The internet has killed off Islay Family History Society. Eleanor McNab, the society's secretary, has outlined how at a meeting on January 23rd the society effectively voted to dissolve itself after almost 22 years of existence, having been initially founded in 1991. The society will close its doors at Islay House Sqaure on March 31st, and its holdings transferred to the ICCI Gaelic College at Bowmore.
The cause? "In recent years the pattern of genealogical research has changed, with more and more information becoming available on Scotland’s People and other websites. This has resulted in a decline in numbers using the resources of the centre and has made it more difficult for volunteers to add value to the work already done by our clients" and "resulted in falling income."
Eleanor's full post is available on the Islay Blog at http://blog.islayinfo.com/article.php/islay-family-history-society-closed
Chris
Pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, through Pen and Sword (30 April 2013), or purchase early at Who Do You Think You Are Live 2013 in London. For my other genealogy books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html; whilst for my online Scottish based genealogy courses please visit the Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd site.
This is sad but when we travelled all the way to Islay from Australia a few years ago we found no more records there than we had found from Australia.
ReplyDeleteOf course nothing could replace the experience of visiting this beautiful place and walking in the steps of the forefathers.