PRONI stakeholder forum update

I was unfortunately unable to attend the most recent stakeholder forum at the Public Record Ofice of Northern Ireland (www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni), but I have been kindly sent the minutes from the meeting. The following are a few highlights from current developments of interest for family historians:

New accessions to PRONI include papers of the Belfast Naturalists Club (with cataloguing to commence in early 2017), and a smaller collection relating to the life of Samuel J Edgar and the York Street Flax Spinning Company (one of my lot worked there, should be a useful set to look up!).

A significant amount of cataloguing was completed in the summer months on the Londonderry Papers (D3099), and likewise, cataloguing is ongoing on the papers of the Irish Council of Churches (D4602).

The new GIS mapping application (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/latest-news-from-proni-user-forum.html), which provides OS maps with historical information overlays, should be released imminently.

The archives new Rules and Fees legislation should come into force on 16th November 2016, though final approval has still be passed at the Assembly. This will be the first time that they have been revised since 2009, and amongst new changes there will be clearer rules, a Code of Conduct, and a new table of fees. Most significantly for users, photocopying will no longer be offered, with visitors allowed to use their own equipment to photograph documents, subject to signing a copying and declaration form. To be allowed to do this, users will have to sign an undertaking about copying and copyright awareness before any documents are issued.The facility to obtain high quality copies will still be available.

A conference with the Western Front Association is to be held on the 8th October 2016. A £10 admission fee will be charged by the WFA to cover lunch.

PRONI now has four terminals providing access to GRONI's Geni service, offeirng access to digitised civil registration birth, marriage and death records, up to the present day (unlike the online service, which has imposed closure periods for each category). See http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/proni-search-room-offers-access-to.html for more on this story.

Finally, PRONI’s new Director is Maeve Walls.

(With thanks to Gavin McMahon)

Chris
 
For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

PRONI search room offers access to GRONI records

From the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni), major news about an enhancement that will further enhance the centre as Ireland's premier research resource:

Births/Deaths and Marriage Search service @ PRONI

PRONI has partnered with the General Register Office of Northern Ireland (GRONI) to bring a birth/death and marriage certificate search service to PRONI’s Public Search Room. It is now possible to search GRONI’s full database from 1845 right up to present day and should prove a valuable resource for those researching their family history.

*Please note that this is a payable search service in which customers will be required to register with GRONI. In addition PRONI only offers a search service of the database. Copies of Birth/Death and Marriage Certificates must be requested direct from GRONI.

For further information on Births, Deaths and Marriages Certificates, visit the GRONI website.

COMMENT: This announcement effectively does two things - it allows for a more centralised GRONI access point in Belfast, considering that the main facility is due to move out of the town centre shortly - and it effectively consolidates PRONI's search room into a full family history hub, much in the way the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh acts.

PRONI now offers access to parish material, civil BMD records and archive material for Northern Ireland, all on one floor in the same building. Note that whilst some of the historic civil records can be accessed via the GENI site at https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk/ and the new online offering from the southern government at www.irishgenealogy.ie, the access offered by GRONI itself in Belfast does not follow the same online closure periods of births over 100 years old, marriages over 75 years old, and deaths over 50 - which means that records (almost) up to the present day can be consulted. And that is important in particular from 1922 onwards, where GRONI is the sole national body holding such records for the north.

Another major development in Belfast!

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

More on historic Irish BMD records release

I've had a day now to play with the new historic birth, marriage and death records release from www.IrishGenealogy.ie (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/historic-irish-bmd-records-freely.html), and I have to admit, for what is there, I'm seriously impressed - and not just because they are free

First, though, it is worth stating what is not there. The records in Ireland have historically been indexed by the General Register Office in Ireland by year, quarter, registration district, volume number and page number. At present you have to order record copies from the GRO by paper based application (including writing down credit card info on the application form), and then receive a copy either in the post or by email. In recent times, however, a separate project by the Health Services Executive has seen the records digitised for instant online purchase (with an ability to pay for them online). This is an ongoing programme, with many of the historic images still to be scanned, but for those that have been digitised a new index reference is given, called a Group ID number. It is these digitised records that are now freely available on the IrishGenealogy.ie site, but as the project has not been completed yet, many records are not yet available. From what I can see, digitised images of nearly all birth records from 1864-1915 are online, but only the later marriage records (up to 1940) and death records (up to 1965), so there are more to come. The bottom line when searching is that if a record is presented with a Group ID number, there will be an accompanying record image you can click through to; if only a year, quarter, registration district, volume and page number are presented, there is no image - yet.

So what is there? Well, as noted, virtually all births records from 1864 to 1915, and many later marriage and death records. Perhaps the most completely astonishing aspect of this release is that not only are records from the modern Republic of Ireland available, but also records for what now constitutes Northern Ireland. Not too long ago the GRO in Belfast was widely applauded for making available online digitised images of northern records via the pay-per-view GENI platform at https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk. The new IrishGenealogy.ie site, by making these records available for free, will undoubtedly seriously impact on the income now going towards the GRONI. I suspect there might be some anger north of the border as a consequence, but for genies worldwide, Christmas just came early!

Bear in mind that the government in the south of Ireland only holds copies of records for the north for the period when Ireland was undivided, just prior to 1922, so GENI will still be relevant for later records, and for the earlier marriages and death records for the north not yet added to the IrishGenealogy.ie site. All Northern Irish records to the present day are also available to view at the GRONI's search centre itself in Belfast. I should say though, that I spent all of yesterday concentrating on northern based research on the IrishGenealogy.ie site, just in case those records get pulled at any point, if there is a backlash.

Another huge casualty will undoubtedly be RootsIreland (www.rootsireland.ie), which until now has been the cheapest way to obtain transcript information of civil registration records from many parts of the country. As with the recent launch of free to access pre-1880 Roman Catholic registers (http://registers.nli.ie), RootsIreland is rapidly losing its monopoly to be the sole gatekeeper of the national ancestral record, which it has enjoyed for so long. Some might argue that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Ironically, that site seems to have finally got its act together, in terms of its pricing and the access restrictions now lifted, but quite possibly with too little movement in the right direction, far too late.

On the IrishGenealogy.ie presentations themselves, one of the greatest aspects is that entire pages from the register volumes are presented, not cropped images of individual records, as with GENI. This not only means that you will avoid instances of some info being missed by cropping, but also you may find instances of multiple births that you weren't expecting - such as the discovery of a twin for my great grandfather in Belfast yesterday, who did not survive infancy. The pages are also presented in PDF format, easily saved to a computer (GENI threatens universal armageddon if you even think about saving a copy!), and in most cases they are easily legible. Remember that in addition to the basic search feature on the site, there is an advanced search facility which can help you to control searches more, which I have found particularly useful.

Quite why the Republic's government did not add a payment tier is beyond me (it could have made a small fortune from its worldwide diaspora by charging just a Euro per record, and still utterly transformed access) but it hasn't. So get in whilst the iron is hot - especially for those northern records!

NB: It's worth adding the official release of the records is actually later today, at 5.30pm, Thursday 8th September 2016.

(With thanks to the Irish Government for the release, and to Claire Santry for first breaking the newsof their early release yesterday)

UPDATE: From Claire's blog, the coverage is currently confirmed as

• Births: 1864 to 1915
  
• Marriages: 1882 to 1940
  
• Deaths: 1891 to 1965

See http://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2016/09/irelands-historical-registers-of-birth.html

(With thanks to Claire)

Chris
 
For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Claiming an Irish passport - Part 2

Having decided now to apply for an Irish passport (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/claiming-irish-passport-1.html), it's time to get underway.

The first step is to get the relevant application forms. The Citizens Information website at http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/travel_abroad/passports/applying_for_or_renewing_an_irish_passport.html describes the basic process for application - on this it notes that because I live outside of the Republic of Ireland, I must obtain an APS2 form, but this is unfortunately not available online.

The advice on this Citizens Information page states that "If you are living abroad you can apply in person or using ordinary or registered post to your nearest Irish embassy or consulate."  Living in Scotland, the nearest consulate to me is in Edinburgh, and so a quick search on Google reveals the relevant passport page on its website at https://www.dfa.ie/irish-consulate/edinburgh/passports/how-to-apply-for-a-passport/. On this I was advised to contact them by email, with my home address, to request copies of the required number of APS2 forms.

Having done so, within an hour I received an email from Edinburgh notifying me that the required form will be sent by post to me this evening. We're under way! I am also advised that at present, the turn around time for successful applications is 7 weeks, although a priority service is available at additional cost. I'm happy with the seven weeks, thanks. :)

Under the Documents tab on this same page, there is a list of accompanying document types that I will need. As I am applying for an Irish passport for the first time, I am advised that I will need to obtain a copy of my long form birth certificate from the General Register Office of Northern Ireland to prove that I was indeed born in Northern Ireland. This can be done via the GENI website at https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk/. (NB: If I was a woman I would also need to obtain a civil marriage or civil partnership certificate, if my name was now different to that shown on my birth cert).

On the GENI website, rather than use the top section I would normally use to Search registrations for genealogical research, I instead need to order a birth cert from the Order Certificates section. This can all be done online, which takes a couple of minutes, as I step through various pages, providing my name, date and place of birth, and the details of my parents. Once completed, I am charged £15 all in. As I am not paying for priority postage, I am notified that it will be sent out to me by second class post.

Note that I am applying to the GRONI in Belfast because of my Northern Irish birth, but if I was from the Republic of Ireland, I would need to apply to the separate General Register Office of Ireland to obtain the southern equivalent - to do so, visit https://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Apply-for-Certificates.aspx, although this is a snail mail version for which payment cannot be made online. To pay online, visit http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/1/bdm/Certificates/ instead.

So I've ordered the relevant application form, and a copy of my birth certificate. Now I need to wait for them to arrive...!

NB:
PART 3 at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/claiming-irish-passport-part-3.html 
PART 4 at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/claiming-irish-passport-part-4-claimed.html

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

GRONI fees changes confirmed in Northern Ireland

The fees charged by the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/information-and-services/family-history-heritage-and-museums/research-family-history-general) are set to change from April 4th, with some good news and some bad. The good news is that the cost of certificates will remain unchanged, and the search room fee of £7 is set to be removed for use of GRONI's facility in Belfast. The bad news is that the cost of online historic certificate images, as hosted on the GENI platform at https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk is set to rise - credits will increase from 40p to 50p, meaning that a historic certificate image will rise to £2.50 from £2.

For full details on the changes - and how to save a bit of money on GENI by buying credits up quickly! - please visit the North of Ireland Family History Society's Facebook post at https://www.facebook.com/notes/north-of-ireland-family-history-society/groni-fee-changes-confirmed/1053396834719070

(With thanks to the NIFHS)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.