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Great news if you're researching Irish Catholic ancestors!

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  • Great news if you're researching Irish Catholic ancestors!


    We will all have to wait until summer next year but I've just seen this fantastic news today that the National Library of Ireland has just unveiled details of its most ambitious digitisation project to date, which will see the NLI’s entire collection of Catholic parish register microfilms made freely available online by summer 2015.

    "The records are considered the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 Census. Dating from the 1740s to the 1880s, they cover 1,091 parishes throughout Ireland, and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records."


    You can see the full press release here:
    http://www.nli.ie/GetAttachment.aspx...6-21b4b848f513

    Christine





    Last edited by Karamazov; 01-12-14, 19:32.
    Researching:
    HOEY (Fermanagh, other Ulster counties and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) BANNIGAN and FOX (Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland and Portland, Maine, USA) REYNOLDS, McSHEA, PATTERSON and GOAN (Corker and Creevy, Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland) DYER (Belfast and Ballymacarrett) SLEVIN and TIMONEY (Fermanagh) BARNETT (Ballagh, Tyrone and Strangford, Down)

  • #2
    Thank you, thank you, thank you for that WONDERFUL news.
    I've been stuck at my McDonough gt-grandparents for 25 years - need their marriage before they came over (c 1859) and then their baptisms.
    Sounds like 2015 is going to be my breakthrough year ;D

    Jay

    *does an Irish jig and hums "Galway Bay" *
    Janet in Yorkshire



    Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

    Comment


    • #3
      Ah now that is great news beccause really the only way to research most of the Irish Catholic baptisms and Marriage records at present is to go to the National Library of Ireland in Dublin. There is so much coming online these days, that I find it difficult to keep up with it all, and I certainly missed that one! It is going to be a long haul doing that job so the timing may slip but still very good news, can't wait!!
      ;)
      That should put a stop to the Heritage Centres charging so much money for access and that will please me even more!!! And rember that at this time 85% of Irish people were Catholic.;)

      Janet
      Last edited by Janet; 01-12-14, 21:31.

      Comment


      • #4
        The only word of caution is that they are not being transcribed or indexed. So if you don’t know when or where an event took place, you’ll have to scroll through, parish by parish, year by year. (And wait till you see the condition some of them are in. Faded and with the most terrible handwriting. Some baptisms and marriages intermingled. Some squeezed in at the top of the page, and so on. Neat handwriting and good admin skills clearly weren’t a high priority when training priests in the 1800s! Quite a challenge to read, and some are completely illegible.). Still, a lot easier than going to the National Library and other repositories.

        It’s worth bearing in mind with Irish RC parish research that even the National Library doesn’t have all the possible records. Some parishes records have not been copied for one reason or another, or have only been partly copied. This link is helpful in finding out what exists and where copies are kept (sometimes the parish priest has the only copy):

        Last edited by Elwyn; 01-12-14, 23:04.
        Elwyn

        I am based in Co. Antrim and undertake research in Northern Ireland. Please feel free to contact me for help or advice via PM.

        Comment


        • #5
          I dont trust the heritage centres. Clare wants $325 for the preliminary report. Seems its only worth it if your family left ireland around 1900.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Elwyn View Post
            The only word of caution is that they are not being transcribed or indexed. So if you don’t know when or where an event took place, you’ll have to scroll through, parish by parish, year by year. (And wait till you see the condition some of them are in. Faded and with the most terrible handwriting. Some baptisms and marriages intermingled. Some squeezed in at the top of the page, and so on. Neat handwriting and good admin skills clearly weren’t a high priority when training priests in the 1800s! Quite a challenge to read, and some are completely illegible.). Still, a lot easier than going to the National Library and other repositories.

            It’s worth bearing in mind with Irish RC parish research that even the National Library doesn’t have all the possible records. Some parishes records have not been copied for one reason or another, or have only been partly copied. This link is helpful in finding out what exists and where copies are kept (sometimes the parish priest has the only copy):

            http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/b...unties/rcmaps/
            Yes Elwyn I do agree and I have found missing copies myself when searching in the NL at Dublin and then found the local parish priest has a copy! Yes and many are illegible and yes it will not be indexed and we will need to know the parish but that said this is still a very good breakthrough for the Irish researcher. I do not go to Ireland much these days and I still have many Irish ancestors that I would like to find to break down many of my Irish brickwalls. I do know roughly where I am going to be looking so I will not mind searching through all the parishes for Tipperary and Cork City. But, and there is a but here, it will be even more essential for people to understand what the diocese, baronies, parishes and townlands are, and to arm themselves beforehand with the maps of all the parishes and townlands in which they are going to be interested. At present they are often found for free online but I wonder if these might now disappear forcing people to purchase!!


            Janet

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            • #7
              Shucks - I don't know where in Ireland several lines come from so will be stumped.



              Researching Irish families: FARMER, McBRIDE McQUADE, McQUAID, KIRK, SANDS/SANAHAN (Cork), BARR,

              Comment


              • #8
                I believe "anything is better than nothing" BUT realise these records are not going to be easy. The keywords are definitely Baronies, RC Parishes and Townlands.
                I have actually stopped researching the Irish side of the family for the time being (my husbands) so the latest news gives me hope.
                I suppose, being pessimistic, some/most of these records that ARE readable are going to be in latin or possibly gaelic.

                Sue

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Sue1 View Post

                  I suppose, being pessimistic, some/most of these records that ARE readable are going to be in latin or possibly gaelic.

                  Sue
                  I have never seen any in gaelic but certainly the earlier ones e.g. pre 1870 are often in Latin. However they are mostly formulaic so it's not too difficult to work out the meaning, provided the document is clear enough to read in the first place. PRONI also has a leaflet with a Latin crib for the most common names and words and phrases found in RC church records. That can be very helpful.
                  Elwyn

                  I am based in Co. Antrim and undertake research in Northern Ireland. Please feel free to contact me for help or advice via PM.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hi Elwyn,

                    I was thinking mostly of the registered person and their relatives names - Patrick is unlikely to be Patrick as with many others ..............I still haven't recovered from the 1911 census for a family member which was filled in entirely in gaelic - you found it actually!
                    I agree the records about to published are much more likely to have some latin in them than the Irish language - latin was the language of the RC church.

                    Sue

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Thank you for letting us know, hopefully I more find out more about the Tubridy's :D
                      Lennon. Phillips. Thomas. Peacock. Tubridy. Burton.

                      I am the girl from that town & I'm darn proud of it.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        You do not need to understand much Latin to be able to read the registers. All the names are pretty obvious and most will have come across names like Patricus and Jacobus etc in areas across the UK.

                        Janet

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                        • #13
                          I don't think many parish priests would have used Gaelic at that time - after all, it was the language of the "lower, common man," whilst Latin was the language of the Church and English the language of the Administration.

                          Jay
                          Janet in Yorkshire



                          Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                          • #14
                            Yes the names are straightforward but there are numerous comments in Latin which do need a little translation. For example, the normal practice was to note the bishop’s consanguinity dispensations for marriages. Very handy to know that someone married their 2nd cousin. It was also practice to note a marriage against the relevant baptism record (to prevent bigamous marriages). So you do get a few lines of spidery Latin here and there, over and above the names and places.

                            I have never seen Irish used in the RC parish records. As has been said it was not a language officialdom used, but you do see it frequently in the 1911 census. Here’s an example:



                            (In English that’s Philip and Julia Dennehy, and their children.).
                            Elwyn

                            I am based in Co. Antrim and undertake research in Northern Ireland. Please feel free to contact me for help or advice via PM.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Surviving Irish census was after the move for nationalism and all things Irish, so I'm not surprised to see instances of Gaelic being used.

                              Jay
                              Janet in Yorkshire



                              Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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