NIFHS's DNA Summer School programme, 19-25 August

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running its popular DNA Summer School from 19 to 25 August. Expert guest speakers are lined up to present some of the sessions and delegates will have access to a video recording of their classes for 28 days.

There are ten 90-minute classes to choose from, each one costing £10, and if you sign up for all of them, there's a generous discount of £20 available.

The classes are as follows (all UK times):

Monday 21 August:
Autosomal DNA Action Plan, with Martin McDowell at 2pm.
Using Geographical Information, with Anne Johnston at 7pm.

Tuesday 22 August:
Mitochondrial DNA Action Plan, with Martin McDowell at 2pm.
Case Studies, with Martin McDowell and Anne Johnston.

Wednesday 23 August:
Y-DNA Action Plan, with Martin McDowell at 2pm.
Big Y and Discover, with with Janine Cloud at 7pm.

Thursday 24 August:
DNA Painter, with Jonny Perl at 2pm.
Misconceptions about DNA, with Anne Johnston at 7pm.

Friday 25 August:
Walking the Segments Back, with Jim Bartlett at 2pm.
Looking Forward, with Martin McDowell at 7pm.

For more information about the DNA Summer School, a description of each class, and to book, click the logo above.

Galway Observer joins BritishNewspaperArchive's Irish collection

New to the BritishNewspaperArchive database (and also joining FindMyPast's Irish newspaper collection) is The Galway Observer.

Some 2,993 editions published 1882-1884; 1889-1911; and 1928-1963 are now available to view. The online holding for this influential title will eventually expand to span 1882–1966

The database holdings of the following five Irish papers have been expanded in the last week to include editions published in the year shown below

• Tyrone Courier (1880)
• Wexford Constitution (1883)
• Bassett's Chronicle (1885)
• Kerry Evening Star (1902-1913) 
• Ulster Echo (1892-1896)

As of this morning, both databases hold more than 69million pages of historical newspapers (British and Irish combined).

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.

The Waterford Citizen joins BritishNewspaperArchive

The BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk (BNA) has added The Waterford Citizen to its online archive. So far, only editions published in 1871 are 1885 to search and view but the holding will grow to span 1859–1896. During this period, it was distributed under several different names, as follows:

1859–62 The Citizen & Waterford Commercial Record
1862–76 The Waterford Citizen & Commercial Record
1876–76 The Waterford Citizen & Bi-Weekly Advertiser
1876–96 The Waterford Citizen, County News & Bi-Weekly Advertiser

This paper, and the other 254 Irish titles already in the archive, can be searched and viewed by researchers with a BNA subscription or a FindMyPast subscription to one of its PRO/Premium/Ultimate packages. County Waterford is one of the best represented in the Irish collection with eight titles available to search.

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.

LandedEstates.ie database expands into ROI's three Ulster counties

  LandedEstates.ie;s Map of Baronies & House – Click image to access

Some wonderful news just in from the Irish Landed Estates project. Although long-known as a database of landed estates and historic houses in Connacht and Munster (c1700–1914), the free to access landedestates.ie has extended its geographical reach into the Republic of Ireland's three Ulster counties: Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.

To facilitate this development, the University of Galway's Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies received €11,000 grant aid from the Heritage Council's 2022 Heritage Stewardship fund specifically to enable the creation and addition of data entries for landed estates in the three counties.

While there is still some tweaking and entry correction work to be carried out by the team, and the revised description of the database without mention of Connacht and Munster is not yet uniform across the site, researchers can now explore the additional data via the map.

Enjoy yourselves (but please don't break it!)

New & updated genealogy collections for England, Scotland & Wales

Below is a four-week summary of newly released and updated family history record collections for England, Scotland and Wales from the major genealogy databases. (Previous summary, 16 June.)

My regular summary of releases and updates 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. Where two figures are given, the first is the number of additions, the second is the new total.

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

NEW COLLECTIONS

Ancestry

• Fife, Scotland, Police Records, 1858-1947 (4,957)
• British Naval Biographical Dictionary, 1849 (9,807)
• Scotland, Postal Directories, 1825-1910 (20,083,919)
• UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea, Payment of Army and Other Pensions, 1842-1883 (649,782)
• UK and Allied Countries, World War II Air Combat Reports, 1939-1945 (11,150)

BritishNewspaperArchive (and shared with FindMyPast)

• Seven new Titles: Alfreton Journal | Dunstable Gazette | Loughborough Herald & North Leicestershire Gazette | Yarmouth Gazette and North Norfolk Constitutionalist | Sidmouth Observer | North Devon Advertiser | Southern Weekly News

FindMyPast

• England RC Parish Baptisms diocese of Leeds, 1757-1913 (243,092)
• England RC Parish Marriages diocese of Leeds, 1776-1913 (56,525)
• England RC Parish Burials diocese of Leeds, 1757-1913 (26,195)
• England RC Parish Congregational Records diocese of Leeds, 1798-1845 (152 images)
• Canada Census 1931 Browse-only (234,678 images covering 10,376,379 people)
• Challenges and Duels
• Britain & Ireland, Naturalisations 1603-1700 (12,959)

MyHeritage

• England, Cheshire, Warrington Burials (116,092)
• England/Wales, Metropolitan Police Register, Habitual Criminals, 1881-1925 (135,646)
• UK Merchant Navy – Index of crew members (429,423)
• UK Naturalization Certificates and Declarations – Index from 1801 (405,923)
• UK Royal Air Force Personnel WW1 and 1914–1928. (446,493)

TheGenealogist

• Occupational Records – Ancestors in the Arts Biographical information from various publications on the lives of writers, artists, actors etc.
• Occupational Records – Seafaring Ancestors includes Navy Lists for the Royal Navy WW1 & WW2 | Merchant seamen – medals and awards, 1914-1918 | Merchant Shipping Losses 1914-1918 | British Merchant Vessels Lost or Damaged by Enemy Action, 1939-1945 | Losses of Ships of the Royal Navy, 1914-1918.

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

Ancestry

• UK, World War II Women's Land Army Index Cards, 1939-1948 120,773
• 1939 England and Wales Register (45,915,113)
• UK, Records of the Removal of Graves and Tombstones, 1601-2007 (165,389)
• West Midlands, England, Criminal Registers, 1850-1933 (12,214)
• UK and Ireland, Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current (8,225,693)
• UK, World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923 (9,089,613)
• UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Admissions and Discharges, 1715-1925
• UK, British Army Records and Lists, 1882-1962 (2,421,506)
• UK, Naval and Military Courts Martial Registers, 1806-1930 (838,431)
• UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea, Pensioner Soldier Service Records, 1760-1920 (1,040,213)
• Fife, Scotland, School Admissions and Discharges, 1867-1922 (215,160)
• Fife, Scotland, Criminal Registers, 1910-1931 (1,051)
• Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, Poorhouse Records, 1888-1922 (7,547)

FamilySearch

• England England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988 (35,519 / 6,064533)

FindMyPast

• Lincolnshire Baptisms (231,796 additions spanning 1539 to 1922)
• England & Wales National Burial Index Herefordshire, 1631-1812 (10,401 / 17,222,640)

FreeBMD

• England and Wales civil registration index (210,926 / 291,879,485)

MyHeritage

• Scotland, Prison Registers, 1791–1965 (New total 318,924)

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.

IrishGenealogyNews pulls a sickie

Apologies for the absence of blogposts on IrishGenealogyNews.com over the last few weeks. I've been unwell. Nothing too serious, but enough for me to down tools and heed instructions to rest and recover.

Given how rough I was feeling, the 'rest' part was easy enough. The 'recovery' part of the process hasn't really kicked in yet. I am marginally improved, which is a good sign, even if I'm not yet operating at anywhere near normal energy levels. So I'm going to start trying to catch up with all the stories that I haven't reported during this malaise.

Over the next few days, you'll see mainly short blogposts – more like signposts or notifications to further information on specific releases or new developments – which should mean the blog will be up to date again in a week or so.

Thanks for your continued support of IrishGenealogyNews.

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: June's updates

June's delivery of donated materials to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives includes transcribed headstones from six burial grounds across five counties, and a collection of marriage register records from two Church of Ireland and one Presbyterian congregations in County Fermanagh. As always, these have been gathered by volunteers – researchers like you and me – and are made available free of charge.

The team is always looking for more volunteers, whether they enjoy days out in the fresh air taking photos of headstones, or prefer to be indoors transcribing registers or other materials that may help others identify their ancestors.

There's no pressure on IGPA volunteers; each does as much or as little as suits their own circumstances and their access to genealogical sources. If helping this important free archive continue to thrive is something that matters to you, why not check out the site to find out more.

St David's Church and graveyard, Mulrankin, Bridgetown,
Co Wexford. Photo courtesy Michelle Meadows-Rousseau
and IGPArchives. Click image for enlarged view.

Here are brief details of each donated package uploaded during the last month:

CORK Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Holy Rosary Cemetery (R.C.) Midleton - Pts 11 & 12

FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Finner Marriages Coi, 1847-1921 (v.2)
Inishmacsaint - Benmore CoI Marriages - 1845-1921
Lisbellaw Presbyterian Marriages, 1846-1921

KILKENNY Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Brendan's R.C., Stoneyford

KILDARE Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Confey Graveyard, Leixlip (Section R)

LIMERICK Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Kilfergus Graveyard, Glin - Pt. 3 (H-Mo)

WEXFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Paul's Graveyard, Balloughton
St David's CoI Graveyard, Mulrankin, Bridgetown

Save 20% on 12-month subscriptions to RootsIreland.ie

RootsIreland.ie is offering a 20% saving on twelve-month subscriptions to its database. The site, which is managed by the not-for-profit Irish Family History Foundation, holds more than 23 million records and is widely regarded as the most essential and reliable database available to Irish genealogists.

Its collection is gathered from the IFHF's island-wide network of 34 local genealogy and heritage centres, and is best-known for its records from a variety of religious denominations including Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and many others. Some county databases also include civil bmd records, gravestone inscriptions, census substitutes, and other local sources, and additions are uploaded regularly. Already this year, sizeable uploads have been added to the databases for South Tipperary and East Galway, and counties Cork, Kerry, Monaghan, Limerick and Mayo.

To take advantage of this special offer, click the image, above right. To view the menu of sources for each county, use the Online Sources widget.

The offer expires at 11:59pm IST on Friday 14 July 2023.

Four more Irish newspapers join the BritishNewspaperArchive

It's been good to watch the BritishNewspaperArchive adding to its Irish collection this month. There have been a number of gaps filled in the holdings of several individual newspapers (blogposts here and here), a new addition (The Enniscorthy Echo, blogpost here) and in the last few days, another four brand-new additions.

The new titles are:

• Constabulary Gazette, 1897-1922
• Free Press (Wexford), 1905-1912, 1916
• Kerry Evening Star, 1913-1914
• Wexford and Kilkenny Express, 1875-1884, 1886-1896, 1903-1905, 1907

While most of this month's new titles have been local and regional papers, some of which also included items of national news, the Constabulary Gazette stands out as a specialist publication. It was the official organ of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) – Ireland's police force from 1822 to 1922 – and was launched in April 1897.

It was a weekly, published on Saturdays and costing tuppence (2d), and its audience consisted of some 13,000 men who made up Ireland's police force.

Each issue featured news of promotions and transfers, memorials to officers and/or their families, examples of cases involving grey areas of legal jurisdiction, portraits of RIC officers and letters from them, crime fiction short stories and jokes. There was also an educational section that aimed to improve its readers handwriting, and their understanding of English grammar, arithmatic and geography.

As always, Irish additions to the BNA automatically join the Irish Newspaper Collection of FindMyPast, the BNA's sister company.

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 June - 16 July

Friday 30 June "Spies and Robbers beware!" The execution of civilians suspected of spying by the Anti-Treaty IRA, with Padraig Óg O'Ruairc. 1pm–3.30pm. In-person venue: People’s Museum, Pery Square, Limerick City. Free. Last of the Treaty Discussions Lunchtime Series which accompanies the National Archives touring exhibition on the signing of the Anglo Irish Treaty in 1922. Lecture followed by a Q&A with all previous speakers from this Treaty lecture series, and LCCC Archivist Jacqui Hayes. Tea, coffee and sandwiches will be provided. Need to book.

Friday 30 June: Changing Ireland: Stories from the Collection 1900-2020, with Orlaith Styles and Muiris Wade, curatorial researchers from the National Museum of Ireland's Art & Industry division. This exhibition explores Irish history from 1900 to 2020, and the speakers will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the work needed to launch an exhibition. Free. Need to book. Meet in reception area at NMI, Collins Barracks, Benburb St, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7 at 11:20am.

Saturday 1 July: Virtual Treasury 101 Research Showcase: Into the Past + Back to the Future marking the 101st Anniversary of the Four Courts Blaze. 1:30pm–5pm. Venue: Thomas Davis Lecture Theatre (Room 2043), TCD Arts Bldg, College Green, Dublin 2 (use Nassau Street Gate).
Optional pre-event demonstation: How to use the Virtual Treasury, with Dr Ciarán Wallace. In-person venue: Jonathan Swift Theatre (Room 2041a), Arts Bldg, Trinity College, Dublin 2. Free. Need to book.

Tuesday 4 July: The Irish and the American Civil War, with Darrell Rivers. An online event hosted by the London Irish Centre Lecture Series, marking the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. 7:30pm. The talk will be recorded and available to watch for two weeks. Tickets €7 / €5 concs. Details.

Tuesday 4 July: Declaration and Dissent: The American Revolutionary War, a celebratory online event marking PRONI's centenary and complementing the current public display at PRONI of the Declaration of Independence. Mark Thompson, curator of the latter, will explore stories behind the Declaration, and PRONI archivist, Brett Irwin, will look at some surprising archives relating to the conflict that can be found in PRONI’s collections. 4pm. Free, but booking required.

Tuesday 4 July: The Fife and Drum Band Tradition: Limerick and Clare, with Dr Derek Mulcahy. A hybrid event hosted by the Kilrush and District Historical Society at 8pm in the Teach Ceoil on Grace Street, Kilrush, Co Clare. KDHS lectures are free to members, EUR5 for non-members, payable on the night only. New members are welcome. The annual membership fee (July-June) is EUR20. Also available online. Details.

Wednesday 5 July: Making Sense of a United Ireland, with Professor Brendan O’Leary exploring and analysing key issues surrounding Irish unity. An in-person event aty IIEA, 8 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1. 1pm to 2pm. Free. Need to book. All welcome.

Saturday 8 July: National Library of Ireland's Reading Rooms and Readers Ticket Office open to in-person visitors from 9:30 to 1pm. Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Sunday 9 July A New Look at Old Road– a Traveller Pride Event @ National Museum of Ireland - Country Life, Castlebar, Co Mayo. In-person event featuring a preview of a series of recordings from Elders in the Travelling/Mincéirí community, exploring the archives, and a traditional lashul/ flower making workshop. Free. All welcome. 11am to 2pm. Refreshments included. No need to book. Details.

Tuesday 11 July: Dunnes of Brittas, with Kevin Akers. An online talk hosted by the Genealogical Society of Ireland. 8pm. Free. All welcome. For zoom link, email Membership @ familyhistory.ie. Talks will be posted on YouTube asap after the event.

Wednesday 12 July Public holiday in Northern Ireland. All repositories and many businesses closed.

Thursday 13 July Public holiday in Northern Ireland. All repositories and many businesses closed.

Thursday 13 July: Director's Tour of the National Library of Ireland. Meet new Director Dr Audrey Whitty on this in-person tour of the Library, its magnificent Reading Room and more, and explore its links to some of Ireland's greatest writers and thinkers. Venue: NLI, 7/8 Kildare Street, Dublin 2. 6pm to 7pm. Meet in Front Hall. Entry free and no booking required. Details.