100,000 headstone photos: major milestone reached by Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives (IGP-Archives)

There's big news from Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives as the 100,000th headstone photo was uploaded to the IGP Headstone Project. All the photographs and acccompanying transcriptions were donated and uploaded by volunteers and are made available via the site free of charge. It's a terrific achievement by the team. See the Headstone Project home page for the county by county menu.

Below are the headstone and other genealogy items added to the archive in the last two weeks.

Stone to the Mitchell, Leagh, McCarthy family,
in Waterford St Andrews, C of I, Dunmore East
Photo courtesy Valerie Ackoryd and IGP Archives.
Click for larger image.

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Derrylane (CoI) Graveyard

CORK Genealogy Archives - Census
1901: Townlands of Ballinure, Dundanion & Mahon

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Ballylast Old Graveyard
Stranorlar (R.C.) Graveyard (partial)

LONGFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Granard, Old Cemetery (R.C.)

LOUTH Genealogy Archives - Land
Drogheda Rentals & Properties -1835; pg 11-16

MAYO Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Foxford, Straide Graveyard

TIPPERARY Genealogy Archives - Newspapers
Eviction of Tenantry (TUTHILL Lands) 4-Apr-1846

TYRONE Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Patrick's, Gortin

WATERFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Andrew's (CoI) Dunmore East

WEXFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Rosslare Strand Graveyard
St. Iberius Church (CoI) Plaques

Irish genealogy and history events: 30 Jan to 12 Feb

Monday 30 January: Murder, the death penalty and Irish society 1922-39, with Liam O'Callaghan. Irish Studies Research Seminars, Spring 2017 programme. Host and venue: Liverpool Hope University. Room EDEN013, Eden Building, Hope Park, Liverpool, UK L16 9JD. 1pm. Free.

Tuesday 31 January: Researching Early Ulster Ancestors, with Dr William Roulston. Last of four in lecture series. Host: Ulster Historical Foundation. Venue. Ballymena Central library, 5 Pat's Brae, Ballymena, BT43 5AX. 10:30am-12:30pm. Booking Essential t: 028 2563 3950 e: Ballymena.library@librariesni.org.uk.

Tuesday 31 January: The Medieval walled town of Athy, with Marc Guernon. Host: Castledermot Local History Group. Venue: Teach Diarmada Community Centre, Castledermot, Co Kildare. All welcome. Members free. Non-members €2. 8pm.

Tuesday 31 January: 'Revising Independence': A new history of Inter-war Ireland? with Dr Anne Dolan. Host: TCD and Carlow College, Slattery Lecture Series. Venue: Carlow College, Carlow. 8pm. All welcome. Free.

Wednesday 1 February: Family History Online for beginners, a workshop. Host and venue: Lisburn City Library, Linenhall St, Lisburn BT28 1FJ. 10:30am–12:30pm and 2pm–4pm. Free, but booking essential: 028 9266 9345.

Wednesday 1 February: Cork Stories and Memories – Open evening of the Cork Folklore Project. Venue: The North Cathedral (Cathedral of Saint Mary & Saint Anne), top of Shandon Street/bottom of Cathedral Street, Cork City. Food, drinks, stories. Free. 6.30pm–8:30pm. All Welcome. Details.

Wednesday 1 February: Uncovering the archaeology of the Siege of Kinsale, 1601, with Damian Shiels and Paul O’Keeffe. Host: Cork Historical & Archaeological Society. Venue: Crawford Art Gallery, Emmett Place, Cork City. 8pm. Free.

Thursday 2 February: Ireland and the war at sea, 1917, with Michael Kennedy. Second of the 'Ireland and the World After the Rising' lecture series. Host: Glasnevin Trust & Trinity College Dublin. Venue: Milestone Gallery, Glasnevin Museum, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin 11. All welcome. Tickets €10. Booking.

Thursday 2 February: Ireland and the war at sea, 1917, with Michael Kennedy. Second of the 'Ireland and the World after the Rising’ Winter Lecture Series 2017. Host: Glasnevin Trust & Trinity College Dublin. Venue: Museum’s Milestone Gallery, Glasnevin Cemetery. Dublin 11. 7pm. Tickets for each lecture are €10 or book the full series of 6 for €50. Details and booking.

Saturday 4 February: The Cistercians, with Breda Lynch. Host & venue: Tipperary County Museum, Mick Delahunty Square, Clonmel, Co Tipperary. 10:30am. €5. All welcome. Seats allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Monday 6 February: The McKees of Ulster, with John McKee. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Killyleagh Branch. Venue: Masonic Hall, 50 High Street, Killyleagh, Co Down, BT30 9QF. 8pm to 9:30pm. All welcome.

Monday 6 February: Tracing your military and revolutionary ancestors, with Nicola Morris MAGI. Host: 'Mondays at the Mess lecture series. Venue: Richmond Barracks, off Bulfin Road, Inchicore, Dublin 8. 11am. All welcome. Entry €5 includes tea/coffee and a scone in the cafe. Tickets.

Monday 6 February: “We own the Laurentic” – story of the sinking and exploration of the White Star liner Laurentic, with Jack Scoltock. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Foyle Branch. Venue: Lecture Room of Derry City’s Central Library, 35 Foyle Street, Derry, BT48 6AL. 7pm. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 7 February: Magnificence and misery: Philanthropy, identity, and city image in Dublin and Edinburgh, c.1815-c.1845, with Joe Curran. Part of the 'Modern Irish History - Culture, Place and Identity' seminar series. Host: University of Edinburgh, School of History, Classics and Archaeology. Venue: Room G13, Old Medical School, William Robertson Wing, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, UK. 6pm. No booking required. All welcome.

Thursday 9 February: Poets of the black chair: Francis Ledwidge and Hedd Wynn 1887-1917, with Myles Dungan and Nerys Williams. Part of the 'Ireland and the World after the Rising’ Winter Lecture Series 2017. Host: Glasnevin Trust & Trinity College Dublin. Venue: Museum’s Milestone Gallery, Glasnevin Cemetery. Dublin 11. 7pm. Tickets for each lecture are €10. Details and booking.

Thursday 9 February Military Traditions Conference and book launch. Joint hosts: PRONI and Antrim and Down Western Front Association. Venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 2 Titanic Blvd, Titanic Quarter, Belfast BT3 9HQ. 2pm to 5:30pm. Free, but need to register.

Friday 10 February: New Discoveries At Glendalough, a talk from UCD School of Archaeology. Host: Glendalough Heritage Forum. Venue: Brockagh Centre, Laragh, County Wicklow. 7pm. Details. All welcome.

Saturday 11 February: Beginning Irish Research, with Audrey Leonard. Host: Irish Genealogical Society Intl (IGSI). Venue: Minnesota Genealogical Society Library, 1185 North Concord, South St Paul, MN. USA. 10:30am–12 noon. The cost is $15 for IGSI members and $20 for non-members. Need to book.

Saturday 11 February: Getting Started with Irish Genealogy Research, a beginner level workshop, with Miles Davenport. Host and venue: McClelland Irish Library (Norton Room) 1106 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona, USA. 10:30am – 12:30pm. Costs: $15 for Library/ICC members and $20 for the general public. Details.

Saturday 11 February: The Evolution of Surnames, with Vincent Brogan. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Omagh Branch. Venue: Seminar Room, Omagh Library, Dublin Road, Omagh, BT78 1HL. 10am. Free. All welcome.

Irish Newspaper Archives: Big discounts to end January

The Dublin-based Irish Newspaper Archive has a couple of very worthwhile discounts on offer until the end of the month. There's a 60% discount (yes, 60%) available on the annual subscription, reducing the price to €71.20, and a 30% discount on the monthly subscription, reducing its price to €21.

The big reductions mark two significant developments for the family-run business. Firstly, it's now more than 50 years since the company was set up by the late Alan Martin (it is now run by his wife, Annette, and three sons: Phillip, Jonathan and Andrew); during those years the firm has been microfilming and then scanning newspapers up and down the island, providing access to periodicals in all forms of media, and now has around 60 titles available online. Free access is also available through many libraries.

Secondly, Irish Newspaper Archive has been providing online access to the archives of the Independent newspaper, one of Ireland's top-circulation titles, since 2001, but this has not previously been directly promoted by the newspaper. That's now changed, and customers can link through to the archive and subscribe to Irish Newspaper Archive (here) from the top menu of the much-visited Independent.ie home page.

So, back to the discounts: they're valid until close of play Tuesday 31 January. To receive the 60% discount on an annual subscription, enter the promo/coupon code INDOARCH03 when prompted during the purchase process. To receive the 30% discount on a monthly subscription, enter the promo/coupon code INDOARCH01 when prompted. Use the link images below.

Bargains galore at NIFHS Book Sale, Saturday 28 Jan

The Randall Gill Library at the NIFHS Research Centre

It's not so very often the words 'genealogy', 'books' and 'bargains' appear in the same sentence, but here's a rare example: There will be loads of bargains on offer tomorrow at the North of Ireland Family History Society's book sale in their genealogy research centre in Newtownabbey.

No surprise then that the titles on sale are all likely to be of interest to local and family historians.

They include local history books and journals, gravestone inscriptions, church histories, Irish and British history books, biographies of politicians, military history books, transcriptions of newspaper bmds, magazines and much more.

As they are surplus library material, you'll find the prices very much to your liking. They start at 20p and there are many priced below £1. Some are 'awaiting an offer' and some are even free.

It may be possible to reserve some books to be held for later collection. For book reservations, queries, and a full book sale list, please email: librarian@nifhs.org.

The Book Sale will be held 11am to 2pm tomorrow, 28 January at the NIFHS Research Centre and Library, Unit C4, Valley Business Centre, 67 Church Road, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, BT36 7LS, where there's plenty of free parking.

Latest on Valuation Office Cancelled Books digitisation

Cancelled/Revision Books at the Valuation Office

Digitisation work on the Valuation Office's Cancelled/Revision Books collection is continuing a-pace.

The books for thirteen counties – Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo and Tipperary – have been scanned and are accessible on computer to researchers visiting the VO in the Irish Life Building on Lower Abbey Street, Dublin.

With half the counties of the Republic now scanned, it seems the digitisation project has moved on rather quickly of late. There were only six available when I last visited in August!

When fully digitised, the collection will be heading online. As yet there is no confirmation where that online home will be, but the records will be free to access, that much is certain (which makes the National Archives's Genealogy website a contender). We'll see.

In the meantime, if you're visiting the VO and need to handle original books, here's a reminder: you can scan or photograph the books with your own devices, and there's no charge. Using the VO's photocopier does attract a charge, however.

Registry of Deeds Index Project: first updates and site developments of 2017 pave way for growth

The Registry of Deeds Index Project has had its first update for 2017 and the main database now holds 224,009 index entries extracted from 25,435 memorials of deeds.

Other developments have followed the upload by FamilySearch late last month of a number of image files (from microfilm) of Registry of Deeds Grantors and Townland Indexes (only one Memorial transcription book (13) was included in this upload).

These Indexes were previously accessible either on microfilm via LDS Family History Centers or to personal visitors to the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. It's hoped that the free online access now available via FamilySearch will make it more practical for the volunteer team to grow, and enable the Index Project to make faster headway.

In response to the FamilySearch upload, which is expected to be the first of several instalments, project manager Nick Reddan FIGRS has created a new 'Grantors' pledge' page for volunteers to commit to transcribing a tranche of images of the Grantors Index. Already, some 12,300 entries have been transcribed. They can be searched on the Index of Grantors' Index transcriptions page

A 'Townlands' Index' has also been created and has already totted up 14,200 entries. To help contributors get started with making entries to this index, Nick has added a sample of his transcription of the first page of the Antrim townland index.

Irish genealogy and history events, 23 Jan to 4 Feb

Tuesday 24 January: Estate Records for the Family Historian, with Valerie Adams. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, North Down and Ards Branch. Venue: C S Lewis Room, Holywood Arches Library, Holywood Road, Belfast, BT4 1NT. All welcome. 7:30pm. Free.

Tuesday 24 January: Tracking "Bad Bridget": Criminal and Deviant Irish Women in North America, 1838-1918, with Dr Elaine Farrell. The Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland Annual Lecture. Venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. 6pm. Free. All welcome. No booking required.

Tuesday 24 January: Researching Early Ulster Ancestors, with Dr William Roulston. Third of four in lecture series. Host: Ulster Historical Foundation. Venue. Ballymena Central library, 5 Pat's Brae, Ballymena, BT43 5AX. 10:30am-12:30pm. Booking Essential t: 028 2563 3950 e: Ballymena.library@librariesni.org.uk.

Wednesday 25 January: Ireland & the UK from 1916 to Brexit, a History Ireland Hedge School. Venue: London Irish Centre. 50-52 Camden Square, London, NW1 9XB, UK. Panel: Tommy Graham, History Ireland editor; Dan Mulhall, Irish ambassador to the UK; Mary Kenny, writer and journalist; Michael Kennedy, RIA's Documents on Irish Foreign Policy; and Martin Mansergh, vice-chair of the Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations. Doors open 7pm. Free tickets.

Wednesday 25 January: Open Genealogy Consultation, with Lisa Dougherty. Host and venue: Paul O'Dwyer Library, Irish American Heritage Museum, 370 Broadway, Albany, NY 12207 USA. 11am-2pm. Free.

Thursday 26 January: The Rising and its aftermath in Phibsborough and Glasnevin, 1916-17, with Brian Hanley. First of the 'Ireland and the World after the Rising’ Winter Lecture Series 2017. Host: Glasnevin Trust & Trinity College Dublin. Venue: Museum’s Milestone Gallery, Glasnevin Cemetery. Dublin 11. 7pm. Tickets for each lecture are €10 or book the full series of 6 for €50. Details and booking.

Thursday 26 January: Book Launch – The Forgotten Irish: Irish Emigrant Experiences in America, by Damian Sheils. Launch by Dr Myles Dungan. Host and venue: Hodges Figgis, 56-58 Dawson Street, Dublin 2. 6pm–7pm. All welcome.

Thursday 26 January: The curious grave of Elizabeth Scrope, with Kieran Groeger. Host: Dunhill History Lecture Series XI, 2017. Venue: Dunhill Multi-Education Centre (opp GAA grounds), Dunhill, Co Waterford. 8pm. €5. Lecture is followed by Q&A and light refreshments. All welcome. Details of lecture series.

Friday 27 January: The Reading Room of the National Archives will be closed until 2pm.

Saturday 28 January: Family History Society Book Sale. Venue: Library, North of Ireland Family History Society, Valley Business Centre, Church Rd, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, BT36 7LS. 11am to 2pm. Wide range of local history books, journals, gravestone inscriptions, church histories and more. Prices start at 20p with many under £1. It may be possible to reserve some books to be held for later collection. For book reservations, queries and a full book sale list, please email: librarian@nifhs.org.

Saturday 28 January: People on the Move - Evidence for Migration from the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, with Dr Jacinta Prunty. It's the 16th Annual Irish Migration Studies Lecture. Venue: Mellon Centre for Migration Studies, Ulster American Folk Park, Castletown, Omagh, Co Tyrone BT78 5QY. 11am to 2pm. Registration and Tea/coffee from 10:30. Admission £12, includes tea, coffee, finger buffet lunch, and lecture. Booking advised – see Details.

Saturday 28 January: The streets and shores of Enniskillen, with genealogist Frankie Roofe. Host: Lough Erne Heritage. Venue: Killyhevlin Hotel, Killyhevlin, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, BT74 6RW. 2pm. Free. All welcome.

Saturday 28 January: Arbour Hill Prison and Cemetery – a history, with Jerry O'Reilly. Host: Stoneybatter & Smithfield People's History Project. Venue: The Cobblestone, 77 North King Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7. 4pm. All welcome. Details.

Monday 30 January: Murder, the death penalty and Irish society 1922-39, with Liam O'Callaghan. Irish Studies Research Seminars, Spring 2017 programme. Host and venue: Liverpool Hope University. Room EDEN013, Eden Building, Hope Park, Liverpool, UK L16 9JD. 1pm. Free.

Tuesday 31 January: Researching Early Ulster Ancestors, with Dr William Roulston. Last of four in lecture series. Host: Ulster Historical Foundation. Venue. Ballymena Central library, 5 Pat's Brae, Ballymena, BT43 5AX. 10:30am-12:30pm. Booking Essential t: 028 2563 3950 e: Ballymena.library@librariesni.org.uk.

Tuesday 31 January: The Medieval walled town of Athy, with Marc Guernon. Host: Castledermot Local History Group. Venue: Teach Diarmada Community Centre, Castledermot, Co Kildare. All welcome. Members free. Non-members €2. 8pm.

Tuesday 31 January: 'Revising Independence': A new history of Inter-war Ireland? with Dr Anne Dolan. Host: TCD and Carlow College, Slattery Lecture Series. Venue: Carlow College, Carlow. 8pm. All welcome. Free.

Thursday 2 February: Ireland and the war at sea, 1917, with Michael Kennedy. Second of the 'Ireland and the World After the Rising' lecture series. Host: Glasnevin Trust & Trinity College Dublin. Venue: Milestone Gallery, Glasnevin Museum, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin 11. All welcome. Tickets €10. Booking.

Thursday 2 February: Ireland and the war at sea, 1917, with Michael Kennedy. Second of the 'Ireland and the World after the Rising’ Winter Lecture Series 2017. Host: Glasnevin Trust & Trinity College Dublin. Venue: Museum’s Milestone Gallery, Glasnevin Cemetery. Dublin 11. 7pm. Tickets for each lecture are €10 or book the full series of 6 for €50. Details and booking.

Saturday 4 February: The Cistercians, with Breda Lynch. Host & venue: Tipperary County Museum, Mick Delahunty Square, Clonmel, Co Tipperary. 10:30am. €5. All welcome. Seats allocated on a first come, first served basis.

PRONI half-day conference – A Digital Landscape – for official launch of historical map viewer

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland will be officially launching its Historical Maps Viewer on Wednesday 25 January with a half-day conference. The free application has been online, here, since last month, see blogpost.

The conference – A Digital Landscape: exploring historical map applications – will be held 10am–12:30pm and will start with the formal launch. The conference brings together mapping experts and GIS/historical map users from a range of sectors including Land & Property Services, Historic Environment Division and Queen's University, Belfast. The programme will include case studies demonstrating how historical maps have been used, for example as part of cross-community development programme to engage young people with exploring the history and development of their local communities. See the full programme.

Admission to the conference is free but booking is recommended via Eventbrite.

Venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast.

RIA releases online Irish Historic Towns Atlases for eight Anglo-Norman towns

Printed editions are available from the RIA

Another instalment of Irish Historic Towns Atlases has been released online.

This time it's the turn of eight towns of Anglo-Norman origin: Athlone, Carlingford, Carrickfergus, Fethard, Kilkenny, Mullingar, Sligo and Trim, and they are all freely available to search or download here.

The Irish Historic Towns Atlas (IHTA) is a research project of the Royal Irish Academy that aims to examine the topographical development of a selection of Irish towns both large and small during key periods in their history.

Clues to the town's past religious life, defence and security, local and national government, industry, trade, transport, education and leisure habits are explored within the accompanying maps. Dense and accurate, these atlases reveal fascinating details about the physical environment and communities our ancestors lived in.

Included with each online atlas are:

• The cover, general abbreviations, introduction and select bibliography
  
• Word searchable essay, text maps and topographical gazetteer
  
• Map 1 (Cmid-19th, 1:50,000), Map 2 (Cmid-19th, 1:2500), Map 3 (modern C20th, 1:5000), growth maps, historical compilation maps and legend sheet.

In addition, the IHTA team has released the chapter on the Anglo-Norman town from Reading the maps: a guide to the Irish Historic Towns Atlas (Dublin, 2011) where the town type is contextualised and case studies given.

The library of online atlases now looks like this:

Towns of Viking origin: Dublin, Limerick
Towns of Monastic Origins: Kildare, Kells, Downpatrick, Armagh and Tuam
Towns of Anglo-Norman origin: Athlone, Carlingford, Carrickfergus, Fethard, Kilkenny, Mullingar, Sligo and Trim

Towns of early modern and plantation origin (Bandon, Belfast, part I to 1840, Derry~Londonderry, Longford and Ennis) are expected to be available next month.

Fold 3 marks 10-year anniversary with 40% discount

Offer expires 31 January

Fold3, Ancestry's military records specialist site, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a 40% discount on its one-year Premium membership subscription fee.

The discount reduces the annual cost from US$79.95 to US$47.95. It's billed in one payment, but it works out at US$3.99 a month.

Fold3 Premium membership provides access to 485 million records.

The collection includes Revolutionary War Service & Pension records, Confederate Civil War Service records, Union Civil War Service records, Civil War Widows records, War of 1812 War Servive records, Mexican War Service records, World War II records and photos, and much more. From personal experience, I can confirm that Fold3 holds records you won't find anywhere else online, and is stuffed full of Irish emigrants.

The discount offer will expire on Tuesday 31 January at midnight (MST) and is offered only to new Fold3 subscribers and not for renewal of current subs.

If you take up the offer, your subscription will automatically renew at regular list price after the introductory 1-year offer. You can switch off the auto-renew function at any time.