FindmyPast adds improved Irish civil registration indexes

The latest additions to FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk):

Ireland Civil Birth Registers Index

Search for your ancestors in our new and improved index of civil birth registers from Ireland. This updated version of the Irish Births Index consists of over 2.7 million transcripts that have been created by Findmypast from images held by IrishGenealogy.ie.

As well as listing the date and location of your ancestor's birth, these new transcripts provide a variety of additional details including the names of both parents (including mother's maiden name), father's occupation and full dates of birth. Each transcript will also include a link to the source website that may provide additional information about the registers as well as access to images.


Ireland Civil Marriage Registers Index

Learn when and where your Irish ancestors were married with over 2.6 million transcripts of images held by IrishGenealogy.ie. These new transcripts will also provide a variety of additional details including the names of the couple's parents, their fathers' occupations, their residence and marital status.

Each record includes a link to an image of the original register entry and new additions will be added to the collection later in the year.


Wales, Monmouthshire Electoral Registers 1832-1889

Over 43,000 new records have been added to our collection of Monmouthshire Electoral Registers. The new additions consist of handwritten Gwent registers spanning the years 1832 to 1849 that will allow you to discover where your Welsh ancestor lived and the type of property they owned or rented.

Full details and links via https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/findmypast-friday-2544864619.html

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

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.

Irish Genealogy website civil BMD indexes back online

Following the recent comedy of errors from the Republic of Ireland's General Register Office, whereby it uploaded a series of birth, marriage and death indexes that nearly caused the Information Commissioner's office to have a coronary over the issue of privacy, the Irish Genealogy website is once again offerings access to BMD indexes for civil registration records in the Republic of Ireland (and for Northern Ireland up to partition). The tool is available at www.irishgenealogy.ie.

Before accessing them you have to confirm that you are doing a search as facilitated by "Section 61 of the Civil Registration Act, 2004" which "provides for a member of the public to make an application to an tArd-Chláraitheoir to search the indexes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages registers." It seems an unnecessary task, but anything for a quiet life.

You are then taken to a search screen. The records available are similar to those on the Northern Irish GENI site: "The Indexes to the Civil Records of Irish Births, Deaths and Marriages date from 1864 with non-Roman Catholic Marriages recorded from 1845. The indexes to Births over 100 years old, the indexes to Marriages over 75 years old and the indexes to Deaths over 50 years old." The difference is that these are only indexes, not the digitised images from the registers as in the north.

The detail available in the indexes is outlined at http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/civil-records/help/what-information-is-on-the-indexes-that-are-on-line. For information on how to apply for photocopies or formal certificate copies of the records, visit http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/civil-records/help/i-want-to-get-a-copy-of-a-certificate-what-do-i-do - but do check out https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk for the pre-Partition Northern Irish entries (counties Antrim, Down, Fermanagh, Armagh, Tyrone and Londonderry), as the register images are available, and will be much cheaper.

The new indexes are not particularly user friendly, although the birth records from 1900-1914 do include mothers' maiden names, and you can search for marriages with two surnames. Note that Irish indexes beyond the stated closure periods for births and marriages on Irish Genealogy are in fact available on FamilySearch, Ancestry and FindmyPast, all the way up to 1958. Don't ask!

(With thanks to the North of Ireland Family History Society via Facebook)

Chris

For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

Paving the way to a GRO based England's and Wales' People style service

The London based Society of Genealogists (www.sog.org.uk) is reporting that the Westminster Government has accepted an amendment to its Deregulation Bill which will allow for the publication of information from GRO issued vital registers for births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales, in a manner beyond the issue of a formally certified, and expensive, certificate.

At the moment genealogists in England and Wales are second class citizens within the United Kingdom when it comes to accessing historic records, which cost £10 each to purchase from local superintendent registrars' services, or £9.25 each from the English and Welsh GRO based at Southport (www.gro.gov.uk). By contrast, although official Scottish certificates are £12 each, and Northern Irish certificates are £15 each, there are alternative, and much cheaper means of access - for Scotland, via the ScotlandsPeople website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) and the ScotlandsPeople Centre service (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk), and in Northern Ireland via the GENI service at www.geni.nidirect.gov.uk, the search room facility at the GRONI in Belfast (www.nidirect.gov.uk/gro), as well as a cheap photocopy extract service for pre-1922 BMD records provided by the GRO in the Republic of Ireland (www.welfare.ie/en/pages/general-register-office.aspx).

Commenting on the announcement, the SoG's genealogist Else Churchill said “Having worked for over 15 years to reform the GRO system and to gain better access to this vital information for family historians in non-certified form I am delighted that the Government has at last paved the way for a more efficient and cost effective service encompassing modern technology.” The full announcement, including discussion from the parliamentary proceedings via Hansard, is accessible at www.sog.org.uk/news/article/gro-information-on-births-marriages-and-death-doesnt-have-to-on-expensive-c.

Whilst this announcement does not in itself create an England's and Wales' People type service, it does remove the barrier to such a provision being made. For too long those seeking ancestral records from England and Wales have been ignored in seeking a solution, and should no longer be discriminated against on economic grounds simply because they wish to note who their ancestors were. It will be interesting to see how - and indeed, if - this develops further.

(With thanks to the SoG and the FFHS)

Chris

For details on my range of genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

Irish BMD indexes database currently unavailable

The recently launched civil births, marriages and deaths indexes database for the Republic of Ireland on Irish Genealogy (www.irishgenealogy.ie) have suddenly disappeared, with a message since 13.05 yesterday (Friday) now stating "Civil Records Search temporarily unavailable: Further update will be provided."

Rather oddly the category heading itself has disappeared from the menu at the top of the home page, but all other record sets remain accessible at present. Hopefully this is just some sort of blip that will be sorted imminently...

For Northern Irish research, remember that BMD records can be sourced from the new pay per view source from the GRO in Belfast at https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk, whilst for the Republic, BMD indexes from 1845-1958 are freely accessible on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Irish BMD indexes and PRONI catalogue update

Two things to keep an eye out for later today on the Irish front -

1) Irish civil birth, marriage and death indexes are due to be uploaded to Irish Genealogy (www.irishgenealogy.ie) - these are more detailed and more complete than previous online offerings, though sadly not a pay-per-view system as yet for the original images, as with the GRO Northern Irish system

and

2) The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland catalogue at www.proni.gov.uk should have an update to its catalogue today, so always worth re-doing any old searches, in case something new pops up!

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Enhanced Irish GRO BMD indexes launch July 3rd

Claire Santry is reporting on her Irish Genealogy News blog that the enhanced GRO indexes from the Republic of Ireland, used to order births, marriages and deaths, will be going online from July 3rd at www.irishgenealogy.ie. These will be a considerable improvement on those available just now on Ancestry, FindmyPast and FamilySearch.

The full story is at http://irish-genealogy-news.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/major-news-enhanced-gro-indexes-launch.html.

(With thanks to Claire)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Why helping Ireland's genealogy provision to grow is not rocket science

Two articles today in the Irish press both highlight the recent dramatic growth in the provision of Irish genealogy resources online and the fact that the penny still does not seem to have quite dropped with what the genealogy scene could be, with a little more love and input from the powers that be.

Brian Donovan, CEO of Eneclann (www.eneclann.ie), has written an article in Ireland's Independent newspaper detailing the exponential growth of interest in the personal heritage sector, as recently explored at a Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht meeting in Dublin. It's an excellent piece summarising where we are at now - including the contribution of Brian's own company and others in the field over the last few years - but at its heart you can feel the frustration about the lack of a penny having yet dropped from on high at the Dáil:

"The Government needs to familiarise itself with the genealogy business and what it means for the Irish economy. Currently we have an excellent opportunity to turn this country into a European genealogy hub -- rather like the phenomenon in Utah in the USA.

But this requires the Government and senior civil servants facilitating this development and enabling innovation by freeing access to historic records, changing data protection guidelines, empowering the cultural sector to partner with publishers and other innovators.

This will allow us to better connect to the diaspora. Remember, tens of millions of people worldwide have an emotional connection to this island that other countries can only envy. But to maintain these connections with successive generations and strengthen these links, we need to connect these people to their personal heritage."

The full article is available at http://www.independent.ie/business/back-to-our-roots-weve-the-chance-to-be-the-hub-of-a-millioneuro-history-business-29872399.html.

Also online is a blog post from Irish genie John Grenham concerning Northern Ireland's Valuation Records (thanks to John Reid's blog for flagging this). Again there is a sense of frustration, often expressed in John's blog, at how Northern Ireland is beginning to grab the bull by the horns whilst the Republic is still trying to work out which field it is in. In this case he cites the brilliant upload of the Valuation Records on the PRONI website, and notes that "We can only hope that, as with the General Register of Northern Ireland, the example of the North might shame us into action." John's post is at http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/irishroots/2013/12/30/valuation-office-records-how-it-should-be/.

To be fair, the National Archives of Ireland is slowly beginning to get on top of things in the Republic. Whilst its online catalogue falls woefully far behind equivalents on offer in Northern Ireland or in Britain, many useful digitisation projects are soon to appear online via its www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie platform. But it remains the case that records of births, marriages and deaths are the very bread and butter of genealogy. GRONI in Belfast will soon launch an online digitised image service (but will it price its service at the ridiculous end of the scale, as it does with its paper certificates?), whilst the GRO in the south is soon to add a new set of indexes online via www.irishgenealogy.ie - but when will it also see fit to place its digitised register records online through a similar service? And as for parish records, when will the National Library of Ireland get its Roman Catholic records digitised and placed online (long posited by it as a project), and when will someone in power finally realise that what we want to see are digitised original images from registers, not outrageously expensive transcripts from a project first conceived a generation ago?

A lot has happened in the Irish genealogy scene in the last few years - a hell of a lot has happened - but there is so much more to be done. But the biggest change of heart still has to come from the state itself. Let the penny drop lads, and reap the rewards.

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/.

New GRO Ireland website - classic of civil service design

The General Register Office in the Republic of Ireland has moved to a new website platform, located at www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/General-Register-Office.aspx. It's a true classic of civil service design, but does not seem to offer anything new that the previous site did - the certificate/photocopies ordering site, with the relevant application forms, is now at www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Apply-for-Certificates.aspx. The previous GRO site link at www.groireland.ie now redirects to the new platform.

Note that the Apply for Certificates Online link on the new page does not offer the four Euros photocopies useful for genealogy research, but redirects to the HSE website where you can only apply for full certificates at €20 each, presumably once you have remortgaged your property beforehand to pay for them. As before, use the application forms on the GRO site itself to apply for the photocopies of the entries - by post, or fax.

The word of today is - anticlimax. One day the GRO might learn how to put a payment system on its own site for those only interested in the photocopies provision - surely someone there knows what a Visa or debit card is?! The idea that in 2013 we're still having to post applications or fax them through is laughable. Are the GRO still also using typewriters?!

*Sigh*

For news of forthcoming extended online GRO index provisions being made available via the IrishGenealogy.ie website, see Claire Santry's Back to Our Past report at http://irish-genealogy-news.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/back-to-our-past-2013-part-two.html.

UPDATE: Read John Grenham's blog post on the new search room for the GRO in Dublin, at http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/irishroots/2013/10/14/the-new-general-register-office-research-room-is-a-disgrace/. The news doesn't get any better...

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.

New GRO research room in Dublin now open

The General Register Office of Ireland's search room in Dublin has relocated from its former premises at the Irish Life Centre, Lower Abbey Street to new digs in the city at Werburgh Street. The new room is open from today. (Online applications for certificates or photocopies continue to be processed from the GROI office in Roscommon).

For further information on the new set up visit http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.

Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records - now on sale

I'm delighted to say that my latest Scottish genealogy themed book is now out from Unlock the Past in Australia. At present it is available in print form from the company via www.gould.com.au/Discover-Scottish-Civil-Registration-Records-p/utp0284.htm at AU$17 (inc GST) plus p&p. An e-edition, if you prefer to read it via your PC, Mac or tablet in PDF format, will be available in the next couple of days (http://www.gen-ebooks.com).

Here's a description of the contents, and what it's all about really!

Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records

This guide from family historian Chris Paton takes a look at the vast world of Scottish civil registration records. Scotland commenced the statutory registration of births, marriages and deaths within the country in 1855, second seventeen and half years after a similar process had already got underway in England and Wales. The information lost to the family historian by such a late start is, however, more than made up for by the fact that Scottish registration records are the most detailed of all those found within the British Isles.

But what was the law behind Scottish registration, and how did it differ to England, Wales and Ireland? Who was legally obliged to do what and when, what were the penalties for default, and how might such knowledge help with our ancestral research? Why were all the forms of Scottish irregular marriage not abolished in 1939, and what angered the country's doctors? Where are the records not found online via ScotlandsPeople, such as those for adoption, vaccination, civil partnerships and divorce - and what vital records does the General Register Office in England hold for Scots as far back at the 1760s, and far beyond Britain's shores?

The book is structured as follows:

Contents:
Introduction
Acknowledgements

Part 1. Civil registration in Scotland
Establishment of civil registration
Registration of births
- Illegitimacy
- Locating birth records
- Minor records of birth
- Stillbirths
- Adoption
Vaccination
- Locating vaccination records
Marriage
- Registration of regular marriage
- Irregular marriage
- Registration of irregular marriage
- Introduction of civil marriage
- Same sex marriage
- Locating marriage records
- Minor records of marriage
- Other marriage records
- Divorce
Registration of deaths
- Medical certificates
- Locating death records
- Minor records of deaths
Registers of Corrected Entries
The Book of Scottish Connections

Part 2. Registration in the British Isles
England and Wales
- Births
- Marriages
- Divorce
- Deaths
- Locating English and Welsh records
- British overseas and military records
Ireland
- Locating Irish records
Crown dependencies

Appendix 1. Glossary
Appendix 2. Further reading
Appendix 3. English and Welsh BMD indexes in Australia and New Zealand
- Australia
- New Zealand
Index

It's the latest in a series of more indepth guides that I have been producing in which I have been trying to find out what really makes the records used within Scottish genealogy tick, going well beyond ScotlandsPeople into aspects of law behind civil registration, record availability, and British generated documents found beyond Scotland's borders. Other titles produced so far include Discover Scottish Church Records, and Discover Scottish Land Records - and I'm already hard at work on the next one...!

Incidentally, if you are at the National Family History Fair this coming Saturday, in Newcastle, I believe some copies may be available there.

I hope you find it of some use - enjoy!

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My Scottish land and church records ebooks are available at http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html, whilst my next Pharos Scottish course, Scottish Research Online, starts Sep 4th - see http://pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Time to smash a few brick walls...!

GRO Dublin search room to move

The General Register Office of Ireland (www.groireland.ie), though based in Roscommon now, maintains a search room in Dublin, which is currently located at Talbot Street. Dick Eastman is reporting on his blog that the facility is to move Werburgh Street on the other side of the Liffey. On the one hand, that's closer to the Temple Bar. On the other, not everyone is happy... The full story is at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/07/general-register-offices-dublin-research-room-to-move-to-an-appalling-location.html

I genuinely can't comment on whether this is a retrograde step or not. The last time I visited the GRO's search room in Dublin was well over a decade ago, and I think in different premises to where it is just now. I'd flown over for the day from Glasgow, and after looking up the first index entry for a certificate, I went up to the counter to ask for a photocopy of an entry from the register. The attendant looked at me and told me "The guy doing the photocopying is doing a course today". Oh right. "Fine," says I, ever the optimist, "who's doing it instead?" - "No-one is," came the typically civil service reply of the time. "Great stuff," says I, "that's about as useful as a fart in a spacesuit". I didn't stay much longer, and have never returned.

I order all certs/photocopied extracts from the GRO in Ireland by post now, and that will soon change to an email based service. The GRO for Northern Ireland (www.nidirect.gov.uk/gro) will also be launching a new online site from early next year (and revamping its current online site this Autumn). But as quoted in Eastman's piece, it's odd timing considering it's in the midst of the Gathering.

(With thanks to Dick Eastman)

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My Scottish land and church records ebooks are available at http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html, whilst my next Pharos Scottish course, Scottish Research Online, starts Sep 4th - see http://pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Time to smash a few brick walls...!

GRO Ireland to offer email facility for research copies

The General Register Office in Roscommon is planning to update its website and to offer a new facility to allow photocopied entries to be emailed instead of having to post them out. Claire Santry has the full story at http://irish-genealogy-news.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/new-website-and-email-facilities-coming.html.

Let's hope that an online credit card facility is also introduced for payment....!

(With thanks to Claire Santry)

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My Scottish land and church records ebooks are available at http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html, whilst my next Pharos Scottish course, Scottish Research Online, starts Sep 4th - see http://pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Time to smash a few brick walls...!

Republic of Ireland's GRO indexes to go online at IrishGenealogy.ie

The genealogy bug continues to hit Ireland big time, with news that the Irish Government now intends to create online access to its civil registration indexes via its Irish Genealogy (www.irishgenealogy.ie) records platform in the not too distant future. This access will be to the indexes only, and not the original register data.

At present indexes for the Republic of Ireland are available online from 1845-1958 only, and indexes for Northern Ireland from 1845-1921, via the free FamilySearch site (https://familysearch.org), and the subscription based Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) and FindmyPast Ireland (www.findmypast.ie) platforms - the last of these is the best option for marriage searches, allowing you to perform searches for both partners in a wedding event in one go (Ancestry also allows this, but I find it less effective).

The new plan to make the indexes for the Republic available is interesting, because the site on which they are destined to appear, Irish Genealogy, has so far offered access to its hosted records for free - will the indexes therefore be free also? We'll know soon enough - the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013 about to go before the Irish Parliament will amend the Civil Registration Act 2004 to include provision to make the indexes to the BMD events, and also indexes to civil partnerships, available online, but not those for adoptions or stillbirths. No date for this to happen has yet been revealed.

The full story is at www.irishtimes.com/news/burton-to-make-births-deaths-and-marriages-accessible-online-for-first-time-1.1403375

Meanwhile, keep an eye out for the forthcoming provision for online access to Northern Ireland's GRO indexes and records post-1921 later this year (see my new book, details below!).

UPDATE: Here is the wording for the relevant clause from the Bill, and the proposed amendment to the Civil Registration Act 2004:

Part 3 — Amendments to Civil Registration Act 2004 Section 16 provides for amendments to the Civil Registration Act 2004 to allow for the provision of index information from the registers of births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships to the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in accordance with the National Genealogy Policy. This will enable online searching through the www.irishgenealogy.ie website hosted by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Index information in relation to adoptions and stillbirths is excluded.

The full explanatory note to the Bill is available at www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2013/5413/b5413dmemo.pdf

(With thanks to Aidan Byrne @8thRDF)

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers, starts May 15th - see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/scotland-1750-1850-beyond-oprs-starts.html. Time to smash a few brick walls...!

Irish BMD certs suddenly double in cost

At present it is possible to order birth, marriage and death records in Ireland from 3 sources. From 1845 to the present day you can obtain records for what is now the Republic of Ireland from the Irish GRO in Roscommon (www.groireland.ie). This also offers records for the north from 1845-1921. The beauty with this site is the fact that you can order photocopies for genealogical research for just four Euros each, if you know the details of when and where an event happened. You can also get records for the north from 1845 to the present day from the GRO for Northern Ireland in Belfast, but at a whopping £15 per certificate.

There is a third way to obtain records, if you wish to do so online, and that is through the Republic's Health Services Executive site at www.hse.ie/eng/services/find_a_service/bdm/certificates_ie. Coverage is partial however - all Ireland births from 1864-1921, and from the Republic from 1922 onwards; all Ireland marriages from just 1920-1921, and for the Republic from 1922 to the present day; and deaths from 1924 for the republic only.

Unfortunately, both the HSE and the GRO in Roscommon have just DOUBLED the costs of their official certs to 20 Euros each. In Sterling that is £16.94 each - even higher than Belfast's costs of £15, the highest in the UK. However, the GRO's 4 Euro charge (£3.39) for an uncertified and photocopied extract remains the same.

Is this just blatant profiteering to coincide with the launch of the Irish indexes for such records on FindmyPast? Who knows - but never has a photocopy looked so beautiful...

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.