UPDATE ON AVAILABLE IRISH RECORDS

A FEW ADDITIONS TO 

HELP WITH YOUR IRISH RESEARCH

NATIONAL LIBRARY IRELAND

http://www.nli.ie/en/list/latest-news.aspx?article=6b4b12e5-298d-4b0f-aeb5-f832af6c571b

MAJOR DIGITISATION PROJECT FOR IRISH GENEALOGY ANNOUNCED

We have just unveiled details of our most ambitious digitisation project to date, which will see the NLI’s entire collection of Catholic parish register microfilms made freely available online by summer 2015.

The records are considered the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 Census.  Dating from the 1740s to the 1880s, they cover 1,091 parishes throughout Ireland, and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records. 

Read the full press release

NATIONAL ARCHIVES IRELAND

http://www.nationalarchives.ie/research/what’s-new-in-the-online-catalogue/introduction/

• Cork District Probate Registry:
•  
• testamentary records relating to the years 
• 1983 (2004/100), 1984 (2005/32), 1985 (2006/5), 1986 (2007/5), 1987 (2008/5), 1988 (2009/5)
• 
  

• Dundalk District Probate Registry:
•  
• testamentary records relating to the years 
• 1983 (2004/105), 1984 (2005/43), 1985 (2006/7), 1986 (2007/7), 1987 (2008/7)
• 
  

• Galway District Probate Registry:
•  
• testamentary records relating to the years 
• 1983 (2004/102), 1984 (2005/44), 1985 (2006/8)
• 
  

• Kilkenny District Probate Registry:
•  testamentary records relating to the years 1983 
• (2004/97), 1984 (2005/45), 1985 (2006/9)
• 
  

• Letterkenny (Lifford) District Probate Registry:
•  testamentary records relating to the years 
• 1983 (2004/118), 1984 (2005/22), 1985 (2006/6), 1986 (2007/6), 1987 (2008/6), 1988 (2009/6)
• 
  

• Limerick District Probate Registry:
•  testamentary records relating to the years 
• 1983 (2004/69), 1984 (2005/46), 1985 (2006/10), 1986 (2007/10), 1987 (2008/10), 1988 (2009/10)

CLARE MEN AND WOMEN IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918 
BY GER BROWNE

This article gives some of the Armies, Regiments and Corps that Clare men and women fought with in World War 1, the battles and events they died in, those who became POWs, those who had shell shock, some brothers who died, those shot at dawn, Clare politicians in WW1, Clare men courtmartialled, and the awards and medals won by Clare men and women. Also enclosed is an alphabetical list of 2,000 Clare men and women who participated in the War, an index of where they come from, a timeline of when and where the 600+ died, and 85 pages of photos of the 251 cemeteries and memorials throughout the world where the Clare War Dead are buried or remembered. This is a work in progress with huge room for expansion over the next few years. Hopefully more people will come forward with information on their grandparents, grand uncles or grand aunts who took part in the Great War, and that this project can be completed by 2018.
Ger Browne
November 2014

For full details, please go to...

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/clare_men_women_great_war.htm

NEW RECORDS ONLINE FOR DERRY CITY

Derry Genealogy Centre has compiled seven new databases for Derry city, dating from 1628 through to 1921, which have just been uploaded to RootsIreland (at www.derry.rootsireland.ie). They are:

• The earliest census of the city, namely the rent roll of 1628
• The names of 905 men from Derry and surrounding estates who defended Derry’s walls during the 1641 Rebellion
• The names of 1,660 supporters of Williamite campaign in Ireland of 1689 to 1691, many of whom fought at the Siege of Derry in 1689
• The names of 226 citizens of the city, in effect a census of the city at the end of the 17th century, who signed a petition condemning a Jacobite plot to assassinate King William III in 1696
• The names of 110 leaseholders within the walled city in 1738
• The names of 191 Derry men and women who were held in the County Jail on Bishop Street, from 1839 to 1856, awaiting transportation to Australia
• Reconstruction of census for Derry city during ‘the Troubles’ of 1920, extracted from Derry Almanac of 1921, which names 8,367 heads of households against their street address and house number

A further new addition is Derry Placenames Database
Derry Placenames Database is a database of 1,750 placenames as recorded in the 1901 census returns for the city and county of Derry. It includes the names of all townlands, together with street listings for all towns, in County Derry. All placenames are located by District Electoral Division, Parish, Registrar District, Poor law Union and Estate. This will result in more effective use of major Irish record sources such as 1901 and 1911 census returns, church registers, civil registers of births, marriages and deaths, the national indexes to civil birth, marriage and death registers, and estate records. Click here to view the Derry Placenames Database

PAST ISSUES OF ENNIS CHRONICLE

The National Library of Ireland has the following details with reference to The Ennis Chronicle and availability re digital or hard copies for those interested.

http://www.nli.ie/en/NewspapersDetails.aspx?IndexNo=582

Ennis Chronicle and Clare Advertiser

Place of publication: Ennis, Co. Clare 

Publication dates: 1784 - 1831

Title History

Began as Ennis Chronicle and Clare Advertiser (?1784 - July 1802.)

Continued as Ennis Chronicle and Clare Advertiser (26 July 1802 - Nov. 1831)

National Library Holdings

If microfilm or digital formats are available, the hardcopy is not issued.

             
    

Format	Holdings
Microfilm	1788 - 18271828 - 30 Nov 18311785, 1788, 1793, 1798, 1799, Aug. 1812 - Dec. 1818
Hardcopy	1789 - 92; 1794 - 7; 1800 - 11; 1814; 1816; 1818; 2, 6, 9, 13 Jan. 1819; 1820; 1825 - 1827; 1785, 1788, 1793, 1798, 1799, Aug. 1812 - Dec. 1818

" GENEALOGY SECTOR MUST UNWIND ITS HISTORICALLY TWISTED ROOTS "

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0924/1224324323188.html

The Irish Times - Monday, September 24, 2012

BUSINESS OPINION: A SEEMINGLY logical move by the National Library to look for a partner to digitise its collections may well lift the lid on the mess that is the Irish "roots" business.
On the face of it, the National Library is not up to anything particularly subversive. Like every other State institution, it is strapped for cash and having to think of creative ways to fulfil its mandate.
But the decision to try and capitalise on the wealth of genealogical data in its archives is likely to kick over a hornets' nest of vested interests and public service fiefdoms that have combined to prevent any co-ordinated exploitation of the State genealogical records to drive tourism and revenue.
A case in point is The Gathering 2013, one of the Government's "big ideas" to boost tourism. According to its own website, "Over 70 million people worldwide claim Irish ancestry. The Gathering Ireland 2013 provides the perfect excuse to reach out to those who have moved away, their relatives, friends and descendants, and invite them home." You would expect such big enterprise to be supported by a slick online genealogical platform, But go to the "Tracing your roots" link at the bottom of the page and you are provided with links to no fewer than eight disparate bodies – including the National Library – that are in the roots game to some extent or the other. By moving to digitise its collections – including the all-important parish records – it is clearly moving to become primus inter pares in this muddle through bringing in a top-notch partner.
Any organisation seriously considering a joint venture with the National Library will zone in on the genealogical records. The early favourite, Scottish group Brightsolid, is first and foremost a genealogy business.
The hope is that the National Library will be able to get it – or whoever else chooses – to digitise the rest of its collection. This is equally important in the national context but far less commercially valuable. But it can expect a pretty rough ride.
The record books of the Irish churches are the mother lode for Irish genealogy research as they are the only reliable records of births, deaths and marriages in the period up to the Civil War, when the national archive was destroyed. They are in theory the property of the various bishops – Catholic and Church of Ireland – but the National Library has microfiche copies, which it owns and which will no doubt form the heart of any deal it does with a third party. Then there is the Irish Family History Foundation, which operates a commercial site ( RootsIreland.ie) and is led by Fianna Fáil Senator and putative presidential candidate Labhrás Ó Murchú. It has its own version of the parish records database – copied by hand from the National Library microfiche apparently.
A somewhat opaque organisation, it is described on its website as "a company limited by guarantee with no share capital and no distribution of profits. As such it is a voluntary organisation made up of local genealogy centres, the majority of which are legally established on the same basis. It is governed by its articles and memorandum of association, which set out how it operates and limits its membership to 35 local centres with specified catchment areas."
The beneficiaries of its activities would appear then to be the promoters of the various local genealogy centres, many of which are subvented by county councils and other State bodies. They are certainly a powerful bunch as they appear to have been able to stymy any efforts by the Government to control the exploitation of this State asset.
The Government's main investment in this area is IrishGenealogy.ie, run by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. However, it gets only equal billing with RootsIreland.ieon The Gathering website. The reason being presumably because it only offers access to the Catholic parish records of Cork and Ross, Dublin and Kerry. (It also has the Church of Ireland records for Dublin, Carlow and Kerry.) RootsIreland seems to have the rest.
The National Library's decision to get into the "roots" game raises the prospect of real competition for the Irish Family History Foundation. It also creates a situation where one arm of the State ( IrishGenealogy.ie) will be competing (albeit half-heartedly) with another (the National Library), while both compete with the peculiar beast that is the Irish Family History Foundation.
It is a mess and needs to be sorted out for a number of reasons, the first being that if the Government thinks it is good idea to commercialise the National Library collection in order to preserve it digitally, then it had better ensure that any potential partner is encouraged.
The second reason is that if the Government is serious about using genealogy to drive tourism, then it had better get serious about genealogy.