Find your Irish ancestors in FindMyPast's newest maritime records

Whether they worked principally at sea or on shore, your Irish ancestors might have just sailed into the FindMyPast database.

More than 313,000 new records across two collections are now available, both sourced from The National Archives (TNA) in Kew, London, and they feature sizeable contingents of Irish-born men.

Among them are some of my extended paternal family, and while I knew from earlier discoveries that they were employed in maritime services, these new records have provided new information about their careers and lives. In one case, a pre-civil registration death-by-drowning register entry was a surprise.

Some details of the new records:

Coastguards 1801-1952: As far as I'm aware, this collection has previously been available only via TNA. It holds 212,426 images and transcripts of men who worked as a coastguard between 1801 to 1952. If your ancestor appears in the records, you'll probably find several entries in the index. Some may provide duplicate information while others may be one-offs showing particular journeys with multiple stops enroute. I'd expected coastguards to have been based principally at one station but these records suggest otherwise, unless some of these voyages had more of a policing purpose. I shall have to investigate.

British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service And Pension Records, 1704-1939: Some 101,555 transcriptions have been added to this existing wide-ranging collection. The new arrivals comprise series ADM 139, a record-set holding service records dating from 1853 to 1872. Again, one of the records looks very exciting, allowing me (if I can confirm it) to drop back another generation on a close branch of my 4xGGF's brother, born 1786. Busy weekend ahead!

Women's Royal Naval Service Officer Records, 1917–1919: Images of more than 59,000 records have been linked to existing transcripts from the series ADM 318. These records can't be searched by place, so I can't tell if any Irish women are included in the database. Given the dates, I think it unlikely, but I include a link for those who may wish to check it out.

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Registers from 40 Monaghan national schools join RootsIreland

The Irish Family History Foundation's RootsIreland.ie database has grown by more than 20,000 records from County Monaghan. They have been transcribed from the registers of 40 national schools in the county.

The earliest starting date for the registers in this collection is 1865; the latest is 1895. The most recent end date is 1925.

See the full list of schools and register dates here.

National school registers are a valuable source of genealogical information. They contain the vital detaiils of each pupil, along with a summary of their school attendance, the subjects they studied and their examination results over the years. Occasionally they also contain notes from teachers regarding departures from the school, their careers, migration, serious illness or death.

Registers occasionally contain notes on departures from the school, careers after leaving school, emigration, serious illness, or even death.

For the full menu of County Monaghan sources, click the logo above.

TipperaryStudies digitises more National Schools records

TipperaryStudies, the local history department of Tipperary County Council's Library Service, has been busy scanning and uploaded some new school records to its Digital Collection. They come from four schools, as follows:

Lisnamrock National School

• Boys' register 1875–1886
• Boys' register 1876–1901
• Boys' register 1911–1925
• Girls' register 1910–1925

Gaile National School

• Boys' register from 1911–1925
• Girls' register book for 1900–1925

Ayle National School

• Boys roll book 1917–1925

Gortagarry National School

• Girls' register 1880–1925
• Boys' register 1880–1925
• Examination roll, April 1899, listing subjects to be examined

These registers were loaned by the schools for digitisation. They have been scanned to a high quality and can now be downloaded, free of charge, in pdf format. Click the image above to browse the newly uploaded files.

Click here for TipperaryStudies' full National Schools Records collection.

Military Service Pensions (1916-23) Collection: 16th release is online

The Military Archives of Ireland has today released its 16th instalment of files from the Military Service Pensions (1916-23) Collection (MSPC). This collection, which consists of tens of thousands of files, is the largest in the Military Archives and is one of the flagship projects of the Decade of Centenaries.

This latest release sees some 2,350 scanned files entering the public domain. They relate to claims lodged by 967 individuals/veterans or their dependents; with their names now added to the database, alongside their detailed archival description, new information on the War of Independence and the Civil War is now available and providing significant insights into post-conflict lives.

The documentation contained in each file varies. For example, the newly released file relating to Daniel Santry from Currahevern in County Cork consists of 53 pages of scanned material relating to an (unsuccessful) appeal against his military pension being reduced for one short period during the Civil War. This is the fourth MSPC file to be released for Daniel.

In total, the number of individuals appearing in the MSPC online database is now 19,196.

For more information about today's release and to download the list of individuals included, see MilitaryArchives.ie.

Five free Dublin genealogy databases return online

All hail John Grenham, professional genealogist, database creater, author and all-round good egg.

Following the removal of Dublin City Council's 'Heritage Databases' from the dublincity.ie platform, John has today uploaded his own back-up copies (he created them) of five of the most genealogically useful databases to his Irish Ancestors site.

They are:

• Dublin Voters 1938-1957
• Dublin Municipal Voters 1899, 1908-1915 
• Dublin Graveyards Directory 
• Dublin Cemeteries - burial registers from Clontarf, Drimnagh and Finglas
• Dublin Freemen to 1774

These databases are now free to search and view at this page: https://www.johngrenham.com/dcla/.

This is a temporary step while DCC overcomes its compliance issues. See John's blogpost – Some of me oul' darlin' databases are back online – for more details.

Latest update from the Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project

Following its most recent update, the main index of the online Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland holds the names of nearly 590,000 individuals recorded in memorials dating back to the early 18th century.

Some 88% of these memorials are linked to images of the original documents, which are available to view free of charge at FamilySearch.

The Townland Index is also free to search, allowing researchers to search for settlements made by people who lived or owned land in a particular townland, or for sales or other transfers of land parcels. This index holds more than 547,000 entries.

The project is volunteer led, and all the Indexes are free to search.

More volunteers are needed. Please consider donating a little of your time to help this important and increasingly useful project as it reveals the secrets of the Registry of Deeds collection to genealogists and other researchers around the world.

Treat yourself to a rare subscription discount from Ancestry UK

Goodness. When did you last see a discount offer for a subscription to Ancestry UK? I certainly can't remember when I did. So if you thinking of taking out a new sub, this may be the opportunity you're been hoping to arrive.

Until 11:59pm BST on Wednesday 29 May, you can take advantage of a 20% discount on a new six-month subscription to Ancestry UK. If you choose the Ireland and UK option, you'll be saving yourself £13 on the regular price of £69.99, with the reduced cost coming in at a rather more tidy £59.99.

If you prefer the 'all records' subscription, the standard price of £99.99 is reduced to £79.99. It includes all records in Ancestry's Ireland and UK collections AND all its international records, too.

Click the image right to learn more. Look out, too, for the current saving on AncestryDNA test kits. Just scroll down the landing page.

More Northern Ireland death and burial records available online

Ancestry has uploaded a new collection of records to its Northern Ireland holding: Londonderry, City Cemetery Burials, 1853-1961.

These 51,000 records typically include some or all of the following: name of the deceased; birth date and place, age, religion; parent's names, spouse's name; death date and place; burial date and place. 

Derry City Cemetery was opened in 1853 and for the following hundred years, until the early 1960s, it was the main burial place for both Protestants and Catholics in the city. 

These transcriptions were created by volunteers and can be searched free of charge on the Derry Tower Museum site at https://towermuseumcollections.com/cemetery-records/.

See right for a sample return from a search on Ancestry.

FindMyPast has updated its Northern Ireland Deaths 1980-2024 collection with a further 28,292 records. This tranche of transcriptions brings the total number in the collection to just under 123,000.

This record-set was created by 'mortality data specialist' MiExact, a company that, until February 2024, was part of Wilmington plc.

Similar collections are held by FindMyPast for other parts of the UK and these have also expanded. The Scotland Deaths, 1855–2024 collection grew by nearly 500,000 transcription spanning 1980–2024, while more than 225,500 Welsh records were added while the England and Wales Deaths, 2007–2024 collection.

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National Archives of Ireland's €37m expansion enters next phase

The project to redevelop the National Archives of Ireland (NAI) entered its next phase earlier this week and will take a little over a year (65 weeks) to complete. The work will see the existing foundations strengthened and a second floor built into the existing structure.

This extra space will increase the capacity of the National Archives by two-thirds and provide for state of the art racking and shelving systems.

The National Archives of Ireland

Space has been tight at the NAI's five-storey premises (formerly the Jacobs biscuit factory) on the corner of Bishop Street and Bride Street in Dublin 8 for some years. Its collections total over 50 million records dating from the 16th century to records relating to the modern Irish state, but despite its substantial footprint – the repository extends back to Peter Street – it has been unable to accept all government files since 2013.

When completed, the expanded and converted repository will enable all backlogs currently held by government departments and bodies to transfer to the National Archives, the collections will be kept in more environmentally secure conditions and will enjoy improved fire protection, and the stronger foundations will allow for future upward expansion of archival storage vaults.

The €37m redevelopment is a significant project under the National Cultural Institutions investment programme as part of Project Ireland 2040.

The project is funded by the Department for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and is being delivered in partnership with the Office of Public Works.

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.

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.