June 2014
Exclusive monthly e-bulletin to IGRS members
Enhanced version of GRO Indexes to launch online in July
Inside this issue
 Expert Tip: Quaker Disownments
 RCBL releases transcriptions of
Taughboyne registers
The ‘enhanced’ version of the General Register Office’s civil registration indexes will be
launched online on Thursday 3 July. The database is the one used by GRO staff and includes
valuable additional information such as the mother’s maiden name in the birth indexes.
It is expected to help researchers narrow down the options and make identification of ’same
name’ entries in the indexes a little easier by presenting additional data gleaned from the
corresponding registers. It will not, however, include images of the registers or bmd
certificates.
The new database will be uploaded to IrishGenealogy.ie, the free records site run by the
Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
 1901 Townlands Index launched by
IGRS
 Ulster and Chesapeake Bay area
under the spotlight in new book
Griffith’s Valuation Revision Books : digitisation project
 Events for July and the diary
Following on from the successful digitisation of the
Griffith’s Valuation Revision Books for the six counties
of Northern Ireland by PRONI, it seems the Valuation
Office (VO) in Dublin is intending a similar project for
its collection of Books. An invitation to tender for the
digitisation project has now closed.
 LondonDerry War Memorial records
online at PRONI
 Irish Origins acquired by FindMyPast
The VO has been trialling a computer-based viewing
system at its offices in the Irish Life Building, Dublin,
since the turn of the year, with the Revision Books for
counties Mayo, Kerry and Tipperary, plus those for
both Dublin City and County, searchable on a lone
computer screen.
If you know someone who
might like to join the
IGRS, please feel free to
pass on this e-bulletin
and direct them to the
membership application
form on the last page.
The Revision Books, which are also known as the Cancelled Land Books, for counties Cork and
Limerick are in the process of being scanned and will join the viewing line-up in due course.
More computer terminals may be forthcoming, too.
Welcome though the office-based database is, it is limited. It is available only to personal
visitors, for a start, and it's essentially a browse facility.
The proposed digitisation project, which would result in public access to fully indexed, colour
images of this important collection, would be a HUGE leap forward.
It's early days yet. The tender invitation talks of a maximum four-year project to be completed
in four parts, subject to the availability of funding, and will involve the scanning of
'approximately 4,700 volumes of the records of those counties not yet digitised' and an
estimated 1.6million images.
1
FindMyPast buys Irish Origins
Early Ulster registers coming soon
FindMyPast UK has bought Origins.net, one of
the early pioneers of online records with many
useful records within its Irish Origins database.
AncestryIreland, the database arm of the
Ulster Historical Foundation, has advised
that it will shortly be uploading more than
27,000 Church of Ireland burial and marriage
records, some of them dating to the 1660s
(Blaris, Lisburn) and the 1680s (Comber).
In addition, this batch of records includes
entries from the 1700s from Ardkeen,
Carrickfergus, Donaghadee, Down, Dromore,
Glenavy and Magheralin parishes.
The Irish collection on Origins (Irish Origins)
holds an eclectic mix of records including 77
directories from 1824 to 1900, Dublin City
Census 1851, Tithe Defaulters 1831, Memorials
of the Dead, Wills Records, Millitia Attestation
Index and several other excellent record sets,
many of them not duplicated elsewhere, as
well as a highly-regarded Griffith's Valuation
database.
Records will also be added from the parishes
of Aghalee, Ballinderry, Ballyclug,
Ballyculter, Ballyhalbert, Ballymacarrett,
Ballymena, Ballymoney, Ballyphilip, Bangor,
Drumballyroney, Finvoy, Larne, Kilkeel and
Kilmore.
Many of the burial records include the name
of the father or husband of the deceased as
well as, sometimes, their age at death and
cause of death, particularly if it was unusual.
This entire collection will, in due course, make
its way to the FindMyPast World package and
to the FindMyPast Ireland package. Similarly,
the records from British Origins and Scots
Origins will take up residence in the World and
Britain packages.
These records will join the nearly 2millionstrong AncestryIreland database. It includes
almost all pre-1900 Roman Catholic records
for parishes in Counties Antrim and Down and
more than 50,000 gravestone inscriptions for
all six counties in Northern Ireland
Irish Vagrant Passes/Poor Law removals added to Ancestry database
Ancestry UK has added the Lancashire, Vagrant
Passes, 1801-1835 registers to its database.
These registers were created to record details
of people being returned as vagrants to their
home parish in Ireland.
They were making the return journey as a result of the Poor Law Acts which allowed parishes in
England to return anyone who was unable to support themselves and/or their family ie a vagrant,
back to their parish of settlement.
The term 'vagrant' could include unlicensed peddlers, prostitutes, beggars, fortune-tellers, the
homeless, gamblers, and criminals. Almost any immigrant without steady employment or private
income could be passed along, and many were taken back to the port of Liverpool where the
majority had arrived. Many Irish soldiers were among them; after returning from expeditions
abroad, they would often find themselves being returned to Ireland along with their families.
This collection holds a good number of such cases.
The collection is not likely to bring instant genealogical satisfaction to many researchers but may
suggest a new direction for research. The registers recorded the date of departure, name, a note
of wife and children if travelling as a group, the number of days they had been in 'process', the
costs involved in providing sustenance and sea passage, and, in some cases, the name of the vessel
on which they crossed the Irish Sea. Some entries also record which UK parish had instigated the
return to Ireland.
2
LondonDerry's War Memorial records launch online
Records of soldiers from Derry-Londonderry who fought and
died during the First World War have been made available
online.
Four volumes have been digitised, providing additional information about the soldiers whose names appear on the Derry
War Memorial at the centre of the walled city.
The information was provided by the next of kin of the fallen
soldiers — their rank, regimental number, any military honours
received — and include the name and address of their next of
kin.
Next of kin could also provide details of the nature and date of
the soldier's death, their 'native place' if not originally from
LondonDerry and any other information they wished to include.
The War Memorial Records are accessible in PRONI’s
LondonDerry Corporation Records section.
Representative Church Body Library : a trio of announcements
Three important items of news have been
announced by the Representative Church Body
Library (RCBL) in Dublin …
The RCBL is the official place of deposit for all
non-current Anglican parish registers in the
Republic, as well as a growing number of
collections from Northern Ireland.
Archive of the Month – June – Transcriptions of
Taughboyne registers released
Recent developments will be apparent when the
RCBL publishes July’s Archive: an updated and
The RCBL has released online transcriptions of
accurate Table of Church of Ireland Parish Registhe surviving registers for three of the Taughboyne parishes in the Laggan Valley of north east ters across the island. This is the first time the
Donegal. The painstaking transcription work has listing/table has been made available online.
been carried out by the rector, the Revd Canon
David Crooks.
It provides details about what materials were
lost (mostly as a result of the 1922 catastrophe
at the PRO in Dublin); and where the vast quantity of surviving materials may now be consulted.
The registers contain entries up to 1900, as
follows:

Taughboyne, from 1820 onwards

All Saints Newtowncunningham, from1877

Killea, from 1877 for baptisms; 1845 for
marriages; 1880 for burials

Craigadooish (chapel of ease), baptisms
from 1871 to 1907
This list accounts for no fewer than 1,091 Church
of Ireland parish register collections now safely
housed in the RCB Library.
It also gives details of around 500 collections,
including those for Taughboyne, All Saints, Killea
and Craigadooish, which remain in their parishes.
The printed transcripts, together with a digital
copy of each have been presented by Canon
Crooks to the RCB Library, and the transcripts
can be accessed online here.
Milestone reached on RCBL Card Catalogue
Taughboyne is an example of a parish that
retains its original registers in local custody,
but which will soon transfer them to the RCBL.
Records for all the modern book stock are now
available on–line, as are many for the older
(pre-1851) printed books.
The Representative Church Body Library's project
to convert the card catalogue of printed books to
a computerized catalogue has been making great
Advance notice of Archive of the Month – July – progress. It has now recorded 40,000 items.
Search the online catalogue.
Updated listing of locations of registers
3
WAP for Belfast NewsLetter
Waterford Archives amalgamate
Ancestry has launched a new World Archives
Project to index nearly 190-years worth of
Birth, Marriage and Death announcements from
The Belfast Newsletter.
Waterford City Archives and Waterford County
Archives have amalgamated.
Joanne Rothwell, previously the County
Archivist based at Dungarvan, will now be
working across the two repositories.
The newspaper, which claims to the oldest
English language daily title, dates back to
1737. It was originally produced twice a week
before switching to daily publication in 1855.
This project would see all editions up to 1925
indexed and searchable by name (they are
currently browseable-only on Ancestry).
Both archives will be closed into early July, at
least, but email and telephone queries will be
dealt with by part-time staff.
Email addresses are [email protected]
and [email protected].
Importantly for genealogists, the paper's news,
adverts and bmd announcements were not
limited to the Belfast area; the Newsletter was
distributed island-wide prior to Partition, and
covered national and international news.
New book challenges Plantation views
WAP volunteers will extract all birth, death
and marriage notices, as well as engagements,
obituaries and memoriams. These will be lifted
only from notices that were published
specifically to announce the event, not from
regular news articles.
In the late-16th century, Ulster and the
Chesapeake Bay area became subject to British
colonial experimentation.
Traditionally, it
has been accepted
that the Ulster
Plantation scheme
had set a template
for the American
venture but Professor Audrey
Horning challenges
this historical
understanding of
the nature of
plantation in her
new book: Ireland
in the Virginian
Sea, Colonialism in the British Atlantic.
The Ancestry team have graded this keying
project as of Average difficulty and they're
looking for volunteers. Details.
NAI adds Wood’s Guide
The National Archives of Ireland has added
Herbert Wood's Guide to the records deposited
in the Public Record Office of Ireland to its
website. Download the large (65Mb) pdf here.
Wood was the former Assistant Deputy Keeper
of the Public Records and his guide was published in 1919. It records the collections held
by the PROI at that time, many of which were
subsequently lost in the Civil War in 1922.
By examining material culture and archival
sources, including the Drapers' Company Papers
(D3632) and Salters' Company Papers (T853)
held by the Public Record Office of Northern
Ireland (PRONI), Professor Horning also considers the experiences of the native Gaelic Irish
and Algonquian experiences in this book as well
as the lack of a determining vision in such
colonial projects.
FindMyPast UK for £1
FindMyPast UK is offering a one-month sub to its
Britain collection for just £1.
Professor Audrey Horning is Head of the School
of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology
at Queen’s University Belfast.
While the Britain Collection
doesn’t include specific
Irish records, there’s a lot
of useful material for those
of Irish heritage, not least
so many military records.
The 408-page book is published by University of
North Carolina Press (ISBN 978-1-4696-1072-6).
It will be officially launched at PRONI, Belfast,
on Thursday 26 June. Details.
4
Expert Tips
In each issue, an IGRS member suggests areas of research or overlooked resources. This month,
Joanna Cicely Fennell recommends a source from the Society of Friends...
Quaker Disownments
If you suspect you have a Quaker ancestor
there is a wonderful collection of records at
the Dublin Friends' Historical Library in
Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin.
Whereas John Morris Son of Wm Morris who
was Educated in the Profession of us the
People called Quakers & did sometimes
frequent our Religious Meetings but not
walking in obedience to the Principles of Truth
which we Profess hath for sometime past
behaved himself in a disorderly & reproachful
Manner particularly in keeping Company with
a Woman of Bad Fame to whom it is said that
he has been lately Married by a Priest & if not
Married there are sufficient circumstances to
believe that he has been Guilty of Fornication
with which & divers other Transgressions he
has committed we think it our Duty to testifie
against him the s[ai]d John Morris & do hereby
Deny him to be of our Society with desire that
he may come to a sense of his Wickedness &
Repent.1
Amongst the most fascinating documents for
family historians are the records relating to
the disownment of members of the Society of
Friends.
Expulsion did not necessarily mean a complete
lack of communication with one's family or
with the Quaker community at large. In the
case of my 4 x great-grandfather Bartholomew
Morris, he was permitted to bury his infant
(Catholic) son in the Friends' Burial Ground in
Cork Street, Dublin, despite his disownment
some four years earlier for marrying outside
the Quaker faith.
It is worth noting that, apart from those who
married out, most members were readmitted if
they acknowledged, and pleaded forgiveness
for their particular indiscretion in writing.
'Marrying out' was the principal reason for
disownment but there were a variety of other
factors that could contribute to the decision,
made by the local Meeting. Fighting, immoral
conduct, and even bad business practices,
could lead to disownment.
1
Dublin Friends' Historical Library. Disownments —
MM V O 1. One of the signatories of this document
was John Morris’ own brother-in-law, Barker Thacker.
An image of this Disownment will be available in the
Expert Tips section of IrishAncestors.ie shortly.
The following is an extract from the
disownment record of Bartholomew's uncle
John Morris, dated the 16th of February 1755:
IGRS launches 1901 Townlands Index database
The Society was itself making the headlines this month when it
launched its latest resource: The Index to Townlands 1901 on
IrishAncestors. The key to identifying all land divisions in Ireland,
the Index has made its online debut with a fully searchable, free
to access database.
This has only been made possible through the hard work and
commitment of two Australians: historian Perry McIntyre and
genealogist Terry Eakin, both IGRS members. Having spent two
years carefully inputting the data from the original 1901
publication, they have very kindly donated it to the Irish
Genealogical Research Society.
Find out more about this important resource on IrishAncestors.ie.
5
July events
Back To Our Past will be returning
to the RDS in Dublin in October and
the IGRS expects to be there.
Ireland's annual genealogy exhibition and conference will be held
from Friday 17 October to Sunday
19 October inclusive in the
Industries Hall and will, as usual,
will have an extensive lecture
programme.
Details will follow towards the end
of the summer. For now, just get
the dates in your diary!
Friday 27–Sunday 29 June: The Great War,
the 20th Byrne/Perry Summer School. Venue:
Gorey Library & Adult Learning Centre at the
Civic Square,The Avenue, Gorey, Co Wexford. Details. Costs: €130 includes all lectures, dinner, entertainment and field trip.
Students and Seniors €80.
Friday 27 to Sunday 29 June: Understanding Ireland's Great Famine: New Perspectives, a weekend conference. Venue: Carlton
Shearwater Hotel, Ballinasloe, Co Galway.
Field trips on Sunday (limited availability). Programme and costs (pdf).
Sunday 29 June: Guided tour of Old Cobh
Cemetery, with Jack Gilmartin. Venue: Old
Cobh Cemetery, Cobh, Co Cork. Free. No
booking. Meet at the main gate of the
cemetery at 2:30pm.
Tuesday 8 July: Passenger Lists, Censuses, &
Naturalizations: The Big 3, a workshop. Venue: National Archives at Boston, 380 Trapelo
Road, Waltham, Massachussetts, USA. From
2pm. Free. All welcome. Need to register: T:
(866) 406-2379; E: [email protected]
Saturday 12 July: Genealogy Workshop –
practical tips, with Mayo Genealogy Group.
Venue: National Museum of Ireland, Country
Life, Turlough, Castlebar, Co Mayo. 11am–
1pm. Free. Non-members welcome. Details.
Friday 25 July: Great Parchment Book Day,
a special event at London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell,
London EC1R 0HB. Tea and coffee will be
provided; bring your own lunch. Free event
but need to book. 9:30am to 4:30pm.
Details.
Celtic Connections conference, MA
Friday 15 and Saturday 16 August. A two-day conference — Celtic
Connections: The Leaving of Home: Migration, Motivation and Myth
— will be held at Bentley University, Waltham,
Massachusetts.
Ireland's City of Culture — Limerick
— is to host a major family history
conference and get-together this
summer.
Straddling Heritage Week,
The Genealogy Event will be taking
place on Friday 22 and Saturday 23
August and is centred on the Strand
Hotel, which overlooks the River
Shannon and the city centre.
The social events are open to nondelegates will be enjoyed by genealogists and non-genealogists alike.
Details and programme.
Organised by TIARA and IGSI, the programme features many of Irish
genealogy’s best-known presenters from both sides of the Atlantic,
including a number of IGRS members. Click image for details.
WDYTYA?Live moves to Birmingham
With its traditional home at London's Olympia no longer an option,
next year's Who Do You Think You Are Live? (WDYTYA?Live) show will
be held at the National Exhibition Centre (the NEC), a stone throw
from Birmingham Airport.
Even the traditional dates have moved! Rather than a February date,
the show has moved along a couple of months. The dates for your diary
are: Thursday 16 April to Saturday 18 April 2015. Between now and
then, WDYTYA?Live Scotland will be held in Glasgow, 29-31 August.
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Copyright Irish Genealogical Research Society 2014
6
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