Opening hours for GRO Research Room to be decided weekly.

    No pasarán at the GRO this Thursday afternoon

Apologies to anyone who thought they'd pop down to the GRO's Research Room today after reading my blogpost last week announcing that said Room would be open Tuesday to Thursday to walk-in visitors in future. 

It was certainly open three days last week, but what the GRO failed to announce or make sufficiently clear is that they are announcing their opening hours on a week-by-week basis.

Well, how very customer-unfocussed is that?

You could reasonably imagine the site had been hacked reading such a nonsense. No explanation or apology to researchers either. 

This is the civil service we're talking about. If the GRO were a commercial enterprise it would have returned to normal hours by now, not taken the opportunity to reduce hours, enjoy 90-minute lunch breaks and choose which days they go to work.

This week's hours were Tuesday and Wednesday. Next week, who knows? You'll have to wait until Monday, or Tuesday (if you're lucky) to find out which days they've decided they are going to provide the service. The page to which they are posting the weekly update is here.

Don't risk turning up at the GRO office if you haven't checked that page.

Father's Day Sale of AncestryDNA test kits for Canadian researchers

Canadians looking for a gift for Father’s Day (Sunday 19 June) will be pleased to hear that AncestryDNA test kits are currently discounted to $79 CAD plus tax + shipping.

This represents a welcome saving of $50 CAD.

To take advantage of the offer, place your order before 11:59pm EDT on Friday 10 June by clicking the ORDER NOW button, right.

 

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.

 

 

Updates to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives in May

Researchers donated five parcels of records to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives during May, giving us a mixed bag of headstone photos + transcriptions, some baptisms from Fethard RC Parish dating to 1819, and school attendance records from County Fermanagh dating from 1899.

      Old Glenties Graveyard, Inishkeel, Co Donegal.
Click to view larger image.
      Photo courtesy Angela Gallagher & IGP Archives.

As always, the volunteers contributed the files, photos and records to the IGP database so that other family historians can access them without charge.

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Glenties Old Graveyard, Inishkeel

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Education
Letterkeen Attendance Records, 1899

LIMERICK Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Reilig Íde Naofa, Abbeyfeale

LONGFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Ballymacormack (R.C.) (Updated)

TIPPERARY Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Baptisms at Fethard RC Parish, Dio. of Cashel & Emly, 1819

Flash Sale! Today only: British Newspaper Archive - 25% off

This offer has now expired.

To mark the Platinum Jublilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the BritishNewspaperArchive is offering a 25% discount on its annual subscription. 

It's available for today – Wednesday 1st June – only, so be quick! It'll disappear tonight at 23:59 British Summer Time. 

The saving reduces the cost of the subscription to the equivalent of just £5 per month and gives you 'anytime' access to a database of more than 53million digitised pages of newsprint for a year.

The vast majority of these pages are from titles published in Ireland and Great Britain – you can see the number of editions for each region/country below. There are also a growing number of papers from countries and islands that used to be colonies of the British Empire eg Jamaica, India, Belize.

To take advantage of the Flash Sale, click the image above. You'll find the flash sale promotion code has already been actioned and the discount applied.

This discount has now expired.

BritishNewspaperArchive - Regional breakdown of the number of newspaper editions

Ancestry.com.au offers savings on AncestryDNA tests until 8 June

For the next week, AncestryDNA kits are on sale through Ancestry.com.au.

The discount reduces the price of the kit to $89 AUD (standard price is $129 AUD) plus shipping.

That's a healthy saving of $43 for a DNA test that not only calculates your ethnicity but also provides access to DNA matches from within the world's largest consumer dna network. And those DNA matches keep on coming, even years after you take your initial results!

To take up the offer, click the Save Now button, above right, and pay for your order before 11:59pm AEST on Wednesday 8 June.

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 genealogy, history and heritage events, 30 May to 12 June

Tuesday 31 May: The Long Land War: Ireland's contribution to the global politics of land, with Jo Guldi. An online event hosted by the National Library of Ireland. 7pm. Free. All welcome but booking required.

Thursday 2 June and Friday 3 June: Bank holidays in Northern Ireland.

Thursday 2 June: Yeats and Theatre: a virtual Exhibition Tour, a free online event hosted by the National Library of Ireland. 1pm. All welcome. Need to register to receive zoom link. Free.

Thursday 2 June: Book launch: Unsettled Territory: The 5th battalion in North Meath, 1917-1921, by Frank Cogan. An in-person event hosted by Meath County Library and Meath Archaeological and Historical Society. Venue: County Library, Railway Street, Navan, County Meath. 7:30pm. All welcome. 

Thursday 2 June: From Slieve Gallion Brae to the shore of Lough Neave: The place names of mid-Ulster, with Dr Brian Ó Doibhlin delivering the Ulster Place-Name Society's annual Deirdre Flanagan Memorial Lecture. An in-person event. Venue: Queen's University Belfast, BT7 1NN in the Peter Froggatt Centre/0G/007. 7pm. Free. Details and registration.

Saturday 4 June: The World Turned Upside Down: Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the British Army, and the battle for Irish Freedom, with Stella Tillyard at Castletown House. An in-person event. All welcome. €10. Tickets. Part of the 6th Irish Military Seminar organised by Kildare County Council. Full programme of lectures in venues across the county including Castletown House, Celbridge, Naas and Newbridge Libraries and Newbridge Town Hall, from 4 to 11 June.

Saturday 4 June: Goldenbridge Cemetery Tour, an in-person event. Meet at Richmond Barracks, Inchicore, Dublin 8. 2pm to 3:15pm. Need to book. Tickets €10 / €8.

Saturday 4 June: 1798 United Irishmen, Belfast a walking tour with public historians Sean Napier and Colm Dore. An in-person event. 11:30am–2:30pm. Meet at Parish Church Of St George, 105 High Street, Belfast, BT1 2AG. All welcome. Tickets: £12:50pp. Details and booking.

Sunday 5 June: Who was James Connolly? with Micheal Johnson. A free online event hosted by Workers' Liberty. 6:30pm to 8pm. All welcome. Details, registration and zooom link.

Monday 6 June: Bank holiday in Republic of Ireland.

Tuesday 7 June: An introduction to Irish family history research, with Natalie Bodle. An online event hosted by Glamorgan Family History Society. Free. All welcome. Need to register. An online event.7:30pm–8:45pm. Details.

Thursday 9 June: The Treaty 1921, the National Archives of Ireland's exhibition is on tour and will be at St. Peter’s Church, North Main St, Cork City until 5 July. Free. In-person event. All welcome. Details.

Thursday 9 June: The Treaty 1921, the National Archives of Ireland's exhibition is now on tour and will be at Limerick City and County Council buildings, Merchants Quay (Istabraq Hall) Limerick City until 30 June. Free. In-person event. All welcome. Details.

Saturday 11 June: Goldenbridge Cemetery Tour, an in-person event. Meet at Richmond Barracks, Inchicore, Dublin 8. 11am to 12:15pm. Need to book. Tickets €10 / €8.

Tuesday 7 June: From Treaty Talks to Fire at the Four Courts, The Irish Civil War Part 1, with Cathy Scuffil. Host: Dublin City Council Historians in-Residence Talk Series, An in-person event at Pembroke Library, Anglesea Road, Dublin 4. 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Free. All welcome, but need to book. Details and booking.

Saturday 11 June: Understanding Irish Places, with John Manning. An online workshop exploring resources to help researchers pinpoint places of origin of their ancestors. Host: Kansas City Irish Center. 10am to Noon CDT. Free. All welcome. Details and registration.

Sunday 12 June Powerful Women in Irish Mythology, with Eimear Burke. An online storytelling event with Q&A. Part of the Doreen Valiente 100th Year Celebration collection from the Doreen Valiente Foundation. Tickets £5.98. All welcome. Details and tickets.

Free access to all newspaper pages on Findmypast for seven days

FindMyPast is making its entire newspaper collection of more than 53 million pages of historical titles completely free to access from today until Monday 6 June.

These papers, sourced from the British Library's Newspaper Collection, include titles published in Britain and Ireland, and a number from former colonies. They date back to the 1700s and up to the 2000s, although the majority are from the 19th century.

Historical papers are terrific for family history researchers. While the national titles obviously carry the major news and reports which provide genealogists with the social and political context of the times our ancestors lived through, local and regional papers provide the colour of their day to day lives.

This is where you will find localised reports about less high-profile events, crimes, politics and social unrest as well as news and gossip from the town markets, fair days, local authoirity committees, sports events, petty and Quarter sessions, accidents and mis-haps, death and funeral reports, and all manner of stories about local people and how they and their neighbours lived.

To take advantage of this free access period, click your preferred flag below. If you don't already have a registered account with FindMyPast, you will be invited to sign up for one; this is a free and straightforward process, and does not require you to provide more than a name, email address and password.

The free access period will expire at 11:59pm GMT on Monday 6 June.

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.

Five-week summary of new and updated US genealogy records

Below is a summary of US family history collections released or updated by the major genealogy databases in the last five weeks. (Previous summary list published 20 April, see blogpost).

My regular summaries are designed to help family historians whose Irish ancestors emigrated, temporarily or permanently, to the United States.

By default, they should also be useful to anyone carrying out research in the US, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

The figures in parenthesis in the New Collections section are the numbers of records or images in each new record set, if provided by the database.

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, if a number has been clearly noted by the supplier, and the revised total. I do not include updates of fewer than 1,000 records.

New Collections

Ancestry

• Utah, U.S., Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Records, 1847-1868 (63,274)

FamilySearch

• US, New York, Birth Indexes outside of New York City, 1881-1942 (327,064) From reclaimtherecords.org.

FindMyPast

• 1950 US Census Images, Browse

MyHeritage

• 1950 USA Federal Census (AI Index and images) (63,562,384)
• Connecticut Marriages (1,611,580)
• Wisconsin, Local Literature Records (161,599)
• Indiana, Allen County Obituaries (333,325)

Updated Collections

AmericanAncestors

• Norfolk County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1793-1900: (database complete with 42,600 records)
• Massachusetts: (Image-Only) RC Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920
  St. Cecilia (Ashland), St. Mary (Franklin), St. John the Evangelist (North Chelmsford), St. Mary (Plymouth) and St. Peter (Plymouth). (3,000 pages)
• Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920
  Belmont, Danvers, Quincy, Lawrence, Saugus, Lowell, Medford, Methuen, Norwood, Salem, Shirley, South Boston, Woburn, Cambridge, Newburyport, and Salem.

Ancestry

• Missouri, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1766-1988 (2,355,528)
• Wisconsin, U.S., Marriage Records, 1820-2004 (new total 6,550,801)
• Wisconsin, U.S., Birth Records, 1812-1921 (new total 1,031,136)
• Wisconsin, U.S., Death Records, 1959-2004 (new total 4,440,400)
• 1950 United States Federal Census (/ 154,257,311)
• USA Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current (/ 901,458,766)
• U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current (New total 167,901,825)
• Global, Find a Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current (13,134,300)

FamilySearch

• Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991 (7,729,052)
• Massachusetts, Boston Tax Records, 1822-1918 (13,232,737)
• Oregon, Military Discharge Records, 1919-1967 (11,674)
• West Virginia Deaths, 1804-1999 (2,224,230)
• West Virginia Births, 1853-1930 (1,046,880)
• California, LA, Angelus-Rosedale Cem/Crem Records, 1884-2002 (7,882 / 370,220)
• Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001 (6,403,269)
• Massachusetts, Springfield Vital Records, 1638-1887 (67,355)
• United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014 (33,867,713)
• Maine Vital Records, 1670-1921 (2,476,596)
• Kansas State Census, 1925 (1,843,934)
• United States Index to Alien Case Files, 1940-2003 (455,674)
• Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915 (1,325,760)
• Louisiana, Orleans Parish Vital Records, 1900-1964 (181,477)
• USA Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1800-c.1955 (88,578)
• Texas, Grimes County, Deed Records, 1869-1917 (1,858 / 4,591)
• Texas, Hardin County, Deed Records, 1840-1920 (1,122 / 2,865)
• Utah, Utah County Records, 1850-1962 (7,338 / 15,609)

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.

Summer edition of Irish Roots magazine published

The summer 2022 edition of Ireland's independent quarterly genealogy magazine, Irish Roots, has been published and is now available to purchase in both paper and digital format.

As always, the new issue is full of helpful and interesting family history features, including how-to guides, research assistance, guides to resources, comment and observations from professional genealogists and experts, analysis of historical events our ancestors lived through, and news of record releases and other developments in the world of Irish genealogy.

The summer contents include the following:

• The Many Local Resources For Tracing Your Co. Wicklow Ancestors
  
• Tracing Relatives Of Legendary Irish Pirate Queen, Grace O'Malley
  
• Connect To Your Ancestors With Ireland Reaching Out Endeavour
• Clans Of Ireland Engage In Two Major Research Projects
• What The Past National Schools' Essays Collection Can Teach You
  
• Australian Irish Connections - Migrants To Australia From 1788
• And Another Thing - Genealogical commentary from Steven Smyrl.
  
• What's New? Review — The latest Irish genealogy record releases.
• Your genealogy queries answered by Nicola Morris MAGI

Regular columns and features include Letters to the Editor; Book selections; Reader’s genealogical experiences shared; and News from family history societies.

The magazine is always a great read and is guaranteed to extend your understanding of Ireland, her folklore and history, the diaspora, and the wide range of resources available to help you progress your genealogical research.

Paper and digital subscriptions are available, and you can download a free sample of this edition's content here.

Ancestry updates its Find A Grave index for the UK and Ireland

Ancestry's All UK and Ireland FindAGrave Index was topped up with an additional 450,000 entries in the company's quarterly updates this month. It brings the index to a total of 14,391,869 entries.

Surprisingly, entries from the Republic of Ireland now tot up to nearly a million (957,818), and all counties appear to be represented if my quick scan of results pages is correct.

Northern Ireland accounts for 584,351 indexed entries. All six counties feature, but so, too, do records for headstones in the border counties of Cavan, Donegal, Louth and Monaghan, all of which are in the Republic. There may well be others mis-allocated.

Numbers for the rest of the UK are:

• England: 10.985,953
• Scotland: 1,531,916
• Wales: 397,008

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.