Desperate Haven tells west Waterford's Famine story

Newly republished, Desperate Haven tells the story of the Great Famine in the towns and villages of Dungarvan and the surrounding area of County Waterford.

The book – the product of more than five years research by Dungarvan Museum Society (now Waterford County Museum) – was originally published in 1996 and has been much sought after since it went out of print.

Republished in paperback and Kindle formats

It explores the lives of the poor in mid-19th century Ireland, the response of the authorities to the unfolding tragedy and the conditions which saw many Irish people create new lives for themselves in America, England, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.

Based on the Minute Books of the Dungarvan Board of Guardians, the Famine Relief Papers, and contemporary newspapers, the book traces the development of the Dungarvan Poor Law Union from its establishment in 1839 to its abolition in 1920.

Inevitably, Dungarvan Workhouse prominently in this story. At the height of the Famine, some 4,000 men, women and children from the area were housed within the walls of the main and auxiliary workhouses of the Union. The authors examine in detail the lives of inmates, with sections on diet, education, work, the workhouse farm, religion, the treatment of women and children. Thousands more were dependent on soup kitchens and "outdoor relief" to prevent themselves starving.

The book also looks at the effect of the famine on the fishing industry and on emigration from the area during and after the Famine.

Whether or not you have ancestors from the area, this book will provide family historians with a good understanding of how and why Poor Law Unions were set up and managed, of the harsh realities of life (and death) in the Workhouse, and the conditions that drove them to flee abroad in such numbers.

The 258-page book, authored by William Fraher, William Whelan, Bernadette Sheridan, and  Seosaimh O Loinsigh, is available in both paperback and Kindle format via US & Canada Amazon and IE & UK Amazon.

RootsIreland: detail added to Clara & Horseleap records

Westmeath Genealogy, one of the Irish Family History Foundation's island-wide network of genealogy centres, has uploaded additional information to at least 600 transcriptions of marriage records for the Roman Catholic parish of Clara & Horseleap. The records date from November 1821 to October 1833.

When these records were originally transcribed, the transcribers included only the basic details of the union's parties: the bride and groom's names, place of residence, and occupations and their respective father's name and occupation.

Genealogist Bernie Norris told IrishGenealogyNews that details of witnesses have now been added, along with the exact dates of the ceremonies, and any other information recorded in the register by the priest at the time or subsequently. She's currently working from home, answering genealogy queries received by the Centre, and was keen to take on a specific project during the 'lockdown'. She knew this one was waiting to be done, so got on with it!

She says there will be another batch of records added to RootsIreland's Westmeath database in the fairly near future. This next upload will be a mix of cemetery records and parish records that the centre, which is based in the Dún na Sí Heritage Park near Moate, had already started indexing before the lockdown.

See the full menu of records from Westmeath Genealogy on RootsIreland here.

IGRS inaugurates the Valued Service Certificate

The Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) has inaugurated a new award: the Valued Service Certificate, and the first two recipients are long-time friends and research companions Maureen Fitzgibbon and Margaret Purcell.

Every so often the IGRS Council hears of ways in which members have shown selfless dedication and commitment in assisting others in their pursuit of Irish family history. Yet until now there has been no formal way for the Society to acknowledge such work in the public domain.

With this in mind the Society has inaugurated the IGRS Valued Service Certificate which it hopes will go some way towards recognising its members’ achievements, their dedication and their voluntary contributions to the work of the Society and to the wider-world of Irish genealogy.

Maureen, from Cheshire, and Margaret, from Lancashire, have been a fixture on the Irish genealogy circuit for many years now, both in England and in Ireland. Both have contributed in so many ways to the encouragement of others in their research through their volunteering spirit not just with the IGRS, but with the Catholic Family History Society and other Lancashire-based societies with Irish research interest groups.

Whenever the IGRS announces an event it is organising or a family history fair it is attending, Maureen and Margaret are invariably among the first to volunteer. And distance is never an issue for either of them. When the Society attended the ‘Back to Our Past’ family history show in Belfast in February 2018, both flew over to volunteer on the stand, providing invaluable family history advice, along with information about the IGRS. And this has been repeated again and again over the years, in Dublin, London, Manchester, Birmingham and elsewhere.

Maureen Fitzgibbon (l)  and Margaret Purcell (r)

Having been informed of the award, on behalf of herself and Maureen, Margaret recalled their years involved in genealogy: “Most of it was in the pre-Internet and computer days, when we had to travel to libraries and record offices and copy by pencil and paper the records of interest. I particularly remember being part of a small team transcribing the registers of St Wilfrid’s, Preston, and later St John the Evangelist, The Willows, Kirkham. Transcribing St Wilfrid’s took four years to complete, working one day per week.

“We also ‘manned’ the Catholic Family History Society (CFHS) and other Irish Group tables at family history society conferences giving advice. We found that any enquiry for the CFHS usually ended with advice on Irish ancestry. We were also sometimes invited to give talks at family history branch meetings.

“Although we keep telling people we have retired, newcomers at society branches are generally directed to us if they mention Ireland!”

Chairman of the Society’s Awards sub-committee, Paul Gorry, said “It is a great pleasure for the IGRS to be able to recognise the contribution these two ladies – stalwarts of the Society – have made over so many years. They are shining examples of selfless giving of time, experience and expertise. We look forward to seeing them again at Society events once the Covid-19 health crisis has passed.”

Just published: New Irish Genealogy Resources 2020

I've published a new edition of my eBook, New Irish Genealogy Resources today.

As with previous editions, the 2020 booklet breaks down all the record releases to have featured on this blog since 2011 into theme (census, church registers etc) and a county-by-county list of the most relevant record-sets for your research.

Most of the released material is online, and I provide direct links to the specific collection wherever possible, but I also cover some resources that remain accessible only by personal visits to archives and libraries in Ireland.

The cut-off date for entries to this year's edition was Friday 3 April, so it really is up-to-date!

And it's pagination has grown again. This year it's 132 pages, which includes two pages of videos and podcasts on topics likely to be of interest to Irish family historians, especially during the current pandemic.

To find out more about this handy reference eBook, click the cover image.

New and updated British family history collections

Below is a summary of new and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales released by major genealogy databases in the last two weeks or so. (The previous listing was on 24 March, see blogpost).

This regular summary of releases relating to British collections is designed to help family historians whose Irish ancestors migrated, temporarily or permanently, to England, Scotland or Wales. By default, it will also be useful to anyone carrying out research in those three nations, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

The figures in parenthesis in the New Collections section are the numbers of records/images in the new record set.

Unless otherwise stated, the figures in parenthesis in the Updated Collections section reflect the number of records added to the collection in the recent update. In some instances, the supplier has not made this figure available. Updates of fewer than 1,000 records have not been included.

NEW COLLECTIONS

British Newspaper Archives

• Halifax Guardian
• Midland Tribune
• Englishman's Overland Mail
• Home News for India, China and the Colonies

DeceasedOnline

• Weaste Cemetery, Salford, Greater Manchester, 1857-2002 (332,837)

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

The Genealogist

• Essex Colour Tithe Maps/MapExplorer

Ancestry

• UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current (7,467,723)

FamilySearch

• England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 (1,596,927)
• England Marriages, 1538–1973 (44,126)
• England, Essex Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1971 (3,193)
• England, Northumberland Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1920 (6,514)
• England, Surrey Parish Registers, 1536-1992 (18,446)
• England, Yorkshire Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1613-1887 (19,806)
• England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957 (67,231)
• England, Essex Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1971 (16,011)

FindMyPast

• England & Wales Electoral Registers 1832-1932 (116m names added = total 220m)

Some of the above content 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 Irish Genealogy News online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

Irish government issues list of digital resources to support cultural & community life during the pandemic

The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has issued a list of digital cultural resources. It follows Minister Madigan's announcement on Friday of steps being taken during the pandemic to protect and support the artistic and cultural life of the nation.

The listed resources range from online exhibitions, heritage lectures and Irish language learning to some websites that most Irish genealogists will already be familiar with, such as IrishGenealogy.ie, Duchas.ie and Logaimn.ie (the latter two gratefully accepting volunteers to transcribe some of their material) and historical documents searchable on the National Library website.

For some reason, the National Archives of Ireland has not been included in the listing, even though its dedicated Genealogy website is a recommended first port of call for family historians, and it also has a good number of online exhibitions on its main website.

Select Irish collections free this weekend on AncestryUK

If you fancy a peak into some of Ancestry's most recent Irish additions, here's your chance, as the UK database is offering a few days of free access to these collections.

For the last several years, these collections, which hold more than 31million records between them,  have been available exclusively at FindMyPast, who digitised them in a partnership with the National Archives of Ireland. As I understand it, that period of exclusivity is now over, so Ancestry has added these record sets to its holdings.

These are the record sets:

• Ireland, Dog Licence Registrations, 1810-1926. 
• Irish Petty Sessions Court Registers 
• Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924
• Encumbered Estate Court, 1850-1883 

To view the records, you'll need a registered account with Ancestry.co.uk. If you don't already have one, select one of these links to search and then follow the instructions to set up an account. You need provide only your name and email address; you'll then be sent a user name and password to access the records.

If you're interested, some new additions to the England holding are also free this weekend:

• Bristol, Church of England Burials, 1813-1994
• Bristol, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935
• Bristol, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1918
• Bristol, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812
• Bristol, Non-Conformist Baptism, Marriage & Burial Registers, 1644-1981
• London, Royal Holloway & Bedford College Student Registers, 1849-1931

The free access period will expire at 11:59pm GMT on Sunday 5 April.


Some of the above content 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 Irish Genealogy News online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

Far west Cork records added to RootsIreland.ie

RootsIreland.ie has announced the addition of 61,505 Roman Catholic baptism and marriage records from South-West County Cork have been uploaded to its database.

While the parishes concerned are in County Cork, they are in the diocese of Kerry, so the records have been added to Mallow Heritage Centre's Cork North East database. (Okay, the geography's a bit confusing if you don't know the area, but the important thing is these records are now available to search.)

The parishes and breakdown of records in this welcome update are as follows:

• Adrigole (baptisms, 1830-1910; marriages, 1831-1910)
• Allihies (baptisms, 1822-1913; marriages, 1823-1872)
• Ballydesmond (baptisms, 1888-1915; marriages, 1889-1915)
• Boherbue (baptisms, 1864-1904; marriages, 1863-1910)
• Castletownbere (baptisms, 1820-1908; marriages, 1817-1915)
• Eyeries (baptisms, 1860-1915; marriages, 1823-1910)
• Millstreet (baptisms, 1854-1903; marriages, 1855-1903)

Ancestry WAP returns to the Belfast News-Letter BMDs

Ancestry's World Archive Project (WAP) team has announced new indexing projects to get stuck into. One of them is a continuation of the ongoing transcription of BMD announcements published in the Belfast News Letter.

The Belfast News-Letter, first published in 1737, is
thought to be the oldest continually published,
daily English-language newspaper.

The database's holding of this newspaper spans 1738 to 1925, with a few gaps, and is currently a browse collection. But the WAP has been running alongside this and has already indexed birth, marriage and death announcements for the years 1828-1907.

The second index project sees a return to the Surrey, England Regimental Rolls, 1914-1947 collection which holds records for the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment (Enlistment Registers and WWII Honors Indexes) and the East Surrey Regiment (Enlistment Registers, Transfers In Registers, and Nominal Rolls of Officers).

You can find out more about these WAPs on Ancestry's dedicated WAP blog and then following the links to the individual indexing projects.

The Ancestry World Archives Project sees volunteers from around the world creating searchable record indexes from digitized records. These indexes are added to Ancestry's free collections and are accessible to all researchers.

FindMyPast UK: Easter Sale offers 20% savings

FindMyPast UK is running an Easter Sale, offering 20% off any new 12-month subscription. So far, no other FindMyPast territories have launched a similar offer.

The sale will run until Tuesday 14 April. These are the savings:

Starter package: Reduced from £79.99 to £63.99.
Plus package: Reduced from £119.99 to £95.99.
PRO package: Reduced from £159.99 to £127.99.

If you are undertaking Irish family history, I wouldn't generally recommend the Starter package, as the Irish records offered are free elsewhere*, but the Plus and the PRO subscriptions (the latter includes the entire Irish Newspaper Collection) will give you access to a huge collection of records, some of them exclusive to FindMyPast.

To take advantage of the discount, click the logo above (you should find the savings have already been applied), and select the subscription that suits your research needs best.

*See BMD records at IrishGenealogy.ie and Census records at NAI/Genealogy