National Archives of Ireland

The National Archives of Ireland site was launched on 8 November 2012 by Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. From this site, you can access the Census records for 1901 and 1911, the Tithe Applotment Books for 1823 to 1837 and the Soldiers’ Wills for 1914 to 1917.


The site will have a large number of other genealogical records added to it over the coming years, including:
1) Calendars of Wills and Administrations (1858– 1922);
2) Nineteenth-century census survivals (1821-1851);
3) Valuation Office House and Field Books (1848–1860);
4) Census Search Forms for the 1841 and 1851 Censuses.
All of these records will be free to access, through searchable databases and linked images of relevant pages. Eventually, it is hoped that the site will contain all of the important and easily accessible genealogical material in the custody of the National Archives.

The Soldiers’ Wills collection is the latest major project to become available free online, providing access to the wills of soldiers who died in the First World War (1914-1917). This is the first phase of the project carried out by the National Archives to digitise the 9,000 wills of the soldiers who died. Work is continuing and the remainder of the collection will be released online in 2013.

Onlinenames

Free online name listings including: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, United States, Wales, Zimbabwe and world-wide one-name studies.

Online names is a free searchable database managed by Adelaide Proformat and compiled from public submissions. It has been available since 1997. The site has been upgraded since 8 June 2011 and many new features are now available.  While still small, the site is well worth using and will only grow if people take the time to post the names they are researching.

FamilySearch and WorldCat

FamilySearch.org has formed a partnership with OCLC to share genealogical data. OCLC is a non-profit library organization that originally started as the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC) and has since grown to become an international library cooperative that is best known for the WorldCat library catalog. WorldCat links over 10,000 libraries worldwide. It is essentially the world's largest library catalog.

In this new partnership, FamilySearch.org will make its catalog of genealogical information accessible to WorldCat users. In exchange, going forward FamilySearch will be incorporating WorldCat search results into their website. What this means for genealogists is that the sharing of genealogical information across two major (and free) organizations will ultimately make it easier for people to find their ancestors.

National Archives of Australia

The National Archives of Australia is looking for volunteers to help transcribe records. They have created a special section on their website called arcHIVE for anyone interested in transcribing records. To make the process easier, every document awaiting transcription is identified as easy, medium or hard. You also have the option of choosing the type of record that you would like to transcribe. This allows transcribers to work at their own pace and comfort level from their own home.

Tasmanian Records

FamilySearch.org has added a new collection of some 96,000 images of various Tasmanian genealogy records. This collection spans the years 1829 to 1961 and includes land records, school records, court records and occupation/guild records. Details on Australian convicts can be found buried in the court records. There are four types of convict records (tickets of leave, certificates of freedom, pardon and convict indents). The records are organized by location. Access to the collection is free.

Police Gazette of Western Australia

The State Library of Western Australia has digitized and put online the Police Gazette of Western Australia. This collection spans the years from 1876 onwards. This gazette basically lists all the police activity by year. Typical information would include a list of people arrested and their sentences, police appointments and promotions, conditional pardons issued to convicts, physical descriptions of convicts, etc. This gazette contains a wealth of information for anyone looking for criminal or police records in Western Australia. Access this collection is free.

Queensland Shipping Records

The Queensland State Archives has released a new index of original shipping registers for vessels that arrived in Queensland from 1848 to 1912. A typical record lists the name of the ship, European port of departure, date of departure, place and date of arrival in Queensland, list of passenger and type of passage (free, assisted, remittance, bounty, steerage, etc.).

This index is for ships from the United Kingdom and Europe. It does not include ships from New Zealand, the Americas, Asia, Africa or other Australian ports. As well, some of the records from the 1860s are missing due to damage incurred in the Queensland 1893 floods. These indexes can be searched alphabetically by last name. Access is free.