Tag Archives: parish

Irish Catholic Church Records Going Online

Irish National Archives, Dublin

Irish National Archives, Dublin

Tracing your family history in Ireland is to get a lot easier as the National Library of Ireland getrs ready  to give FREE online access to its Catholic Church records collection from this summer (2015) according to IrishCentral.

Genealogy expert John Grenham wrote in The Irish Times that it is “almost impossible to overstate the importance” of what will happen.

The records that will go on line mainly consist of baptismal and marriage records, the earliest of which dates back to the 1700’s and cover the 1,091 parishes in the country.  This will enable the millions of people worldwide to access their Irish roots much easier.  The records are currently available at the National Library of Ireland on microfiche and therefore you need to visit in person or hire a researcher but demand has put a great strain on this service and the cost of hiring a professional researcher has put these records out of many people’s price bracket.

For many years volunteers have been working to make these records ready for digitization and online research.  These records could be the most important records to go online since the 1901 and 1911 census for Ireland at the Irish National Archives.

 

Find My Past – Irish and Australian sites

Find My Past has recently set up sites for Ireland and Australia with information specific to those countries.  Fantastic I hear you say, and yes I agree, but there is a BUT !  If you are an annual subscriber to FMP you would think that for an extra charge you would be given entry to those two sites – NO.

Unlike Ancestry, who for an extra charge or upgrade the world becomes your oyster and you can visit any section i.e.   ancestry.ca (Canada) ; ancestry.com (USA); ancestry.com.au ( Australia) and even ancestry.fr (France) to name a few.

120x60: I’m, your Nan

Ancestry                              FMP England                  FMP Ireland                         FMP Australia

So, after all which do I prefer ?  Well, to tell the truth I love Ancestry as I find the search easier especially for the census as I know where my rellies were born but not where they were living.  FMP likes you to put where your family were living…. come on how are you supposed to know where they went after they were born.  I have one family who moved after the birth of every child, and they didn’t just move around the corner they moved big time!

A birth certificate tells you where they were born but does not give you a crystal ball and tell you where they will be months or years later – I wish one came as standard !

Find My Past does or did have records that were stand alone to them and were very useful when I was transcribing naval records for war memorials.

So, if anyone at Brightsolid is reading this, just think about those of us whose families venture overseas or in the case of Australia came from overseas.  Twoor three memberships may not be an option but an upgrade could well be a possibility in these days where we have limited income to spend on things that we love!!