's Day discount on its autosomal DNA test. It's valid in North America, where Mother's Day is held on Sunday 13 May, and Ireland/UK (where it's celebrated in March, but who's checking), paying in US dollars or Sterling respectively.

The offer for North American residents is a $10 discount, reducing the price from $69 to $59.

The offer for Ireland and UK residents is a £16 discount, reducing the price from £75 to £59.

Shipping costs are extra.

The North American offer ends on Monday 14 May. I haven't seen an end date for the IE/UK offer. Presumably it's the same.

Big Mother's Day savings from Family Tree DNA

Mother's Day will be celebrated on Sunday 13 May in both United States and Canada In North America, so Family Tree DNA has some discounted offers to help you spoil your Mam / Mom / Mum (and extend your research at the same time!).

Save US$20 on Family Finder and discover your ethnic origins. The regular price for this test is US$79. The discount brings the price down to US$59.

Or, celebrate your maternal heritage with an Mt-DNA full sequence test and a big US$50 saving. The regular price is US$199; the Mother's Day Sale price is US$149.

Or, buy both tests and save US$70.

Both special offers will expire on Monday 14 May.

Famine & emigration conference, Portumna, 5 May

The Irish Workhouse Centre in Portumna is holding a conference – Far and Away: The Great Hunger and the Emigrant Experience – this coming Saturday (5 May).

Sponsored by Waterways Ireland, the conference will also explore the part played by Ireland's waterways in the Famine and emigration of so many Irish people.

The programme will run as follows:

9:30	Registration, tea/coffee and biscuits
9:45	Special welcome, with Dolores O'Shea
10:00	Escape on the water: Portumna's Maritime Superhighway, with Donal Boland
10:40	Ireland and Australia: the career of Captain Arthur Edward Kennedy, with Dr Ciaran O Murchadha
11:20	Tea/coffee
11:40	The ship 'Palatine' – Mountbellow girls sent to Austalia, with Paula Kennedy
12:20	One Woman's Story: Mary-Ann Taylor, with William Marwick
13:00	Snack lunch, visit Dark Shadows exhibition, and tours of the Workhouse
14:00	The Irish in C19th Australia, with Aron Donnelly
15:00	Tea/coffee
15:30	Path across the ocean: Songs/poems of the Great Hunger and the exiled Irish, with Johnny Johnson

The conference is free to attend with donations to the workhouse museum.

To see the full brochure, click the image.

Strokestown Church of Ireland vestry book transcribed (registers to follow)

The RCB Library's Archive of the Month for May is a presentation on the vestry minute book of the Parish of Bumlin, which covers Strokestown and two smaller related civil parishes: Kiltrustan and Lissonuffy.

It has been transcribed by local historian and Roscommon native, Alan Moran, who worked through the entire minute book for the period 1811 to 1870. His transcription is now available in full as part of the online archive presentation.

The value of Church of Ireland vestry minute books as a resource for social, economic, religious, and legal history at local parish level is clearly demonstrated in this transcription. Of particular interest to genealogists will be the details supplied in a list of donations made into a local charity's funds in the years 1833 to 1837; the vestry book gives the names and circumstances of the persons assisted – widows, sick, lame, blind, orphans, foundlings – providing a poignant glimpse of the rural poor shortly prior to the Famine.

Speaking of his work, Alan Moran says: “I did not know what to expect when I first looked into the Strokestown vestry book, but was immediately taken by the interest and variety of its contents, and its reflection of local and national circumstances in the decades before the Famine. There was a lot of data on the parish accounts, occupation of land, and relief of the poor, which could be useful to researchers, so I decided to undertake a full transcription to make that data more accessible, as well as to get a better understanding of the functions of the vestry myself.”

Family historians with connections to County Roscommon will also be interested to learn that Alan Moran carried out his work on the vestry minute book at the Library while preparing a transcription of the Strokestown (Bumlin) Church of Ireland parish registers. These registers (births, marriages and burials) all date from 1811. Alan's transcription will be released in a forthcoming RCBL Archive of the Month.

Download a listing by county of all vestry records available in the RCB Library.