FindMyPast adds County Limerick Electoral Registers, 1760-1776

FindMyPast.ie's latest addition is a collection of voters' registers relating to three elections held in the second half of the 18th century. The record-set has been launched as the Limerick City & County Electoral Registers 1760-1776 collection and holds 2,548 transcriptions.

As far as I'm aware, these records, sourced from the National Library of Ireland, have not previously been available online.

The registers record those who voted in the Limerick in the elections of 1761, 1768 and 1776. They note who the individual voted for, their place of residence and the address of the property through which they qualified for a vote.

At this time, County Limerick was entitled to elect two MPs to the Dublin Parliament; entitlement to vote was restricted to adult men who possessed freehold property with a minimum value of £2 per year or were Freemen of Limerick City.

A sample search return from the 1768 election (which took place at St Francis's Abbey, 11-16 July) shows Patrick Fitzgibbon, who lived at Newcastle and held property at Manister-nenagh valued at more than £2pa, voted for "m.o.". Eight years later, now residing in Manister, he voted for Hugh Massy ("hm").

Be sure to read the collection home page before searhing.

Some of the above content contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you buy via these links. This does not affect the price you pay as a consumer, but it does contribute to keeping Irish Genealogy News online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

General Register Office of Ireland adjusts opening hours again

The General Register Office of Ireland's Public Search facility in Dublin has changed its opening hours again.

The office, which is located in Werburgh Street, to the west of Dublin Castle, is now open on Tuesdays only, from 9:30am to 4:30pm and will remain open over the lunch period.

It's true this is an improvement on the original post-pandemic timetable, which changed from week to week with little advance notice, required two-hour appointments and had a lunchtime kick out.

Oh, for the days, pre-lockdown, when the walk-in service operated a full five days a week.

The Monday–Friday email service is often extremely efficient, sometimes with turnaround within less than 24 hours. Sadly, such speed can't be relied upon. (In April, I waited for just under three weeks for a birth cert research copy.)

Irish Times Group buys funeral notice platform RIP.ie

The hugely successful free-to-view RIP.ie database has been acquired by the Irish Times Group.

Founded in 2005 by brother and sister team Jay and Dympna Coleman of County Louth, the site has been publishing death announcements and funeral notices (and much more) since July 2006.

Although so recently established, it has become a trusted resource in Ireland and can be useful to genealogists looking to update their family trees. Each notice is placed by the funeral director and typically includes information about the deceased's relatives and sometimes other personal details.

The opportunity for family, friends, colleagues and other acquaintances to upload condolences to the site has become extremely popular since Covid 19 arrived, and can often be another rich source for family history.

The site's sale raised immediate concerts that the platform would be placed behind a paywall. However, in a statement issued yesterday, the Irish Times Group committed to keeping RIP.ie 'free to view' following its acquisition.

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives - April updates: Headstones photos and church records from nine counties across the island

Last month brought another bumper delivery of files to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives from the volunteer team. The additions include headstone photos and transcribed inscriptions from seven burial grounds plus church records from two Ulster congregations, one Presbyterian, the other Methodist.

As always, these files have been contributed by researchers for the benefit of other researchers, and are available on a free-to-access basis. If you have any similar records or photos, please consider donating them to IGPArchives. You can find out how to contribute here.

Headstones to Conway family in Illinaspic
graveyard, Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny. Photo courtesy
of Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
and the contributor, Emma Bates.
Click for enlarged image.

CARLOW Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Lazerian Cemetery, Kildavin

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Laragh Old Cemetery (Updated)

CLARE Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Holy Rosary Graveyard, Doolin, Part 2

DONEGAL Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Ballyshannon Methodist Marriages, 1872-1920

KERRY Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Listowel Burial Ground - Partial

KILKENNY Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Killinaspic Pt 2, Mooncoin, Completed

TYRONE Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Sion Mills Presbyterian Marriages 1866-1921

WEXFORD Genealogy Archives
HeadstonesCalvary Cemetery Pt. 2, Bunclody
Memorials St David's Interior, Family of Adoration Convent, Ferns

WICKLOW Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Brigid's Graveyard, Annacurra

Latest genealogy updates for English, Scottish & Welsh collections

Please find below a two-week summary of newly-released and updated family history collections for England, Scotland and Wales from the major genealogy databases. (For previous list, see 11/4 blogpost.)

These regular listings are designed to help researchers whose Irish ancestors migrated, temporarily or permanently, to England, Scotland or Wales.

By default, they will also be useful to anyone carrying out research in those three nations, regardless of the origin of their ancestors.

Please note that I don't usually include updates of fewer than 1,000 records.

NEW COLLECTIONS

Figures in parentheses are the numbers of records (or images, if browse-only) in each new collection.

Ancestry

• Aberdeenshire, Scotland, School Admission Registers, 1852-1927
• Aberdeenshire, Scotland, World War II Related Records, 1940-1945
• Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Police Records, 1818
• United Kingdom, Red Cross Volunteers During WWI, 1914-1918 (244,156)

BritishNewspaperArchive (BNA) and FindMyPast (FMP)

• Deeside Piper |  Midhurst and Petworth Observer  |  Pontefract & Castleford Express  |  Sleaford Standard  |  Hucknall Dispatch  |  Daventry and District Weekly Express  |  Kirriemuir Herald  |  Glenrothes Gazette

FamilySearch

• England, Manchester, Miscellaneous Records, 1700-1916 (10,241,065)

FindMyPast

• Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography Enhanced Genealogical Data (4,013)

MyHeritage

• England, Cheshire Bishop's Transcripts Burials, 1569-1933 (1,167,929)

UPDATED COLLECTIONS

Unless otherwise stated, where there is only one figure in parenthesis, it reflects the total number of records in the updated collection. Where there are two figures, the first is the number of records added in the recent update, the second is the revised total number.

FamilySearch

• England, Devon, Parish Registers (Devon Record Office), 1529-1974 (2,926,636)
• England, Devon, Parish Registers, 1538-1912 (1,043,193)
• England, Staffordshire, Church Records, 1538-1944 (4,850,444)
• Wales, Death Records, 1998-2015 (172,310)

FindMyPast

• Oxfordshire Baptisms Kiddington, Chudlington and Spelsbury (6,200 / 260,211)
• Oxfordshire Marriages (72,782)
• Oxfordshire Burials Kiddington, Chudlington and Spelsbury (41,327)
• Surrey Prerogative Court Will Abstracts, 1420-1857 (11,308 / 12,701) additions from 1700
• Lancashire Wills & Probate 1457-1858 (5,803 Infra Wills ie under £40 value)

FreeBMD

• England and Wales Civil Registration Index (202,914 / 294,092,936)

TheGenealogist

• Land Tax Records (IR58), Surrey property owners and heads of household, 1910-1915 (225,000+ / 2.6Million)

Some of the above content contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you buy via these links. This does not affect the price you pay as a consumer, but it does contribute to keeping Irish Genealogy News online. See Advertising Disclosure tab above.

Newly launched: County Armagh: The Irish Revolution, 1912-1923

Published April 2024

The most recent county to be studied in the Four Courts Press The Irish Revolution, 1912–23 series is Armagh.

The 240-page paperback, written by Donal Hall and Eoin Magennis, explains how Armagh's long-standing antipathy between unionism and nationalism intensified during the 'third home rule crisis' of 1912–14 and saw the unionists mobilize both politically and militarily to demand a partitioned Ireland. The IRA was largely forced from the county by 1922 by the dominant Crown Forces and many volunteers were interned on both sides of the new border.

Using both official and private archives, this study offers new perspectives on the continuities, changes and wider social and economic dynamics which shaped County Armagh during this tumultuous decade.

The illustrated paperback has been published this month and is now on sale at a reduced price of €22.45 from Four Courts Press. ISBN: 978-1-80151-080-6.

Click here for the full line-up of titles in this popular series which now covers Counties Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Kildare, Leitrim, Limerick, Louth, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo, Tyrone and Waterford.

Any ancestral connections to Borrisokane in Co Tipperary?

Tipperary Studies had added an interesting collection to its digital archives: the Kent Collection. It's a treasure trove of historical documents and photographs that were kindly loaned for digitisation by Roland Dyer, the great grandson of Walter Francis Kent, a prominent merchant and grocer from Borrisocane in the north of County Tipperary in the late C19th and early C20th.

Click for enlarged view of this sample

Born in 1856, Kent completed his apprenticeship with a hardward store in Birr before opening his own shop in Borrisokane. It offered a wide range of goods, including builders’ supplies, farm and garden seeds, coal, soap, cigarettes and groceries.

The shop’s ledgers, which span 1884 to 1932, provide insight into the daily lives of the local community, including farmers, carpenters, blacksmiths and shopkeepers.

Account transactions were recorded in these ledgers, noting the name of customers, their residence and, in many cases, their occupations, and keeping the necessary tally over time. Fascinating to look through, and an absolutely terrific discovery if you can identify an ancestor.

Each of the two ledgers has been digitised into a set of eight downloadable pdfs. Each holds about 100 pages.

The remaining parts of the collection are mostly photographs, including several of Roland, one of his sons, who enlisted in the South Irish Horse in 1915, and other WW1 army memorabilia.

Take a look through the collection, which is free to access on Tipperary Studies' Digital Archive, here and read a well-research article, including the family's genealogy, by Mary Flynn here

BNA and FMP add to Irish historical newspaper collection

The Irish collection within the BritishNewspaperArchive and its shared database at sister company FindMyPast has seen some action for the first time since early January.

Making its debut was the Banbridge Chronicle while the Belfast News Letter received a full-year update, as follows:

Some 652 editions of the Banbridge Chronicle are now available to search and view on either site. The 23,996 pages date from 1980 to 1998.

All editions of The Belfast News Letter published in 2002 have joined the online databasers. With only a few gaps, the holding now tots up to 553,298 pages dating from 1828.

With these updates being of relatively recent publication, they probably won't offer too much to genealogists. However, it's good to see that the Irish newspapers collection is still growing, even if at a much slower pace than we once enjoyed.

PRONI publishes second edition of free Ulster & Slavery guide

To mark #DouglassWeek in Belfast, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has updated and republished its Ulster & Slavery: The Story from the Archives, an essential resource for learning more about the region's historical connections to slavery and reflecting on its influence in the present day.

It was first published in 2007 by PRONI to mark the bicentenary of the slave trade's abolition in the UK.

This second edition contains revised text and additional documents including one written by American abolitionist Frederick Douglass. There is also a foreward by Kenneth B Morris Jr, the 3 x great-grandson of Frederick Douglass.

Other revisions include a refreshed list of PRONI sources and artefacts from other institutions telling the story of slavery and the slave trade, 1680s–1890s. There is also an updated Bibliography and Websites page.

Click the image to read or download the ebook free of charge from PRONI's website.

Any connections to WW2 Nurses from Ireland? New resource online

In partnership with the Royal College of Nursing NI, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has today launched a ground-breaking Biographical Dictionary of Nurses from Ireland, which describes the lives of those nurses who served on the home front and in various theatres of war around the globe during WW2.

       Click to view online or download

The 325-page online publication full name The Biographical Dictionary of Nurses from Ireland in Service on the Home Front and on Allied Battle Fronts during the Second World War, 1939-1945, is edited by Seán Graffin and provides a comprehensive (but incomplete*) list of those nurses born on the island of Ireland who served. It is available via PRONI's website and is free to view online or to download.

It is well-illustrated and laid out, with a handy Timeline of the war itself and a good listing or Primary Sources, newspapers & journals, websites and a bibliography. There is also a listing of abbreviations used in the nursing profession.

The partnership project began in 2020 following the commemorations to mark the 75th anniversaries of Victory in Europe (VE) Day and Victory in Japan (VJ) Day, in order to identify those who had served in that war.

As names were gathered, it became evident that many nurses, mostly women, from across Ireland applied to train in British hospitals and when qualified applied to enlist to support the war effort.

* Research is continuing.