Showing posts with label Irish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irish. Show all posts

Friday, February 16, 2024

Irish Genealogy Update

For those with Irish family roots, the following post from IrishGenealogy may be of interest.

The state-managed IrishGenealogy.ie database has received its annual rolling years update. The additions are civil records of Births for the year 1923; Marriages for 1948; and Deaths in 1973.

Disappointingly, register images for deaths recorded from 1864 to 1870 have still not been uploaded; this is the long-awaited update most Irish genealogists would prefer to see.

Here, then, is a summary of the records available, free of charge, at IrishGenealogy.ie:

Births:
1864-1921 – index and register images, all-island
1922-1923 – index and register images, Republic of Ireland only

Marriages:
1845/1864*-1921 – index and register images, all-island
1922-1948 – index and register images, Republic of Ireland only

Deaths:
1864-1870 – index only, all-island
1871-1921 – index and register images, all-island
1922-1973 – index and register images, Republic of Ireland only

Civil BMD records registered in Northern Ireland from 1922 are available online via the General Register Office in Northern Ireland (GRONI), subject to the 100-75-50-year rule. Details.

*Civil registration of non-Catholic marriages started in 1845 across the island. Catholic marriages were added to the civil registers from 1864. 


Friday, January 19, 2024

Emerald Roots Podcasts

Emerald Roots is the official podcast for the Irish Family History Centre, discussing all things Irish and those elusive Irish ancestors.

2023 saw Emerald Roots post 7 podcasts, covering Irish surnames and what they can possibly tell you about your Irish roots, the Irish roots of Bruce Springsteen to celebrate his return to Ireland, chatting with the cast of 'In the Midst of Plenty', a new Irish folk musical set in 1847 and Proud for Pride, the 30th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland.

2024 starts off with a Welcome Back episode that aims to fill you in on the anniversaries and the Emerald Roots plans for 2024.  I look forward to more podcasts that might help me finally trace my own elusive Irish ancestors.

Friday, July 7, 2023

Irish Tithe Applotment Books

Tracing your Irish ancestry is often challenging because many of the country's key records are missing, including the 19th century census records. The Tithe Applotment books are therefore an important Irish family history resource. 

Tithe Applotment books were compiled in Ireland between 1823 and 1837. Their purpose was to assess the monetary rate of the tithe, a 10 per cent religious tax on the agricultural output of land in the country that was levied for the upkeep of the Church of Ireland. All of the agricultural lands in Ireland were surveyed and the name of the occupier, the size of their holding and the rate of the tithe were recorded.

Although they are not a comprehensive record of all households, the Tithe Applotment books are the earliest documents listing the occupiers of property in 19th century Ireland. If you've found an ancestor in Griffith's Valuation, you may find them in the Tithe Applotment books a generation earlier. Only the head of the household was recorded, so you won’t find other relatives. Also, the tithe was applied solely to agricultural land, which largely excludes urban areas and landless labourers and tradesmen.

The Tithe Applotment books were not exactly uniform in their content, and the quality of information gathered varies. One book might only record the landlord as the tithe payer, while another may contain detailed notes on each occupier. The terms “& Co.” and “& partners” do not refer to a business arrangement, but to a group of tenants farming common land. Occasionally, the occupiers of urban property were enumerated and one surveyor recorded the trade or profession of each individual in a town.

The tithe was a very unpopular tax especially with Catholics as they were expected to the support a church to which they did not belong. Farmers began withholding their tithe payments in 1830, and as this movement gained momentum there were outbreaks of violent conflict between tenants, Tithe collectors and clergymen. The ‘Tithe War’ was ended by the 1838 Tithe Commutation Act, which transferred the burden of the Tithe from tenant farmer to landlord.

For Northern Ireland an index for all six counties has been published at Roots Ireland where you can undertake an all-Ireland search or target a specific county. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has recently published digital images of the tithe applotment books for Northern Ireland, which can be accessed through its online catalogue. For the Republic of Ireland (ROI) there is an index of names and places published at Ancestry in the collection ‘Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1805–1837’. This index does not include the acreage, quality and valuation or other annotations from the original record. Half of the 26 counties for the ROI have been similarly indexed at RootsIreland.


Thursday, June 15, 2023

Ireland Reaching Out

Ireland Reaching Out are and international team of volunteers helping people of Irish descent connect with their roots in Ireland.

They offer a free message board where you can ask us a question, a meet and greet service for when you return to your ancestral land, and a page for each civil parish in Ireland where you can share the story of your ancestors.

There are just over 25,000 ancestor profiles added to the site's Chronicles database, which is free to everyone around the world.

Via the database you can; 

  • Filter ancestors by County and/or Civil Parish
  • Search for ancestors by surname
  • Filter by place of migration
  • Add new information to any ancestor Chronicle
  • Leave a comment about any ancestor profile that interests you
The Ireland Reaching Out website also offers a number of free Irish Family History Research Guides and you can register to receive their email newsletter offering Irish Family History tips and guides.

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Irish Lives Remembered magazine

Issue 58 of the free online Irish family history magazine Irish Lives Remembered is now available.

Inside this issue : 

  • We remember the original musical peace activist, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore - a Galway man who emigrated to America and organized what were then the largest concerts in history, with the ambitious goal of musically achieving world peace.
  • Mary Lou McDonald is the current leader of Sinn Féin; a party once regarded as controversial for its paramilitary connections. Fiona Fitzsimons takes a look at her family tree, to better understand how she got to where she is.
  • Folklore expert Ned Kelly traces the ancient pagan roots of Irish traditions of the midsummer solstice, from the goddess Áine to St. John the Baptist.
  • Brigit McCone researches the history of the Irish in the Far East and turns up some fascinating characters.
  • Robert Flanagan Stieglitz returns with the story of uncovering and commemorating great-great-grandfather Patrick Branegan's service in the American Civil War.
  • Genetic genealogy expert Dr. Maurice Gleeson lets you know how you can help to identify and commemorate Irish veterans of World War One using DNA testing and online family trees.
  • Nathan Mannion remembers the fascinating life of Wicklow woman Elizabeth leBlond, pioneering female mountaineer and filmmaker.
  • Dr. Katharine Simms, author of Medieval Gaelic sources, introduces us to the medieval bardic poetry of the Gaelic aristocracy as a genealogical source.
  • Can photo detective Jayne Shrimpton's skills date our reader's Ayrshire ancestors?
  • Our new Heritage Highlight feature spotlights local institutions and lesser-known attractions of Ireland and the potential interest their archives hold for family history researchers. This issue, we look at the Michael Davitt Museum in Straide, County Mayo.
  • Jessie O’Hara reviews the latest Irish records on Findmypast, including a new TreeSearch feature that helps you to connect your family tree to millions of others!
  • Two readers' dilemmas are answered in our Dear Genie column,
  • An excerpt from a Genealogical Publishing Company resource that reveals the deep Derry roots of fiery feminist journalist Nell McCafferty.
  • Our Four Courts Press excerpt delves into the history of St. James's Hospital, Ireland's largest teaching hospital, and its past as an overwhelmed workhouse weathering the crisis of Ireland's Great Famine.