31 Days to Better Genealogy

American genealogist Amy Johnson Crow is back this year with a new version of her 31 Days to Better Genealogy, a free series of emails designed to give you practical steps to make your research more productive.

Whether you are just beginning to climb your family tree or have been doing this for years, you can adapt the tips and methods in 31 Days to Better Genealogy to suit your needs. It begins October 1, but you can start any time after that.

Best of all — it’s FREE!

When you sign up for 31 Days, you will receive a daily email with a tip or resource plus access to a Facebook group

Newly released Irish collections free forever at FindMyPast

irish-ancestors

Following up on my previous post in August that Findmypast planned to release four Irish record collections in September 2016, they have now announced that the newly released collection of more than three million historic Irish records will be free forever. Until this release, you could only access these records by visiting the National Archives of Ireland’s reading rooms in Dublin.

The four collections are:

Original Will Registers 1858-1920 Over 181,000 records the largest collection of surviving wills for the post-1858 period for the Republic of Ireland. The registers allow researchers to explore the pages of wills to discover where their family lived, what assets they had, if it was left to relatives, and if anyone was left out due to a family feud.

Qualification and Convert Rolls 1701 – 1845 – Lists of over 52,000 Catholics who swore loyalty to the crown or converted to Protestantism. During the harsh Penal Laws of the 18th century, Irish Catholics were restricted from owning property or running businesses. Many chose to either convert (at least legally) to the established Church or swear loyalty in front of a court in order to qualify for certain rights

Valuation Office books 1824-1856- These land and house surveys kept by the Valuation Office of Ireland contain over 2 million names. The books that make up this collection were preparatory to the Griffith’s Valuation, and provide a comprehensive assessment of the rental value of Irish lands and property from the mid-1820s to the mid-1850s. The books reveal where and when individuals rented or owned property and provide rare glimpses of life in pre-famine Ireland

Merchant Navy Crew lists 1857-1922 – These indexed lists records the details of over 832,000 men and women who served with the Merchant Navy. The original lists were extensive and provided detailed information for each crew member, where and when they were born, and their life at sea. The lists not only cover Irish sailors but also include natives of Norway, Russia, Sweden, America and Germany, to name but a few

Learn more about these collections at Findmypast.com. Once there, it’s easy to find a particular record collection by clicking on Search and scrolling down to the card catalogue, A to Z of record sets. Then enter the title of one of the new collections. Or you can just search by name and location.

Guild of One-Name Studies is Now Available at FamilySearch.org

The following announcement was written by the Guild of One-Name Studies (London, UK and Salt Lake City, Utah -September 6, 2016):

The online resource helps people trace the possible origins and variations of their last name.

The Guild of One-Name Studies, a charitable organization that promotes facts about given surnames, and FamilySearch International, a nonprofit and the largest genealogy organization in the world, announced today that the guild’s collections will now be searchable at FamilySearch.org.

The partnership gives guild members another source for preserving their great work while also allowing more researchers across the globe to benefit from exploring the variant spellings of their personal surnames and possibly connect with others throughout the world who have the same last name.

The study of one’s last name (or surname) involves researching all known occurrences of that particular surname in all identifiable resources worldwide, as opposed to researching only the ancestors or descendants of a person. These rich compiled studies can assist a family history researcher to see the geographical distribution of surnames in their tree over centuries, which can help in reconstructing family lines bearing variants of those names. A common hope of customers who use surname studies is to identify the actual geographic locale of origin of a family surname. This outcome could very well happen for unique surnames, but common surnames that reflect an occupation (such as “Farmer” or “Fisher”) or patronymic-type surnames (such as “Johnson” or “Williamson”) may not have a single place of origin.

For more information on this historic collaboration, please read Dick Eastman’s blog post.

Historic Irish Birth, Marriage and Death Records online –free!

Have you ever heard the saying, “Everyone wishes they were Irish and those of us lucky enough to be so are proud of it”? Well, if you do have Irish ancestry, you have a bit of Irish luck today.

Finally, after a long wait, the General Record Office of Ireland has made millions of civil registers of birth, marriage and death available online on their state-run site, www.irishgenealogy.ie. On September 8, 2016 the following announcement was made from their website:

“The Indexes to Birth Records over 100 years, the Indexes to Marriage Records over 75 years and the Indexes to Death Records over 50 years are available to search.

The Birth Records Indexes date from 1864 to 1914, the Marriage Records Indexes date from 1845 (1864 for Roman Catholic Marriages) to 1939 and the Death Records Indexes date from 1864 to 1964.

Regular users of the site will also notice the enhancement of the Marriage Indexes, with both parties to the Marriage now being shown from 1882 onwards. “

What is even more incredible is that this is all available for free!

The Irish civil records can be searched by name, district, and year or browsed by district/office. We are now able to view digitized images of the full birth, marriage and death registers, instead of the basic indexes to the records that have been available on the website since 2014.

In many cases, genealogists will no longer have to order an official certificate or visit the General Register Office of Ireland in Dublin.

For privacy reasons, however, the indexes to births less than 100 years old, the indexes to marriages less than 75 years old, and the indexes to deaths less than 50 years old are not available.

Searching

From the home page, select church records.

When you begin your search, you will see the index information. Click on Image beneath it to see the scanned register. Often, you will find the mother’s maiden name, father’s occupation, street where they lived, cause of death, along with the date of the event.

Unfortunately, not all registers are available, and there is no mention in the Help section about when, if ever, the missing ones will be digitized. Depending on the registration district and time period, the availability of images can be a bit hit and miss. But the number of digitized registers currently available is astounding and we can only hope that there will be more added in the future.

To find the availability of an image, look for a number beside Group Registration ID. If it says, N/R, there is currently no image.

Good luck with finding your Irish ancestors!