Save 25% on a new subscription to the BritishNewspaperArchive

With its holding of British and Irish titles now totting up to more than 78.3million pages, the British Newspaper Archive is a terrific resource for genealogists researching ancestors from the islands of Ireland and Great Britain.

This weekend's 25% discount is valid across the site's range of monthly, three-monthly and annual subscriptions. Gift subscriptions are included.

To take advantage of the saving, you'll need to sign up for a new subscription before 11:59pm BST on Monday 27 May.

Click the image, right, for more details of the offer.

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Three weeks of genealogy updates: England, Scotland and Wales

Please find below a three-week summary of newly-released and updated family history collections for England, Scotland and Wales from the major genealogy databases. (Previous list 1 May blogpost.)

These regular listings are designed to help researchers whose Irish ancestors migrated, temporarily or permanently, to England, Scotland or Wales.

By default, they will also be useful to anyone carrying out research in those three nations, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

Please note that I don't usually include updates of fewer than 1,000 records.

NEW COLLECTIONS

Figures in parentheses are the numbers of records (or images, if browse-only) in each new collection.

Ancestry

• England, Medieval Soldier Database, 1368-1374 (15,000)
• Web: England, Cricket Players, 1845-2024 (1,474)
• Web: Scotland, Crown Counsel Procedure Books Index, 1822-1877 (153,989)
• Lancashire, Non-Conformist Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1762-2005 (447,396)

BritishNewspaperArchive (BNA) and FindMyPast (FMP)

• Peterborough Eve. Telegraph | Newton & Earlestown Guardian | Scottish Sporting Post

FamilySearch

• England, Bristol, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1777-1936 (160,422)
• England, Cambridgeshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1538-1983 (1,108,130)
• England, Cambridgeshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1538-1983 (1,108,130)
• England, Cheshire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1606-1900 (451,783)
• England, Cheshire, Register of Electors, 1842-1900 (4,470,215)
• England, Derbyshire, Church of England Parish Registers, 1537-1918 (2,953,523)
• England, Lancashire, Liverpool, Baptisms, 1557-1919 (29,838)
• England, Devon, Parish Registers, 1538-1912 (1,055,443)
• England, Kent, Parish Registers, 1538-1911 (576,558)
• England, Lancashire, Liverpool, Banns and Marriages, 1557-1960 (11,002)
• England, Manchester, Miscellaneous Records, 1700-1916 (10,536,245)
• England, Manchester Parish Registers 1603-1910 (1,772,265)
• England, Middlesex, Westminster, Parish Registers, 1538-1912 Browse only
• England, Norfolk Non-conformist Records, 1613-1901 (4,606)
• England, Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts, 1685-1941 (1,193,815)
• England, Warwickshire, Parish Registers, 1535-1963 (2,900,867)
• England, Navy Allotment Records, 1795-1812 (485,017)
• Scotland Civil Registration, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891 (535,643)
• Wales, Glamorgan, Parish Register Marriages, 1837-1922 (56,282)
• Isle of Man Parish Registers, 1598-2009 (438,382)
• Great Britain, War Office Registers, 1772-1935 (1,011,348)
• UK, WW1 Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Records, 1917-1920 (18,567)

FindMyPast

• Enhanced Genealogical Data From Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (4,013 images and transcriptions)
• England & Wales Deaths, 2007-2024 (225,815 Welsh deaths)

TheGenealogist

• Army Lists, 1837–1959 (1.8 million entries) Article

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

Ancestry

• 1939 England and Wales Register
• UK and Ireland FindAGrave (new total 19,905,080)

FindMyPast

• National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914, Browse (Images for Staffordshire Admission Registers)
• Scotland, Occupations & Professions (38,123 /64,658)
• British Rolls Of Honour & Nominal Rolls (13,948/311,513) WW1 – Leicestershire & Rutland
• Scotland Deaths, 1855-2024 (497,172 / 3,893,895) additions span 1980 to 2024
• Kent Baptisms (3,614,510) Charlton/Cliffe/Greenwich/Hadlow/Ightham/Woolwich
• Kent Marriages and Banns (10,000+/3,200,908) See parish list
• Kent Burials (new total 3,086,381) See parish list.

TheGenealogist

• 1851 Census now available on Map Explorer. Feature article.

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.

National Archives of Ireland afternoon closure on Tuesday 21 May

The National Archives of Ireland has announced that its Reading Room will be closed to the public on the afternoon of Tuesday 21 May.

However, the NAI's free Genealogy Service, which is managed by members of Accredited Genealogists Ireland, will be available on the ground floor.

RootsIreland adds Catholic marriage records from County Tipperary

RootsIreland.ie has updated its County Tipperary holdings with the addition of 4,028 marriage records from the Roman Catholic parish of Killenaule, 1742-1801 and 1812-1900. This parish is also known as Moyglass.

These records have been transcribed by South Tipperary Genealogy, one of the Irish Family History Foundation's island-wide network of genealogy centres, which is located in the Brú Ború Centre in Cashel.

The records are unusual for their early survival date – 1742 – but unfortunately some ten years of register pages (from January 1802 to January 1812) are missing. Transcribed from locally-held registers, the RootsIreland records continue to 1900. Those recorded up to 1881 have been linked to the National Library of Ireland's register images.

For an up to date list of sources for South Tipperary on RootsIreland, see the online menu. To search these records, go to www.tipperarysouth.rootsireland.ie and login or subscribe as required.

National Library of Ireland: Saturday openings in May

The National Library of Ireland's Main, Microfilm and Manuscripts Reading Rooms, plus the Readers' Ticket Office will be open on the following Saturdays during the month ahead:

– 11 May
– 25 May

These areas of the library are all housed in Dublin's Kildare Street. Saturday opening is from 9:30am to 1pm.

Please note that the Family History Room is not open to the public on Saturdays.

For detailed opening hours across the four NLI sites, see the NLI website.

FindMyPast adds County Limerick Electoral Registers, 1760-1776

FindMyPast.ie's latest addition is a collection of voters' registers relating to three elections held in the second half of the 18th century. The record-set has been launched as the Limerick City & County Electoral Registers 1760-1776 collection and holds 2,548 transcriptions.

As far as I'm aware, these records, sourced from the National Library of Ireland, have not previously been available online.

The registers record those who voted in the Limerick in the elections of 1761, 1768 and 1776. They note who the individual voted for, their place of residence and the address of the property through which they qualified for a vote.

At this time, County Limerick was entitled to elect two MPs to the Dublin Parliament; entitlement to vote was restricted to adult men who possessed freehold property with a minimum value of £2 per year or were Freemen of Limerick City.

A sample search return from the 1768 election (which took place at St Francis's Abbey, 11-16 July) shows Patrick Fitzgibbon, who lived at Newcastle and held property at Manister-nenagh valued at more than £2pa, voted for "m.o.". Eight years later, now residing in Manister, he voted for Hugh Massy ("hm").

Be sure to read the collection home page before searhing.

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.

General Register Office of Ireland adjusts opening hours again

The General Register Office of Ireland's Public Search facility in Dublin has changed its opening hours again.

The office, which is located in Werburgh Street, to the west of Dublin Castle, is now open on Tuesdays only, from 9:30am to 4:30pm and will remain open over the lunch period.

It's true this is an improvement on the original post-pandemic timetable, which changed from week to week with little advance notice, required two-hour appointments and had a lunchtime kick out.

Oh, for the days, pre-lockdown, when the walk-in service operated a full five days a week.

The Monday–Friday email service is often extremely efficient, sometimes with turnaround within less than 24 hours. Sadly, such speed can't be relied upon. (In April, I waited for just under three weeks for a birth cert research copy.)

Irish Times Group buys funeral notice platform RIP.ie

The hugely successful free-to-view RIP.ie database has been acquired by the Irish Times Group.

Founded in 2005 by brother and sister team Jay and Dympna Coleman of County Louth, the site has been publishing death announcements and funeral notices (and much more) since July 2006.

Although so recently established, it has become a trusted resource in Ireland and can be useful to genealogists looking to update their family trees. Each notice is placed by the funeral director and typically includes information about the deceased's relatives and sometimes other personal details.

The opportunity for family, friends, colleagues and other acquaintances to upload condolences to the site has become extremely popular since Covid 19 arrived, and can often be another rich source for family history.

The site's sale raised immediate concerts that the platform would be placed behind a paywall. However, in a statement issued yesterday, the Irish Times Group committed to keeping RIP.ie 'free to view' following its acquisition.

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives - April updates: Headstones photos and church records from nine counties across the island

Last month brought another bumper delivery of files to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives from the volunteer team. The additions include headstone photos and transcribed inscriptions from seven burial grounds plus church records from two Ulster congregations, one Presbyterian, the other Methodist.

As always, these files have been contributed by researchers for the benefit of other researchers, and are available on a free-to-access basis. If you have any similar records or photos, please consider donating them to IGPArchives. You can find out how to contribute here.

Headstones to Conway family in Illinaspic
graveyard, Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny. Photo courtesy
of Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
and the contributor, Emma Bates.
Click for enlarged image.

CARLOW Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Lazerian Cemetery, Kildavin

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Laragh Old Cemetery (Updated)

CLARE Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Holy Rosary Graveyard, Doolin, Part 2

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Ballyshannon Methodist Marriages, 1872-1920

KERRY Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Listowel Burial Ground - Partial

KILKENNY Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Killinaspic Pt 2, Mooncoin, Completed

TYRONE Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Sion Mills Presbyterian Marriages 1866-1921

WEXFORD Genealogy Archives
HeadstonesCalvary Cemetery Pt. 2, Bunclody
Memorials St David's Interior, Family of Adoration Convent, Ferns

WICKLOW Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Brigid's Graveyard, Annacurra

Latest genealogy updates for English, Scottish & Welsh collections

Please find below a two-week summary of newly-released and updated family history collections for England, Scotland and Wales from the major genealogy databases. (For previous list, see 11/4 blogpost.)

These regular listings are designed to help researchers whose Irish ancestors migrated, temporarily or permanently, to England, Scotland or Wales.

By default, they will also be useful to anyone carrying out research in those three nations, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

Please note that I don't usually include updates of fewer than 1,000 records.

NEW COLLECTIONS

Figures in parentheses are the numbers of records (or images, if browse-only) in each new collection.

Ancestry

• Aberdeenshire, Scotland, School Admission Registers, 1852-1927
• Aberdeenshire, Scotland, World War II Related Records, 1940-1945
• Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Police Records, 1818
• United Kingdom, Red Cross Volunteers During WWI, 1914-1918 (244,156)

BritishNewspaperArchive (BNA) and FindMyPast (FMP)

• Deeside Piper |  Midhurst and Petworth Observer  |  Pontefract & Castleford Express  |  Sleaford Standard  |  Hucknall Dispatch  |  Daventry and District Weekly Express  |  Kirriemuir Herald  |  Glenrothes Gazette

FamilySearch

• England, Manchester, Miscellaneous Records, 1700-1916 (10,241,065)

FindMyPast

• Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography Enhanced Genealogical Data (4,013)

MyHeritage

• England, Cheshire Bishop's Transcripts Burials, 1569-1933 (1,167,929)

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

Unless otherwise stated, where there is only one figure in parenthesis, it reflects the total number of records in the updated collection. Where there are two figures, the first is the number of records added in the recent update, the second is the revised total number.

FamilySearch

• England, Devon, Parish Registers (Devon Record Office), 1529-1974 (2,926,636)
• England, Devon, Parish Registers, 1538-1912 (1,043,193)
• England, Staffordshire, Church Records, 1538-1944 (4,850,444)
• Wales, Death Records, 1998-2015 (172,310)

FindMyPast

• Oxfordshire Baptisms Kiddington, Chudlington and Spelsbury (6,200 / 260,211)
• Oxfordshire Marriages (72,782)
• Oxfordshire Burials Kiddington, Chudlington and Spelsbury (41,327)
• Surrey Prerogative Court Will Abstracts, 1420-1857 (11,308 / 12,701) additions from 1700
• Lancashire Wills & Probate 1457-1858 (5,803 Infra Wills ie under £40 value)

FreeBMD

• England and Wales Civil Registration Index (202,914 / 294,092,936)

TheGenealogist

• Land Tax Records (IR58), Surrey property owners and heads of household, 1910-1915 (225,000+ / 2.6Million)

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.