National Archives of Ireland

The National Archives of Ireland has created a special website specifically devoted to genealogy. Included are the 1901 and 1911 census records, tithe applotment books from 1823 to 1837 and soldier’s wills from 1914 to 1917. Eventually, the website is expected to contain all the genealogy records in the custody of the Irish National Archives, including Calendars of Wills and Administrations, 1858 – 1922; Nineteenth century census survivals, 1821-51; Valuation Office House and Field Books, 1848 – 60; Census Search Forms for the 1841 and 1851 censuses.  Please note the website states there are many incorrect entries, locations, names and spellings in the tithe entries. These are being corrected over time. Access is free.

British National Archives

The British National Archives has made good progress in digitizing their collection of World War I war unit diaries. A war unit diary is essentially a collection of field reports by various military units. A typical war unit diary contains daily operational reports from the front lines as well as local intelligence summaries. These war diaries were written between 1914 and 1923 by various British and colonial units that served in various theatres of war. Most of the unit diaries cover activity in France, Germany and Belgium. War unit diaries can contain a wealth of information for people looking for their ancestors and they are one of the most requested items in the British Archives reading rooms. In order to search these diaries, you need to know the regiment and battalion of your ancestor.

Chronicling America

On 22 October 2012, the website Chronicling America posted its 5 millionth historic newspaper page onto its website. The Chronicling America project now covers more than 800 newspapers from 25 different states spanning the period from 1836 to 1922.  This website was originally launched by the Library of Congress in 2007.  Access is free.

UK National Archives Documents Online

Digital microfilm allows you to search and download some of The National Archives' most popular records, which were previously available on microfilm. The Archives owns a large collection of microfilmed records, which they have now made more accessible by making them available online. Many of the records are indexes, which will be helpful in locating other relevant records.
These documents are free of charge to download and are delivered as large pdf files. Be aware that each download contains a whole piece, which could be up to 800 pages long. NA have not indexed the detail within the records and so you cannot search them in the same way as you can search for a medal card, for example. Instead you will need to scroll through the pdfs, much as you would when using a microfilm.  With most of the items only part of the series is available online, not the whole series.  Still, this collection is well worth a look at Documents Online.

Mundia

Mundia is the new family history site from Ancestry.com, a global platform offering access to more than 13 million family trees from all parts of the world with more than 1.4 billion profiles, and is available in multiple languages.  Basic membership to Mundia is free.
With Mundia, you can:

• Build your family tree. Then grow it by sharing and collaborating with others.
• Receive hints about matching ancestors and relatives in other members' trees.
• Contact other members and find unknown living relatives.
• Keep up to date with your family through comments, stories, and photos posted within your family circle.

Church of Ireland Records

The Church of Ireland has put online parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials for the parish of Delgany (Glendalough) and vicinity in North Wicklow. The records (together with an index of names) span the years 1666 to 1900. Access is free. The complete Delgany parish registers can also be conveniently downloaded as a pdf.

Genealogy In Time

GenealogyInTime Magazine has added 400 million new records to their two free search engines. The Genealogy Search Engine (which covers ancestral records) now searches an additional 100 million more records, while the Family Tree Search Engine (which covers genealogy forums and online family trees) searches approximately 300 million more records.

In total, the two search engines now cover 5.7 billion records across more than 1,000 different websites. The records are split between the Genealogy Search Engine (covering 1.9 billion records) and the Family Tree Search Engine (covering 3.8 billion records). There is no overlap of records between the two search engines.

GenealogyInTime Magazine now gets over 40,000 queries per month for the two search engines. This makes them one of the most popular alternatives to the FamilySearch website for people wanting to look for free ancestral records. Significant holdings exist for the United States, Canada, England/Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Europe, Australia and New Zealand with minor holdings for the Caribbean, South America and South Africa.

Some of the highlights of the latest addition to the Genealogy Search Engine include:

• 55 million new records for the United States and 6 million new records for Canada. These are primarily ancestral records held in digital archives of public libraries and universities across North America. Many of these new records are historic photographs.
• 23 million new records for England, Ireland and Scotland. These are primarily twentieth century obituaries.
• 14 million new records for Europe. These are primarily birth/marriage/death records from Central and Eastern Europe.
• 2 million more ship passenger records.

The underlying technology has also been improved:

• The search routines for both search engines have also been strengthened to provide better results.

• The number of returned records for a search query has been increased from 8 pages to 10 pages.

• Results are delivered even faster than before.

Access to both search engines is free and the underlying records are also free.