Other News
Interesting websites:
County Tyrone Gravestone Photo and Transcription Project!
www.tammymitchell.com/cotyrone/
The mission of this project is to capture digital images of gravestones of our ancestors.
As decades pass -- many stones are becoming harder, if not impossible, to read the inscriptions they originally contained.
By archiving the images, we can help save these important records and also assist researchers using this valuable resource.
Also Available: The ability to list a transcription of your Ancestor's Headstone, even if you don't have an image to share.
County Fermanagh Gravestone Photo and Transcription Project. www.tammymitchell.com/cofermanagh/
List of graduates of the University of Glasgow from 1451-1896.
The search engine is available at http://universitystory.gla.ac.uk/browse-graduates/?gt=1
There is an online video tour of The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) - Valerie Adams, Head of Strategic Development at PRONI, gives this tour of the search rooms. PRONI's own website is: PRONI.
The Scotsman Digital Archive: every newspaper published between 1817 and 1950 can be searched; to celebrate 'Homecoming Scotland 2009', this site has a special offer on its Digital Archive packages (half price subscriptions during July). For details, see The Scotsman Digital Archive
The Census of Ireland 1911 site is on-line and all thirty-two counties for 1911 are now available. More details can be found at www.census.nationalarchives.ie
The National Archives (London) www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/ is the UK government's official archive, containing almost 1,000 years of history, with records ranging from parchment and paper scrolls through to digital files and archived websites. The website includes a link to a pilot program called "Digital Microfilm Project--Free"; included are 191 rolls of microfilm, digitized page by page, and available for downloading for free.
FreeCen www.freecen.org.uk/ - the sister site of FreeBMD (which covers England and Wales). You can search by place of birth and Irish counties are included. If you don't enter a name you get a listing of all the people born in County Down, Armagh, etc. The database is not yet complete as they rely heavily on volunteers to do the transcriptions but it seems a great resource and free too! It seemed as if this was for England, Scotland and Wales specifically, not realising the potential for finding people born in Ireland. It will cover 1841 - 1891 so is going to be great for finding earlier relatives.
CastleGarden.org is an educational project of The Battery Conservancy. This free site offers access to an extraordinary database of information on 12 million immigrants from 1820 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened. Over 100 million Americans can trace their ancestors to this early immigration period. www.castlegarden.org
Raymond's County Down Website is a mine of information and the latest items online are:
- Information about the poor persons who were removed to Ireland;
- Return of all poor persons, removed from Scotland to Ireland 1867/1869;
- Return of all poor persons removed from England & Wales to Ireland 1867/1869;
- Return of poor persons, England & Wales since 1st Jan. 1875;
- Return of poor from Scotland to Ireland, 1875/76/77/78.
www.raymondscountydownwebsite.com/
Ancestry Library Edition
The new Northern Ireland Library Authority is making Ancestry Library Edition available free to all library members. To get details of your nearest library go to www.librariesni.org.uk.
Newry and Mourne Museum Exhibition and Lectures
The Newry and Mourne Museum at Bagenal's Castle is holding an exhibition entitled "Faces from our Maritime Past: Merchant Seamen from Newry and Mourne in the 20th Century" from 19th February 2009 – 30th November 2009. To support the exhibition a series of lectures is being held. On April 30th Kevin Murphy will speak on "The Hannah, the story of an Irish brig that left Newry for Quebec in 1849". On May 14th Sean Patterson will speak on "Newry Shipping Losses 1900 – 1940". Full details of these and other events at the museum can be viewed here.
Local History e-Bulletin
The South Eastern Education and Library Board's Local Studies Team is producing an e-bulletin to keep people informed of Local Studies events in their libraries. The bulletin also contains many useful tips for the family historian. The latest bulletin can be viewed here.
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
History of Cookstown by Henry L. Glasgow. This book is a compilation of the writings of Henry L. Glasgow by Graham Mawhinney. The writings were first published in the 1920s in the Mid-Ulster Mail of which Henry was the first editor, and co-founder with his brother John in 1891. The book runs to more than 300 pages, and is packed with local information. There is a limited number of black and white illustrations and the lack of an index will annoy the lazy genealogist. The book is available from Moyola Books, c/o Orr's Corner, Labby, Draperstown, Co Londonderry, N. Ireland BT45 7BE. ISBN: 9781873345290
On the web
FamilySearch.org are experimenting with a new search engine for their databases which include BDM records for the whole of Ireland 1845 - 1958 Irish Civil Registration Indexes and can be viewed free online at pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#
