Other News
Ulster-American Heritage Symposium
The XVIIth Ulster-American Heritage Symposium will be held at the Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh, from the 25th to 28th June 2008. Of particular interest to NIFHS members is the Saturday 28th June programme as there is a focus on Family History. Further details of the provisional programme, costs and application form can be found at www.qub.ac.uk/cms. Alternatively Tel. No. 028 8225 6315 or e-mail centremigstudies@ni-libraries.net
The International Gathering of the Clans 2009
The Gathering 2009 will be one of the major events of Homecoming Scotland and will be held in Edinburgh on the 25th and 26th July 2009. It is primarily a celebration of the contribution that the clans have made to the culture and history of Scotland, and will be one of the largest clan gatherings ever witnessed. It is estimated that there will be over 80 clan tents, with over 7500 clan members from around the world. The Highland Games, that are an integral part of The Gathering, should attract a further 30,000 people over the 2 days. Further details of the Gathering can be found at www.clangathering.org/.
New Books
Robert Forrest "Historical Gleanings from the Parish of Magilligan, Co Londonderry: 1600-1800AD". This booklet was researched, written and published by one of the society's members. The book is A5 and comprises 65 pages relating to genealogical sources for the Parish of Magilligan (Tamlaghtard). Contents include the Civil Survey 1654/5; Pender’s Census 1659; The 1663 Hearth Money Roll; Muster Roll, 1666; 1740 Householders’ Returns; Tamlaghtard Church of Ireland registers (Baptisms: 1748-1764, Marriages: 1747-1753, Burials: 1747-1776); Magilligan baptisms (1699-1710); Magilligan marriages, (1683-1739); Estate records (Gage estate; Bacon estate; Hervey-Bruce estate); 1796 Flax Premium returns; Will extracts; Gravestone Inscriptions (St. Aidan’s Mixed, Magilligan). The book is priced at £10.00, and can be ordered from Bobby Forrest, 14 Edenvale, Crossgar, County Down, N. Ireland, BT309PU bobbyforrest63@hotmail.com"
Duty without Glory: The Story of Ulster's Home Guard in the Second World War and the Cold War by David R. Orr. Following Dunkirk Churchill called for the formation of Local Defence Volunteers (LDV) in May 1940, a week later Lord Craigavon announced his intent to form LDV in Northern Ireland. By August of the same year the name of the volunteers was changed to the Home Guard. The book tells the story of the Home Guard from 1940 - 1944 and its recall in 1950 to meet the communist threat in the first half of that decade. Published by Redcoat Publishing, Newtownards 2008, 320pages, £25.00 ISBN 978-0-9538367-2-7.
The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley: The Story of Their Families by Kathleen Rankin. A companion volume to The Linen Houses of the Lagan Valley, this tells the story of the linen families and their houses in the counties, Down, Armagh and Tyrone. The book is well illustrated with many colour illustrations and contains family trees for the Bell family, the Cowdy family, the Crawford family, the Dickson family, the Dunbar family, the Ferguson family, the Greer and Greeves family, the Lindsay family, McMaster family, the Murland family, the Smyth family, the Sinton family, and the Uprichard family. Published by the Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast 2007, 260pages, £29.99 ISBN 978-1-903688700. Further details can be found at www.ancestryireland.com/index.php?ai_books.
On the web
The Ireland GenWeb Project has been working on getting the 1864 Ireland Birth Index online. Currently only the surnames beginning with A have been completed, these can be found at: www.irelandgenweb.com/BirthIndex/BirthIndex1864-A.htm.
The first and second Markethill Presbyterian Churches have combined to produce an attractive website, of particular interest to genealogists is the genealogy page which lists baptism and marriage records from 1821 to 1945 and a list of the members of the Congregation dating back to 1763. These can be found at: www.markethillpresbyterian.co.uk/genealogy.htm.
findmypast.com have launched help and frequently asked questions to their website to help people both with the findmypast website and searching for their family tree in general. These can be found at: www.findmypast.com/helpadvice/.
The Public Record Office for Northern Ireland has been digitising their holdings of street directories. They are available at: proni.aetopia.com/streetdirectories/index.html.
The Registry of Deeds Index Project is in the early stages of development. The purpose of this project is to index all of the names that appear in the memorial books at the registry of deeds. The Registry of Deeds is located in Henrietta Street, Dublin and is a reposity of records of wills, land transactions in Ireland and other deeds from 1709. Currently there are over 10,000 index entries from just over 1,200 memorials. These can be found at freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~registryofdeeds/
The Irish Family History Foundation's Online Research Service Latest set of additions are records for County Sligo. An interactive map which shows which areas that are available can be found at ifhf.brsgenealogy.com/map.php which gives details of all the areas that records are cureently available for.
For a different approach to family history try Google Books. Google have digitised the text of many out of copyright books and as a consequence they are searchable. Use the advanced search facility and select full view to ensure the book is fully digitized then you can search by surname and local area. The advanced search for Google books can be found at books.google.co.uk/advanced_book_search. If you register with Google you can create your own virtual library and add notes and labels to the books to remind you why you selected them.
The National Archives Census of Ireland site is now on-line, currently only the 1911 census records for Dublin are available. More details of the census and the planned addition of other areas and the 1901 census can be found at www.census.nationalarchives.ie.
The Society of Genealogist's Programme for 2008 is now available on-line. More details can be found at www.sog.org.uk/events/calendar.shtml.
