NLI's online Beginners Genealogy course starts 25 January

An eight-week online Generalogy course, hosted by the National Library of Ireland (NLI), will start on Wednesday 25 January. It will be aimed at beginners and those who may have already started their family history and are looking to better understand the resources available to their research.

The well-known lecturer and genealogist Sean J Murphy will be presenting the course, with each Wednesday session being delivered over Zoom from 2pm to 4pm.

The course fee is €100 and places are limited. To find out more or to book a place on this popular course (which usually sells out very quickly) contact Brid O'Sullivan at the NLI by email at bosullivan@nli.ie.

Cork's Evening Echo debuts on online British Newspaper Archive

The first historical Irish title to make its 2023 debut in the BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk (BNA) is Cork's Evening Echo. It will also make its way into the Irish Newspaper Collection of FindMyPast, the BNA's sister company in due course.

So far, just over 3,000 news pages published in 1909 and 1914 are available to search in the BNA database, but as the digitisation progresses, the holding will expand to span 1904 to 1914 inclusive.

When founded in 1892 the title was published as a daily-except-Sunday evening broadsheet and circulated across County Cork. Following a re-brand under new owners The Irish Times Group in 2019, the paper (by then a tabloid) is a six-days-a-week morning title called The Echo and focuses on mainly local news.

Unique collection of folklore from the Aran Islands launches online

A new site – Bailiúchán Béaloidis Árann – has been launched to showcase the Folklore of Árainn Collection, a unique mix of material collected by the people of Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands. While many collections of island folklore have been created since the 19th century, this is the only one created by islanders themselves.

It is hosted on the National Folklore Collection's Duchas.ie, which most Irish genealogists will know as the online home of the Schools Collection (and others), but the new repository can also be accessed directly at https://bba.duchas.ie.

This free resource features a specially curated selection of material from the original collection, and holds 917 photographs of island life, past and present, and more than 100 audio files featuring stories, folklore and music from the residents of Inishmore, presenting a wealth of speech, sayings, and traditions that have now passed from local memory.

Some of the conversations, nearly all in Irish, have been transcribed.

The digital platform provides access to the collection not only for the islanders but also to those interested in folklore, history, traditions, and culture. It also helps Bailiúchán Béaloidis Árann preserve and cultivate the island's heritage.

Irish genealogy, history and heritage: First events listing of 2023

It looks like a fairly slow start to the new year, with many event programmes still not finalised or not yet published. I'll update the listing below as and when I learn of relevant additions.

Monday 9 January: Welcome to the White House, a video presentation. A hybrid event hosted by the North of Ireland Family History Society's Newtownabbey Branch. Online and in-person, the latter being held at Glengormley High School, Drama Theatre 134 Ballyclare Road, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim. 7pm. Those wishing to attend on zoom should e-mail the branch secretary at Newtownabbey@nifhs.org and they will be sent the link. Free and all welcome. Details.

Tuesday 10 January: Irish Service Women in the Great War, with Barbara Walsh. An online event hosted by the North of Ireland Family History Society's Lisburn Branch. 7:30pm. Email Lisburn @ nifhs.org to request zoom link.T

Tuesday 10 January: The McCombie Family of Monkstown, an online lecture by Cormac F Lowth. Hosted by Foxrock Local History Club. All welcome. 8pm. Free. Non-members please email info @ foxrocklocalhistory.ie for details and zoom link.

Thursday 12 January: Far from the green fields of Erin: stories of Ulster emigration around the world, an online lecture with Dr David Hume who will epxlore Ulster emigration to Australia, North America and even Argentina. Hosted by Libraries NI, this event is part of the Heritage From Home (3) lecture series. 12:30pm (GMT). Free. All welcome. Need to book.

Thursday 12 January: Free Genealogy Advisory Service, a drop-in event hosted by Wicklow Libraries. Venue: Wicklow Local Studies, Salthouse Lane, Wicklow Town. 6:30pm to 8:30pm. All welcome.

Saturday 14 January: Secrets of the 1921 Scottish Census, with Tessa Spencer. A free online presentation (one of several) from The Scottish Indexes Conference. On Zoom and Facebook. All welcome. See details at www.scottishindexes.com.

Monday 16 January Researching Wills & Testaments, an hybrid meeting hosted by the North of Ireland Family History Society's Foyle Branch. In-person at the Lecture Room, Derry's Central Library, 35 Foyle Street, Derry City. Also online - email Foyle @ nifhs.org for zoom link. All welcome. Free. 7pm. Details.

Monday 16 January: The Tides of Time, with Dr David Hume. A hybrid meeting hosted by the North of Ireland Family History Society's Larne Branch. In-person at the Larne Museum and Arts Centre, 2 Victoria Road, Larne, Co Antrim. 7:15pm. Non-members should email Larne@nifhs.org to book a place by 12pm on Saturday prior to each meeting. Free. All welcome.

Tuesday 17 January: County Tipperary in 1922 with Dr Denis G Marnane. An in-person event and part of the Tipperary People and Places Lecture series no.16. Host: Tipperary Studies, the local history department. of Tipperary County Librairies. 7pm. Free. Venue: Gallery of the Source Library, Thurles. Tea and coffeee served. All welcome. Details.

Tuesday 17 January: The History of Weather Reporting, with Evelyn Cusack. An in-person talk hosted by Foxrock Local History Club. Venue: Pastoral Centre in Foxrock, Co. Dublin (Junction N11 and Kill Lane). All welcome. 8pm. Non-members €5.

Wednesday 18 January: Putting Migration into Lurgan History, a talk by Dr Patrick Fitzgerald examining migration patterns of emigrants from Lurgan and the wider County of Armagh. Hosted by the Lurgan Townscape Heritage Scheme. In-person venue: Brownlow House, Windsor Avenue, Lurgan BT67 9BJ Northern Ireland. 7:30 – 9pm. Free. All welcome. Book your space.Details.

Thursday 19 January: Introduction to Researching at the National Library of Ireland, a free online talk to showcase the library's collections and online sources, and demonstrate how to search the catalogues. Host: National Library of Ireland. 1pm to 2pm. All welcome. Need to book.

Friday 20 January Irlandiya: Migrants from the Russian Empire in early 20th Century Ireland, with Dr Maurice J Casey. An online event hosted by Libraries NI's Heritage From Home (3) lecture series. 12:30pm GMT. Free. All welcome. Need to book.

FindMyPast offers 21% discounts across its subscription range

To mark a full year since the 1921 Census of England and Wales was released exclusively online at FindMyPast, a discount of 21% (geddit?) has been made across nearly all FMP subscription packages, even some of those that don't include access to that particular record collection.

Just to be completely clear: Only the Premium subscription includes unrestricted access to the 1921 E&W Census, but the discount is available across most of the range, depending on duration. As you'd expect, though, the biggest savings are gained through the discount on a 12-month Premium sub.

To take advantage of this offer, chose your preferred FindMyPast 'territory' below and click the link. On the landing page you'll see the discount has been applied for 12 month subscriptions. If you want a shorter term of access, use the toggle below 'Choose the right membership for you' to switch between the durations available.

The discounts will expire at 11:59pm (GMT) on Sunday 15 January.

This offer has now closed. The links below take you to the regular 'subscribe' page only.

	FindMyPast Ireland – 21% off 1-month Starter, Pro and Plus subscriptions, and 12-month Pro, Plus and Premium subscriptions.
	FindMyPast USA/Canada – 21% off 1-month Essential and Ultimate subscriptions, and 12-month Ultimate and Premium subscriptions.
	FindMyPast UK – 21% off 3-month Starter, Plus and Pro subscriptions, and 12-Month Pro, Plus and Premium subscriptions.
	FindMyPast Australia/NZ – 21% off 1-month Starter, Plus and Pro subscriptions, and 12-Month Pro, Plus and Premium subscriptions.

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. 

 

RootsIreland adds RC marriages from Co. Cork / Diocese of Kerry

RootsIreland.ie has announced the addition of 1,806 Roman Catholic marriage records to its County Kerry database.

They are from the parish of Dromtariffe, a parish located entirely in North West County Cork but included in the Diocese of Kerry. They span 1832 to 1899. Records to early 1881 link to images of the register pages on the National Library site. From mid-March 1881, the records are transcriptions of entries in locally-held registers.

To search the records, click the logo, above right, and login or subscribe as required.

To see an up-to-date list of online sources for Kerry, click here.

Expanded 'List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers' published

The List of the Church of Ireland Parish Registers has been through its annual update and the new edition can now be downloaded in pdf format by clicking the image below. The publication is an essential tool for genealogists, many of whom file the most recent version on their desktop for speedy access throughout the year.

Click to download the free pdf.

Now running at 100 pages, the List details – parish by parish – the surviving and lost baptism, marriage and burial registers across the island, providing the years covered by each parish's volumes, and information about where researchers can access any manuscripts, digitised copies or transcriptions. Although the RCB Library has the largest single collection of Church of Ireland registers (it holds registers for 1,224 parishes), some remain in other repositories or in local custody.

The RCB Library advises that the most recent update of the List includes significant additions of newly-accessioned parish collections as well as additions to the RCBL's existing holdings.

Researchers might also be interested to read the Library's January Archive of the Month. It is a commemoration of Church of Ireland church buildings that are now closed and features Church of Ireland Gazette reports from the time making it a valuable addition to the rich tapestry of the story of the Church of Ireland. Read the Archive feature here.

Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project expands over festive period

Festive break? What festive break? Volunteers for the Registry of Deeds Index Project don't appear to have noticed the tinsel and cake!

Last week's upload to the site saw the main Index expand to a total of 523,568 entries, all transcribed and indexed from 54,332 memorials of deeds. They are free to search by clicking the image, right.

Researchers will find more than 83% of the indexed records (including all those from memorial transcription books 1–247) now link directly to images of the memorial transcription books where the full memorial text can be read.

All updates to the main Index include corrections and additional information.

Both the Townland Indexes and the Grantor Indexes were also updated with additional entries during December.

In numbers: A snapshot of Irish society in 2022

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released its Year in Numbers – Part I, Society and Environment, an overview of the Republic of Ireland in 2022. You can view detailed information in the full release by clicking the CSO logo below, but I've pulled out some of the highlights likely to be of most interest to family historians.

Population
As of Census night on 3 April 2022, the preliminary population count of 'usually resident' individuals in Ireland is 5.1 million – an increase of 7.6% from 2016 and the largest population recorded in a Census since 1841.

Of this total population, more than 86% were Irish nationals. Some 768,900 were people aged 65 and over, an increase of 139,100 in the last six years.

All 26 counties experienced a growth in population. The proportion of the population living in Dublin rose to 28.4% of the total in 2022 and now stands at 1,451,000 people.

Names for new-borns
When it comes to choosing names for children, the Irish have long picked a wider variety of names for girls than for boys, and 2021, the last year for which full data is available, was no different. The number of names registered were 4,741for girls and 3,863 for boys. 

Fiadh topped the most popular name for girls for the first time, ousting the perennially popular Grace, while Jack hung on to the top spot as it has done every year bar one since 2007. Among the new entrants in the boys top 100 were Teddy, Daithí, Páidhí, Jaxon, Brody, Ted, Hunter, Tadgh, Tiernan and Arlo. In the girls top 100 there were just three new names: Indie, Ayla and Lottie.

Mary, for decades the most popular baby girl's name in Ireland, started to decline in popularity in the 1970s and fell out of the top 100 names list for the first time in 201, plunging to 127th position.

The number of babies born in 2021 was 58,443, down almost 22% since 2011 when 74,650 births were registered.

Surnames of new-borns
The 'Top 10' surnames for babies registered during 2021 – the last full year available – were as follows:

The CSO produces statistical data for the Republic of Ireland only.

1. Murphy (1)
2. Kelly (2)
3. Ryan (8)
4. Walsh (4)
5. Byrne (7)
6. O’Brien (6)
7. O’Connor (9)
8. O’Sullivan (3)
9. McCarthy (13)
10. Doyle (12).

Those dropping out of the Top 10 list were Smith, previously at position 5, and O'Neill, previously holding the 10th spot.

Marriages
Ireland's brides and grooms are getting older. This trend has been in evidence for some years. In opposite-sex marriages, in 2021, the average age for brides was 35.4 years and for grooms, 37.4 years; in 1981, the average ages were 24.7 years and 27.5 years. Same-sex weddings in 2021 saw both parties slightly older: 39.9 years for women and 40.4 years for men.

While the most popular form of ceremony for opposite-sex couples was a Catholic ceremony (40%), it was closely followed by civil ceremonies (34%). Some 57% of all marriages were religious ceremonies, with 39% Catholic, 1.1% Church of Ireland, and 8% Spiritualist Union of Ireland; 8.6% opted for other religious ceremonies.

The majority of non-religious ceremonies were civil marriages, which accounted for 35% (5,987) of all marriages; the remaining 1,462 (8.5%) of couples chose Humanist ceremonies. Fridays were the most popular day of the week for marriages, and August the most popular month.

Deaths
There were 33,055 deaths in the Republic in 2021. Cancer and circulatory disease were the biggest causes of death accounting for 55.2% of deaths in April, May, and June 2022. 

Education
More than half (53%) of 25–64-year-olds in 2022 have a third level education, the highest level in the EU27. This has grown from 40% in 2012. (A report in April 2022 found that 80% of 2019 graduates were in substantial employment in the first year after graduation and their median or mid-point earnings was €555 per week.)

AGI and City Colleges launch Advanced Diploma in Irish genealogy

The long-standing collaboration between City Colleges and Accredited Genealogists Ireland (AGI) is moving up a notch with the launch of an online course suitable for students who are already familiar with basic Irish resources. It aims to advance students’ knowledge of the sources for Irish genealogy.

This Diploma in Family History Research (advanced) course is aimed at both the dedicated amateur and budding professional and is suitable for students who already have a good grounding in civil registration, census, parish and land survey records. Its object is to advance students’ knowledge of Irish genealogy with topics such as military records, DNA, Estate records, Registry of Deeds, Testamentary records and much more.

It will commence on 26 January and will take place online every Thursday evening for ten weeks. Lectures are given by AGI members who are recognised experts in their field.

Each lecture has time for discussion and questions. Minor projects during the course reinforce taught principles and will give students the skills to compile their own genealogical report with the professional edge learned during the course.

For those within easy reach of Dublin, an in-person guided visit to a repository or archive will be offered during the course.

For more detailed information, see the Course Plan for Spring 2023 (docx).

Applications to join the course may be made to City Colleges by visiting www.citycolleges.ie or by phoning: 00 353 1 416 0034.