Update on GRO Northern Ireland online records project

A quick update on the new service planned from the GRO in Northern Ireland (www.nidirect.gov.uk/gro) to provide access to historic birth, marriage and death records, thanks to a talk with one of its members earlier today in Belfast. As I've commented on before, the inspiration for the new planned online service is based heavily on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) - however, there are some differences for what is envisaged between what Scotland has achieved, and what Northern Ireland hopes to achieve.

ScotlandsPeople offers access to digitised images and indexes for records that are classified as historic - so images from birth registers older than 100 years, images for marriages older than 75 years, and for deaths older than 50 years. Belfast plans to replicate this, after legislation in 2011 defined such records in Northern Ireland as 'historic'. However - crucially in Scotland, if an event is more recent than this, although the images are not online, the indexes for events up to 2011 are still accessible on the website - if not the corresponding images - meaning that you can still order up a certified copy, albeit at a cost of £12. This will NOT be the case in Northern Ireland. As statute currently stands, the GRO in Belfast still only has to provide access to these indexes at its search room in Belfast - and not online.

I was asked what I thought ScotlandsPeople had done for Scottish genealogy, and replied that quite simply, as the 1901 and 1911 censuses did for Ireland, ScotlandsPeople has both dramatically revolutionised, and democratised, access for those researching Scottish family history. I made the point that I suspect that access only to historic images and not the more recent indexes will be a severe blow to those hoping to see all the indexes online - I flagged up in particular that this will in fact see the bizarre situation where indexes for Northern Irish births, which are already online up to 1921 on FindmyPast Ireland, Ancestry and Family Search, would, under current proposals, stop at 1913 or 1914 if released now following a 100-year-rule-full-stop on the new GRONI site.

As things stand just now, the timetable for release is looking like early next year, although the GRONI's current online ordering system is to be revamped in September. A lot is still under discussion - not least of which is the proposed price for the digitised images. I was told that NI's higher costs of certs at £15 is based on a cost proportionate base for NI as a smaller country, but I'm yet to be convinced as to why that should be - if we are one big happy UK, central government at Westminister should subsidise Belfast (indeed Edinburgh) to make sure that all British citizens have equal access to such records at an equal cost, and not to be discriminated against on the basis of which bit of the UK we come from. With online records I made the point (undoubtedly made by many others) that genealogists do not need official certs, and that I always advise people to order Northern Irish records from the Republic of Ireland as photocopies if pre-1922, as these only cost 4 Euros from there, and not £15 as from Belfast. Any online set up needs to understand why people will do that - if online records cost as much, or not far off what the paper copies cost, no-one is going to use the proposed service. ScotlandsPeople charges about £1.30 per digitised record. That's the expectation, and that's the benchmark set by the agency that GRONI has taken its inspiration from. As it stands just now, GRONI has not set its charges yet, it's very much still up for grabs - so let's hope it does the right thing.

One further point I did make was in response to a comment that GRONI in fact has no obligation to fulfil the desires of genealogists at all, which is totally true - it's job is actually to register, births, marriages and deaths (and a few other events)!!! It wasn't a negative comment - it was essentially a statement that GRONI is in unchartered territory here. But it's no different to the position that the GRO in Scotland once found itself in. Scotland has pioneered how these things can be done, and has done so superbly. For those of a nervous disposition, one thing that will be good news is that the company behind GRONI's digitisation of records is not that which screwed up the same remit for England and Wales - and that is something to be truly grateful for!

I hated Field of Dreams, but Kevin Costner's line does summarise what needs to be done: if you build it - and build it right - by God they will come. The Irish diaspora in the United States alone is at some 40 million and more. So fingers crossed that GRONI's new set up will get it right - and achieve the same high international praise that ScotlandsPeople itself has long enjoyed.

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...!

Trove reaches ten million pages

Congratulations to the Oz based NLA Trove team which has now digitised some ten million pages of Australian newspaper content, and within an earshot of one hundred million articles - all available for free at http://trove.nla.gov.au - more details at http://blogs.nla.gov.au/behind-the-scenes/2013/06/21/10-million-newspaper-pages-in-trove/

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...!

Free access to Irish BMDS indexes on FindmyPast

The American version of FindmyPast, at www.findmypast.com, has posted that it will be offering free access to its Irish birth, marriage and death indexes from June 27th-30th, to flag up the anniversary of the destruction of much of Ireland's public record on June 30th 1922.

There's more on the story at http://www.findmypast.com/articles/irish-records-office-destruction

UPDATE: Access will also be available on FindmyPast Ireland (www.findmypast.ie)

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...!

Massachussetts parish records on Ancestry

For those with Irish relatives who fled to America following the Famine in the mid 1840s, the following parish record sets for Massachussetts may be of some interest on Ancestry's World subscription (www.ancestry.co.uk):

• Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840-1915 (3829539)
• Massachusetts, Marriage Records, 1840-1915 (3059458)
• Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915 (2713911)

The records have been sourced from New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, and the Irish feature very heavily in them.

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...!

Scottish Genealogy Network - Aberdeen visit

The next meeting of the Scottish Genealogy Network (http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.co.uk) will be this coming Saturday 22nd June, when several of our members will be venturing to Aberdeen to explore the resources there that can potentially help us with our work - including the Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society and Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives.

If you work as a professional genealogist within Scotland (or elsewhere and just happen to be in the area!), or in an associated discipline, feel free to come along - drop us a note at scotsgenenet @ gmail.com for details. The network is an informal opportunity to meet up and discuss relevant issues of the day within our community - there's no fees and no formal membership, we're just a group of genies wanting to continually push ourselves further within our chosen field.

In July we'll be visiting Dumfries, and later in the year we'll be holding our second Continuous Professional Development event. For details of our previous event in Stirling, visit our blog at http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/scottish-genealogy-networks-first-cpd.html.

If you work professionally within the field, we'd love to see you!

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...!

Yorkshire Family History Fair

Yorkshire Family History Fair will be held on June 29th at the Knavesmire Exhibition Centre - full details are available at www.yorkshirefamilyhistoryfair.com.

(With thanks to Family Tree magazine @familytreemaguk)

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...!

1926 Irish census to be released - in 2027

There's been a lot of talk recently about the prospective early release of the 1926 Irish census in the Republic of Ireland, but John Grenham's latest piece in the Irish Times paints a very pessimistic picture, noting that the Central Statistics Agency, which has responsibility for it, is adopting an official 'bah humbug' approach. John's piece in The Times is at www.irishtimes.com/blogs/irishroots/2013/06/17/not-the-1926-news/

A few years back the Canadian and Irish Governments collaborated in a project to get the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses online, a move that overnight revolutionised - and that is not an understatement - the genealogical industry in Ireland. Today though, this is the second story to seemingly show that when it comes to the release of censuses from the 1920s in the two countries, there is once again common ground of an altogether different nature (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/1921-canadian-census-all-dressed-up.html).

Don't forget - if your Irish ancestors were in the Free Sate Army in 1922, there is a military census now online from the period at www.military.ie.

(With thanks to John Reid)

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...!

1921 Canadian census - all dressed up, nowhere to go?

The latest news from Canada is that the 1921 census there, which should have been released several days ago, is apparently all digitised and ready to go, with a geographical index already prepared, but that it's release has been seemingly blocked by the Canadian Government.

I've also read in an email an unattributed comment, claimed to be from a Government member, that the Canadian government may be sitting on it because they think "the only persons interested in the 1921 census are "three old ladies in Kingston (Ontario)" who only want to use it for genealogy" (Source: http://globalgenealogy.com/news/articles/00059.htm). Talk about age discrimination! If a little old lady wants to read the census for genealogy, I'd be interested to know what the problem with that might be, particularly if there are three of them - hell hath no fury than three little old ladies with a genealogy interest scorned... or an entire nation. Apparently this is similar to the release of the 1901 Canadian census a few years back, for which a campaign was created to provoke action from another apparently intransigent government.

If you'd like to help three little old ladies in Kingston - or thousands of others - to gain access to something they are already legally entitled to view, read Elizabeth Lapointe's full post on the subject at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/breaking-news-1921-census-of-canada.html, and John Reid's various posts at www.anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.ca.

(With thanks to Graham MacDonnell, Elizabeth Lapointe, John Reid and 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...!

ASGRA to recognise Strathclyde genealogy course

ASGRA, the Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (www.asgra.co.uk), has decided to recognise the value of the Strathclyde University Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical, Heraldic and Palaeographic Studies (www.strath.ac.uk/genealogy/) as a means to becoming a probationer member of its organisation. Probationer membership lasts for 2 years, and at the end of this probationers are required to be assessed by members of ASGRA for competency before becoming full members. The full announcement is at www.asgra.co.uk/Strathclyde%20Agreement%20WEBSITE%20announcement%20pdf.pdf

I've not signed up myself in the past, simply because I think the achievement of a two years studied university postgraduate diploma course demonstrates a degree of competency in its own right, but I know friends and colleagues who are members who feel they do benefit from membership. The only question mark I really have is that the agreement to recognise diploma students apparently only applies to those who pass from July 2013 onwards, which does seem slightly prejudicial to anyone who has passed the same course in the last six years who may be equally interested to sign up, though I suspect that's not what was intended.

On the Strathclyde course itself, I've had a lot of fun working as a tutor on the postgrad certificate this year, with a great bunch of students slowly working their way towards the finishing line! Due to commitments next year (including two books on the cards and being out of the country for a bit) I'll not be doing so for the next session, but I hope to step back again into the role in due course. If you wish to sign up, please visit www.strath.ac.uk/genealogy/ for full details on how to do so, and to see a timetable etc. Entry to the diploma is then by successful completion of the certificate the following year, and you can also take your studies to a Masters in a third year.

Certainly as someone who has been through both the cert and the diploma I've recognised their value to refocus me from being a keen amateur to someone who wished to professionalise his skills to do this job for a living. It is hard work, and the course will not make you an expert on everything - for no-one is an expert on everything! - but it will open your eyes to what you don't know about genealogy within the British Isles and beyond, as well as affirm what you do - and help provide you with a confident path towards a truly rewarding career.

(With thanks to Bruce Bishop)

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...!

Society of Genealogists - July events in London

The following Events will take place at the Society of Genealogists in July. To book a place online, visit our website at: www.sog.org.uk/books-courses/events-courses

You can also book by telephone, at the number listed below.

6 July 14:00-17:00
Drawing up a Family Tree
We will talk about uses of family trees, standard layouts and conventions, what to include and how to draw one up by hand. Software is mentioned as one means of generating trees and pedigree charts but the emphasis will not be on specific programs.

A half-day course with Louise Taylor price 17.50


10 Jul 14:00-17:00
Upstairs, Downstairs: My Ancestors Were in Service
Many of our ancestors worked as domestic servants, some were employed in the “Big House” and some as glorified housekeepers to local artisans and tradesmen. There are no specific sets of records for domestic servants, but it is possible to piece together evidence from various records.

A half-day course with Ian Waller price 17.50


13 Jul 10:30-13:00
Sources for Tracing Female Ancestors & Population and Birth Control
Family historians are often accused of interesting themselves only in the male lines of their ancestry following the history of the surname. Older pedigree compilations often ignore the daughters of a family leaving it difficult to establish the distaff line. However there are some sources that can be used to throw more light into the lives of our ancestresses and which let us hear their voices. We will look at some strong minded, vocal women; hear their voices and learn about women who fell on hard times (with Else Churchill).

In the second session, we will look at how some of our ancestor's mothers appear to have produced children at very regular, even frequent intervals; then there is a break in the pattern often attributed by us to a still birth or an accidental miscarriage. Have you considered the possibility of the family using birth control? Contrary to a popular image, wealthy families tended to have more children than did those lower in the financial and social spectrum. Dr Chapman will examine family and commonality sizes and describes methods of birth control that have been attempted over the centuries to limit local and national population numbers.

A half-day course with Else Churchill & Colin Chapman price 17.50


20 Jul 10:30-13:00
Family Historian Software Practical (intermediate to advanced users)
A hands-on practical course which will help you to get the most from this leading genealogical software. You must bring a laptop.

A half-day course with John Hanson price 17.50


20 Jul 14:00-17:00
My Ancestor Came From Westminster
Those with London ancestry will fast realise that people moved in and out of localities within the metropolis. Westminster has always been a City in its own right generating its own records and with its own parishes. Although an area within London it is not part of London and its records reflect this. Come along and understand why you need to research at the Westminster Archive centre and what is available to identify your ancestor.

A half-day course with Ian Waller price 17.50


27 Jul 10:30 17:00
Family Tree Maker Software Essentials - for Beginners & Refreshers
A full-day course with Mike Bollinger price 30.00


31 Jul 14:00-15:30
Visit: Tower Hamlets Cemetery
The Tower Hamlets Cemetery, located in the East End of London, was opened in 1841 and closed for burials in 1966. It was then called the City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery but was called Bow Cemetery by locals. Our historic tour of the cemetery will last approximately one hour. price 10.00

(With thanks to Lori Weinstein)

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...!