Christ Church Limerick celebrates anniversary with genealogy day

News of a genealogy event in Limerick in two weeks time:

Christ Church Limerick 200 Year Anniversary Genealogy & Family History Day
16th March 2013
10am-4pm, Talk 4pm-5pm
Christ Church, 51A O’Connell St., Limerick

As part of Christ Church Limerick’s 200 year anniversary celebrations we are planning to hold a Genealogy & Family History day in our O’Connell St. Church on the 16th March.

In 2013 the Methodist Church, on its present site in the city, will be 200 years old and in the same year the Presbyterians will have been in Limerick for over 350 years. Christ Church Limerick became a United Presbyterian and Methodist Church over 40 years ago and continues to thrive. In this anniversary year we are celebrating all of this history and these significant historical milestones.

As a United Presbyterian and Methodist Church in Limerick we are in the unique position to be able to bring together family history records from our combined churches. We have also very close links with other local churches, and in particular the Church of Ireland where we share certain responsibilities in relation to governance of the local schools with a Protestant ethos. We are planning to bring together all the available Church Registers and School Roll Books for our community on the Saturday of the St. Patrick’s Day weekend for anyone, from complete novice up to experienced genealogist, to review. We also hope to have some Catholic Registers available on the day.

Due to the relatively small Protestant Community in Limerick, it is understandable that over the centuries there have been significant inter-denomination marriages and community interactions. Consequently, for family history enthusiasts and novices alike, the opportunity to review all these documents together is significant.

For the novice genealogist or someone who just wants to find out more about their own family we will have volunteers on hand to assist them to find their family records and help them to commence building their own family tree. To make the search as rewarding as possible we would advise anyone, who is intending to come on the day, to have done a little family research beforehand. e.g. Find out all the names of your grandparents, any significant dates and where they were from. Obscure Christian Names are particularly useful in helping to confirm connections. We also intend to have internet access available in the Church on the day to allow people to commence initial searches on some of the very useful internet sites that are available on-line.

For the more experienced genealogist with particular connections in the Limerick area the opportunity to review these records in the one location should be very exciting. We expect to have available on the day:- Limerick Methodist Registers from 1842, Limerick Presbyterian Registers from 1829, Christ Church Limerick Minute Books, Adare/ Ballingrane registers, Limerick Church of Ireland registers, Limerick Baptist Church registers, St. Michael’s National School Roll books, Villiers School roll books, &co., Rate Valuation Books and Registers of Electorates from the City Archives which are currently not digitized.

On the day, Michael Wheeler, a genealogical enthusiast, will give a talk on his own extended Wheeler family research entitled “Silver Bells of Memory”. His talk will focus on the historical and intriguing aspects that he has encountered whilst researching his own family tree.

(With thanks to Lorna Moloney)

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.

WDYTYA Live 2012 - Part 2: the news

I've picked up all sorts of gleanings from the WDYTYA Live event, so here's a quick summary:

In discussions with both Brian Donovan and Debra Chatfield I have learned a few things on the FindmyPast front, both UK (www.findmypast.co.uk) and Ireland (www.findmypast.ie). The first Welsh parish registers will be going online within the next couple of weeks on the UK site, and the 1901 Scottish census in the very near future in transcription format. Future developments will include Kilmainham Army pension papers and records of the Royal Irish Constabularly, as held at the National Archives at Kew, and possibly some additional tie-ins from Ireland. Obviously on the Irish site the big launch just now is the Petty Session records which will be continued throughout this year. There will also be a new improved version of the family tree programme on the sites very soon.

The new unified FindmyPast platform, comprising data from the British, Irish and Ozzie sites, will NOT be a basic site with bolt on packages as I have previously reported in November of last year (as with GenesReunited), but will actually be very similar to the Ancestry model with a new worldwide subscription introduced. This will include the three current FindmyPast sites (and presumably the USA when it gets going) as well as the British Newspaper Archive. You will still be able to access individual sites though if you choose not to go for a worldwide sub.

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland website at www.proni.gov.uk will be having a bit of a facelift soon, and a MAJOR resource for the north is currently being worked on just now, though likely not available this year. In addition the street directories part of the site is gong to have a bit of a revamp in terms of the user interface, and the online wills coverage will likely be extended to 1950 sometime this year.

MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) will shortly be announcing a new calendar feature where you can order up printed calendars derived from the date hosted in your profile. I had a great chat with Gilad Japhet, CEO of MyHeritage at the event, in which he outlined how the company was started, and how he has been able to predict how the business will develop using tools such as Google Trends (www.google.com/trends/). He's also given me some interesting insight into the state of the competition, and some prediction which I won't share but which I will be interested to see if they come true! And thanks to MyHeritage's Laurence Harris for the loan of a media pointer on Friday when mine failed just minutes before my first talk!

TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk) has not only completed its indexing for the 1911 English and Welsh census, it is about to add images of the unredacted documents for that same census. A new global search is also now available on the site.

I checked with Ancestry (www.Ancestry.co.uk) and there is no sign of unredacted images there as yet, but there is news of something big happening soon for those north of the border, so watch this space!

Michael Leclerc, Chief Genealogist with Mocavo.com, is currently working on a book about Benjamin Franklin!

Scottish Valuation Rolls for the year 1915 are coming very soon on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk).

DeceasedOnline (www.deceasedonline.com) will also be adding more records for another authority in the north of England soon, and hopes to have a Scottish authority available soon also, as well as more burials inscriptions from Scottish Monumental Inscriptions (and with a bit of a revamp on their access).

Belfast City Council has updated its online burials database for City Cemetery, Dundonald and Roselawn to crucially allow you to search by lair number also - this means if you find someone buried in a particular cemetery, you can now search to see who else is also in the same lair - see www.belfastcity.gov.uk/burialrecords/search.asp

I've had the provisional nod also that another book title from yours truly has been agreed by the relevant publisher - hope to announce more soon!

If you picked up on anything else from the event, please do let me know in the comments section below! :)

Chris