Irish Newspaper Archives: a new title and a discount

The Dublin-based Irish Newspaper Archives has added The Nationalist & Munster Advertiser to its holding. The paper's publisher, the Nationalist Newspaper Company, was formed in Clonmel in 1885 and purchased its printing plant from a defunct title, 'The Tipperary'; the newspaper that launched in January 1886 was called The Tipperary Nationalist & Southern Irishman.

The Nationalist has joined the Irish Newspaper Archives

In its early years, the title of the paper changed several times. From February 1890 to April 1892 it was known as The Nationalist; from May 1892 to February 1908 it was The Nationalist & Tipperary Advertiser; and from February 1908 to December 2010 it was The Nationalist & Munster Advertiser. Since January 2011 it has been known as The Nationalist and is still published as such in Clonmel.

A continuous run from May 1889 to current editions can now be viewed on the Irish Newspaper Archives' database.

The owners of the Archives have also provided an update on their development plans. In the pipe for upload to the database are The Evening Press, The Sunday Press, The Belfast Telegraph, and The Tipperary Star. Post-1950 editions of The Belfast Newsletter will be added to the existing holding of the title, as will historical (1766+) editions of The Limerick Chronicle. Additionally, the company's work on sourcing editions to plug gaps in the existing holding of the Limerick Leader 1970-79 will continue.

As it's March and St Patrick's Day isn't too far off, Irish Newspaper Archives is offering discounts on its monthly and membership subscriptions, as follows:

30-day subscription – 15% saving reduces price to €/US$/£ 24.65. Use Coupon code TNT15.
Yearly subscription – 25% saving reduces price to €/US$/£ 111.75. Use Coupon code TNT25.

Click the image to reach the subscription page.

The discount expires on Saturday 23 March.

Ireland Genealogy Archives Project: latest updates

The Murphy Family of Kilcornan. Headstone
in the Old Cemetery, Ennistymon, Co Clare
Photo courtesy Jennifer Morgan and IGP Archives.
Click/tap for full image.

Volunteers have contributed the headstone files below to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives in the second half of February.

The running total of headstones now available to search and view on the site is 142,000. As with all IGP-Archives' files, they have been donated by volunteers to benefit Irish family historians and are provided free of charge.

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St Mogues RC, Bawnboy (part)

CLARE Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Ennistymon, Old Cemetery (Mac-W)
Kilnamona Old Cemetery (O'KEEFFE)
Kilnamona, St Josephs RC (O'KEEFFE)

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St Mary's RC Graveyard Teemore

New indexes for Dublin Metropolitan Police registers

Indexes to the registers are free to view

Early last year, University College Dublin's Digital Library released an image-only collection of register records for the Dublin Metropolitan Police (General Register) and the Civic Guard (temporary register), 1837 to 1925. (See my blogpost.)

A separate index was online via Google for a short while, but it seems Google decided to make the index accessible only with a password, which wasn't the intention of UCD.

As the records have proved to be so popular with researchers, UCD has prepared an excel spreadsheet which can be downloaded, free of charge, at https://n2t.net/ark:/87925/h1ft8j2k. The file holds two spreadsheets – one for each register, and with a link to the image for each entry.

Many thanks to UCD's Digital Library team, not only for making the indexes available but also for considering users' needs for filtering and adding their own notes.

Centenary republication of Woods' Guide to the PROI

Click to download the pdf

This year is the centenary of the publication of Herbert Wood's guide to the Records Deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland. Just three years after it was originally published, nearly all the records in the PROI were destroyed during the Civil War, making the Guide an essential reference document for recognising what was lost and what might be reconstituted.

To mark the centenary, well-known genealogy tutor Sean Murphy has produced a free online facsimile of this notable archival work. It comes with an introductory essay providing biographical information about Herbert Wood, commentary and photographs, and valuable appendices, and is reproduced with the permission of the National Archives of Ireland, the PROI's successor body, whose own digitised copy of the guide is online here.

At under 30Mb, Sean's facsimile is more than half the digital size of the NAI's onliine copy. Click/tap the cover image, right, to download a copy.

Launching his facsimile edition, Sean said: "Wood's work is something more than a guide to a lost archive, rather it is a template for archival reconstruction and a warning to guard against another archival catastrophe like that of 1922. Wood’s legacy is visible in the growing range of surviving and transcript public records being made accessible online today (see Appendix 1 of the prefatory essay). Hopefully the republication of Wood’s Guide will ensure that its continuing value will be more widely appreciated."

Irish genealogy, history and heritage events, 4-17 March

Monday 4 March: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed all day to facilitate the Library's continuing redevelopment of the premises. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service, will operate as normal.

Monday 4 March: The people would take tents, with Ronnie Kilgore. Host: NIFHS, Foyle Branch. Venue: Lecture Room, Central Library, 35 Foyle St, Londonderry, BT48 6AL. 7pm. All welcome. Free.

Monday 4 March: The Weaver Poets, with Laura Spence. Host: NIFHS, Killyleagh Branch. Venue: Killyleagh Masonic Hall, 50 High St, Killyleagh, Downpatrick BT30 9QF. Free. 8pm. All welcome.

Monday 4 March: The heart of Inchicore: The Railway Works, with Mary Muldowney. Host and venue: Richmond Barracks, Inchicore, Dublin 8. Free. 11am. Reserve your place.

Monday 4 March: The early medieval sculptural heritage of Northern Ireland, with Megan Henvey. Host: Royal Society of Antiquities of Ireland, Venue: Helen Roe Theatre, Society House, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. 7:30pm. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 5 March to Saturday 16 March: Galway History Festival. Numerous events, most of them free. Hosts: NUI Galway, Galway CC, Creative Ireland. Various venues in Galway City. Download programme

Wednesday 6 March: Towards a further understanding of the violence experienced by women in the Irish Revolution, with Professor Linda Connolly. Part of the Social History and the Irish Revolution public lecture series. Hosts: Glasnevin Museum and Trinity College Dublin's School of History & Humanities. Venue: Milestone Gallery, Glasnevin Cemetery Museum, Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11. 7pm to 8:30pm. Tickets should be booked in advance. €6.

Wednesday 6 March: Saving Lives at Sea: The story of Ulster's Lifeboats, with Robert Corbert. Part of PRONI's Wreck and Rescue lecture series. Host and venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 1pm. Free. All welcome. Need to book. Details.

Wednesday 6 March: Irish family history, with Dr Irene O'Brien. Venue: Govanhill Neighbourhood Centre, 6 Daisy Street, G42 8JL Glasgow, Scotland. Free. 7pm to 9pm. All welcome.

Wednesday 6 March: The lost village of Milltown, with Patrick Salmon. Host: Rathmichael Historical Society. Venue: Rathmichael NS, Stonebridge Road, Shankill, Dublin 18. 8pm. All welcome. €3.

Thursday 7 March: No Reading Room access until 2pm at the National Archives of Ireland. Doors to the public will open 2–5pm only. NAI, Bishop Street, Dublin 8.

Friday 8 March: Online family and local history resources, a workshop. Host and venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. two-hour workshop will start with an orientation tour of PRONI, followed by an introduction to searching online resources 11am. Free. Need to book.

Saturday 9 March: The history and heritage of St James’s Hospital in Dublin, with Prof Davis Coakley (2:15pm) and The Irish Revenue Police, with Jim Herlihy (3:15pm). AGM from 10am, members only. Host: Irish Family History Society. Venue: Dublin City Library and Archives, Pearse Street, Dublin 2. Free. All welcome to attend the afternoon session.

Saturday 9 March: Using DNA to trace your Irish ancestors, with Martin McDowell. Host: Fermanagh Genealogy Centre. Venue: Main Hall, Enniskillen Library, Halls Lane, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. 1:30pm to 3:30pm. All welcome. Members free. Non-members £5.

Saturday 9 March: The Scots-Irish in New England, a genealogy workshop with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host and venue: New Hampshire Historical Society, 30 Park St, Concord, New Hampshire, USA. 9:00am-4:30pm. Details and registration. $75 Members of New Hampshire Historical Society / $125 for non-members.

Saturday 9 March: National Irish Studies Conference 2019. Host: The Manchester Irish Education Group (MIEG). Venue: Irish World Heritage Centre, 1 Irish Town Way, Cheetham, Manchester, UK. A full day of lectures and workshops, plus bookstall, exhibition and raffle. 9am to 4:30pm. Tickets £25 prepaid / £30 on the door. Includes lunch and refreshments. Details.

Saturday 9 March: Irish Immigrants in Troy, with Chris Connell and Donna Vaughn. Host: Troy Irish Genealogy Society. Venue: Troy Public Library, 100 2nd St, Troy, New York, USA. 2pm–5pm. Need to register.

Sunday 10 March: Researching Your Irish and Scots-Irish Ancestors, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. Venue: Brookside Manor, 50 Bustleton Pike, Trevose-Feasterville, Pennsylvania, USA. 8:30am-4:30pm. Cost: $104. Details and registration.

Monday 11 March: NLI Reading Room and Manuscript Room closed all day to facilitate the Library's continuing redevelopment of the premises. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. All other services/exhibitons/cafe, including Genealogy Advisory Service, will be closed until 11am to facilitate a staff meeting.

Monday 11 March: Presbyterian Historical Society records, with Valerie Adams. Host: NIFHS, Newtownabbey branch. Venue: Drama Theatre, Glengormley High School, 134 Ballyclare Road, Newtownabbey, BT36 5HP. Free. 7pm. All welcome.

Monday 11 March: Researching Your Irish and Scots-Irish Ancestors, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Irish American Heritage Center. Venue: 4626 N. Knox Ave, Chicago, Ilinois, USA. Cost: Free to attend for everyone, but you need to register. 9am to 5pm.

Tuesday 12 March: Revolutionary diplomats: the archives and material culture of the Dáil Eireann foreign service, 1919-23, with Dr John Gibney. Host and venue: National Archives of Ireland, Reading Room, Bishop Street, Dublin 8. No booking required. Free. 6pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 12 March: Irish genealogy, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Wisconsin Historical Society. Venue: Memorial Library Room 126, 728 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Cost: $36 WHS/WSGS members / $40 non-members; Lunch included. 9:00am-5:00pm. Programme, menu, tickets.

Tuesday 12 March: Irish family history, with Lisa Dougherty. Host and venue: Irish American Heritage Museum, 370 Broadway, Albany, New York 12207, USA. Free. 6:30pm–7:30pm. No need to register.

Tueday 12 March: Killarney: the Royal visit of 1861 that put Killarney on the tourist map, with Frank Tracy. Host: Genealogical Society of Ireland. Venue: Dun Laoghaire Further Education Institute, Cumberland Street, Dun Laoghaire. 8pm. All welcome. €3.

Tuesday 12 March: A house through time, with Louise Lewis. Host: NIFHS, Lisburn branch. Bridge Community Centre, 50 Railway Street, Lisburn, BT 28 1XP. Free. 7:30pm. All welcome.

Wednesday 13 March: Is everything we loved gone forever?: The burning of Irish country houses during the War of Independence, 1920-21, with Professor Terence A Dooley. Part of the Social History and the Irish Revolution public lecture series. Hosts: Glasnevin Museum and Trinity College Dublin's School of History & Humanities. Venue: Milestone Gallery, Glasnevin Cemetery Museum, Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11. 7pm to 8:30pm. Tickets should be booked in advance. €6.

Wednesday 13 March: Nineteenth-Century Coastguards in Ireland, with Denis Mayne. Part of PRONI's Wreck and Rescue lecture series. Host and venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 1pm. Free. All welcome. Need to book. Details.

Wednesday 13 March: Researching your Irish ancestors, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host and venue: Brown County Library, 515 Pine Street, Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA. 9am–3:30pm. Free. Details.

Thursday 14 March: The homecoming of ex-servicemen to Ireland, with Dr Emmanuel Destenay. Host: Western Front Association, Antrim and Down Branch. Venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 2 Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ. 6:30pm to 8:45pm. All welcome.

Thursday 14 March: Irish family history resources on the Internet, with Peter Christian FSG. Host and venue: Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Rd, London EC1, UK. 2–3pm. Fully booked.

Thursday 14 March: Irish family history resources online, with Chris Paton. Host: Lanarkshire Family History Society. Venue: GLO Centre, 78 Muir Street, Motherwell, Scotland. 7pm. All welcome.

Thursday and Friday 14–15 March: 'An Irish Gatherin': Researching Irish and Scots-Irish Roots, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Heritage Consulting LLC. Venue: The Salt Lake Plaza, 122 West South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. $20 per day. Format and bookings.

Saturday 16 March: Irish Research seminar, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Wales Ireland Scotland England Family History Society. Venue: Denver Public Library, 10 W. Fourteenth Ave, Denver, Colorado, USA. 9am–4:30pm. Details.

Saturday 16 March: Book launch – Shannonbridge – A History of Raghra c1600 to c1900, by Brendan Ryan and Laura Price. Venue: Shannonbridge Community Hall, Shannonbridge, Co. Offaly. 8pm. Book costs €25 but will be €20 on launch night. All welcome. No need to register.

Sunday 17 March: St Patrick's Day. Everywhere.

FindMyPast uploads big bundle of Liverpool records

FindMyPast has added a sizeable bundle of records from Liverpool – the city once known as the second capital of Ireland. An estimated three quarters of today's population is estimated to have Irish roots, so there is good reason to expect that searching through Liverpool's historical parish, workhouse and school collections could prove rewarding for family historians looking for 'lost' ancestors who either passed through the port or settled in the growing city and nearby towns and villages.

Roman Catholic Records
The record sets released today include more than 1.4million Roman Catholic sacramental and congregational records making their online debut. Published in association with the Archdiocese of Liverpool, these collections cover 47 parishes, span 1754 to 1988, and include both a transcription and an image of the original documents. The Liverpool records have been added to each of the following collections:

• England Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms
• England Roman Catholic Parish Marriages
• England Roman Catholic Parish Burials
• England Roman Catholic Parish Congregational Records

Liverpool Workhouse Registers
Within this collection are some 2.5million records found in admission and discharge registers, classification lists, registers of the sick, and other documents from seven institutionsL Fazakerley Cottage Homes, Kirkdale Industrial Schools, West Derby Union Workhouse, Olive Mount Children's Home, Sefton General Hospital, Toxteth Park Workhouse, Walton Workhouse, and West Derby Union.

Admission and discharge registers typically note the inmate's religion, last residence, name and address of nearest relatives, and admission and discharge dates. Classification lists recorded children as orphans, illegitimate, deserted, child of parents undergoing punishment, child of widows or widowers, or child of lunatics. These records also contain lists of children sent to Canada; these provide the name and address of the foster parents, the ship's name and the date the child was sent.

• Search the Liverpool Workhouse Registers

Lancashire Church of England Parish records
More than 2.2million parish baptisms, marriages, burials and congregational records have been added to FindMyPast's collection of Lancashire Church of England parish records. The new indexed additions cover 157 parishes across the city and span the years 1653 to 1991. They are also available to browse.

• Lancashire Baptisms
• Lancashire Banns & Marriages
• Lancashire Burials
• Lancashire, Liverpool Congregational Records

School Records
Over 646,000 additional records covering hundreds of schools across Liverpool and Lancashire between 1807 and 1952 are now available to search in this collection. The most recent additions include admissions, withdrawals and log books that will enable you to learn more about your ancestor's early years.

These records may reveal a variety of details about your ancestors including birth dates, admission years and the schools they attended. You may also be able to discover their parents' names, father's occupation, exam results and any illnesses that led to absence from school.

• National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914

England & Wales Non-Conformist Records
Over 50,000 additional records have been added to FindMyPast's collections of England & Wales Non-Conformist births and baptisms, marriages and burials covering Methodist churches in the English port city of Liverpool. The new additions span over 100 years of the city's history between 1800 and 1915 and are available to search within the following collections:

• England & Wales Non-Conformist Marriages
• England & Wales Non-Conformist Burials
• England & Wales Non-Conformist Births and Baptisms

The content above contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you buy via these links. This does not affect the price you pay as a consumer, but it does contribute to keeping IrishGenealogyNews online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

Spring edition of Irish Roots Magazine published

The Spring edition of Irish Roots, Ireland’s only independent genealogy magazine, is now on sale. You can choose between paper and digital formats.

In this issue, you’ll find articles on Ireland’s historical education system and National School records; an overview of how to research your County Meath ancestors; an introduction to New York’s Watson House and its records of female Irish immigrants; and a look at the UK Parliamentary Papers as a source for Irish research. In this quarter's column on Australian connections, you can learn about Irish medical men on convict ships.

There are also features about how your DNA may help save the lives of future generations, and how joining a family history society could benefit your research, plus news of recent developments at the National Archives of Ireland;

You'll also find observations about going-ons in the world of Irish family history; letters to the editor; answers to readers’ genealogical queries; a round-up of all recently released records; news from history and genealogy societies, and details of newly launched books.

Click the cover picture to find out more, subscribe, buy a copy or download a free sample.

Church of Ireland's architectural drawings database expands

The RCBLibrary's 'Archive of the Month' for March explores the Church of Ireland's newly online 'Pain and Welland albums' collection of 1,500 architectural drawings of 591 church buildings.

South-west elevation of Innishannon parish church
(Cork), mid-19th century, by Joseph Welland,
RCB Library Ms 139/4.1

The recent upload of the 10 albums in this collection is the latest significant landmark in a huge digitisation and cataloguing project that started in 2011.

Many thousand drawings were already held in the Church's Architectural Drawings database, and the latest tranche of uploads means there are now a total of 8,615 digital drawings available to search and view free of charge. They include churches, glebe houses and rectories.

Architectural historian Dr Michael O'Neill has been carrying out the project for the past eight years and also put together the specific online exhibition An Even Wider Window to an Ecclesiastical World (the March archive), which can be viewed here.

MyHeritage DNA testing kits: End of Winter Sale

MyHeritage is running an End of Winter DNA promotion. The discount reduces the price of the company's autosomal DNA testing kits to £69 or US$69.

There's an additional saving to be made if you order two or more kits: free shipping, which is worth about £10 or equivalent.

Other offers may be available in alternative currencies... to find out, click on the promo image, right, and you should be directed to your local MyHeritage site.

The promotion will run until Monday 11 March.

The content above contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you buy via these links. This does not affect the price you pay as a consumer, but it does contribute to keeping IrishGenealogyNews online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

Military Service Pensions Collection symposium: free podcasts

Having released the IRA Brigade Activity Reports at a dedicated Symposium last week, the Military Archives team has uploaded podcasts of the presentations to SoundCloud, where they are available to access free of charge.

1. To listen to the four lectures delivered in the morning session(see below), go to Soundcloud here.

• The Military Service (1916-1923) Pensions Collection and the new histories of the Irish Revolution, with Dr Anne Dolan

• Active Service in the "6-counties", with Barry John McCann

• The MSPC as source for researching women's history in the WOI and the Civil War, with Dr Leeann Lane

• The MSPC as a source for biography and memory, with Professor Fearghal MacGarry

2. To listen to the afternoon session – lecture, extracts and discussion (listed below) – go to Soundcloud here.

• The 'War Zone'- Reflections -Brigade Activity Reports form Cork and Munster, with Dr Donal O Drisceoil

• The Keepers of the Flame (three extracts from the film, audio only)

• Discussion and Q&A, with Dr Catriona Crowe (moderator), Dr Anne Dolan, Nuala O’Connor, Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, Cécile Gordon and Professor Eunan O’Halpin