FindMyPast Irish Research

Researching your Irish family was difficult in the past. That has now changed with the release of tens of millions of records concerning Ireland. FindMyPast claims to have “the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of easy-to-search Irish family history records.”

FindMyPast has blogs and webinars that help you understand their databases and how to get the best use out of their site. “Secrets to Successful Family Research” presented by Fiona Fitzsimons is an excellent blog on how to use the Irish records in FindMyPast. Fiona has some wonderful suggestions on how to maximize your Irish research.

Fiona’s first tip is to be sure and not just accept what is in an index without looking at the original digital image.

When searching, use variants with or without the O or the Mac. There were periods where the O’s and Mac ’s were used sporadically.

Be sure you are using the right name in your search. Your ancestor may have been named Edward at birth but by the end of his life was called Edmond or Eamon, popular nicknames for Edward. Be aware of the Irish nicknames for the name you are researching.

Marriages occurred in the bride’s home parish early in the week. Inter-faith marriages were more common the many realize. Baptisms of the first children born most often occurred in the mother’s home parish as the mother usually returned home to have her children.

Catholic parents put a priority on baptism. You may find a birth date listed later than the baptism date. How could an infant be baptized before they were born? If parents were late in registering their child, they faced a fine. Instead of paying a fine, they changed the birth date. When in question, assume the baptism date is closest to the actual birth date.

The Irish buried their dead with their kin. Families would transport their deceased long distances to bury them with family. Look for burial and death information where the family originated.

Petty Session Court Records are a must to research. These records included every age, religion, and location. The Irish criminalized even minor offenses.

There are many more records to search such as Dog licenses, Griffith Valuation and newspapers. Being familiar with the records available is the key to success. As the Irish saying goes – “Wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you.”

Apps for Genealogy Travel

Technology is amazing and a big help to genealogists. How did we do genealogy before computers and cell phones? I recently read “Apps for Scottish Genealogy Travel” posted on The In-Depth Genealogist blog by Christine Woodcock. As I read this blog post, I realized that these tips could apply to all genealogy travel wherever we go - at home or abroad.

Tip 1 – WiFi may not be readily available where you are going. If you are using your own phone be sure and increase your data plan. Christine states that when she gets to Scotland, she will buy a SIM Card that has 8GB of data, unlimited texts, and lots of minutes. This usually costs her around $40. This way you do not have a huge phone bill at the end of the trip. Great advice and something I may not have thought of.

Tip 2 – Family Tree Apps. Use apps that you can use on your phone without needing WiFi. FamilySearch Tree app is a great app as you can attach photos, stories, and documents as you go. Ancestry and MyHeritage also has an app that you can access your tree without WiFi from your phone. Many Genealogy programs such as Legacy and RootsMagic have tree apps that you can use on your phone without needing WiFi.

Tip 3 – Organization Apps. Evernote is a great app for organizing your trip. It is a great place to put your research plan and your travel itinerary. It can be edited as you go. You can take pictures, scan with your phone and save it to Evernote.

Tip 4 – Scanning App. Evernote has a fantastic free scanning app called Scannable. This app will also use OCR to analyze the documents that you scan. Great for documents and photos that you may come across.

Tip 5 – Travel Apps. Expedia and Priceline are some examples. You can use them to book flights, find hotels, and rent cars. Airline apps allow you to check in on-line and be notified of delays. Hotel apps help you with booking rooms, check-in, and checkout.

Tip 6 - Location Specific Apps. Apps for maps, travel guides, restaurants, taxis, purchase train tickets, and bus schedules.

Your phone can help you in your quest for your ancestors, making it an essential tool not only for genealogy but when you travel too. Welcome to the wonderful world of technology.

Public Domain Day 2019

On January 1, 2019, over 50,000 books and works from 1923 have been released from copyright law and entered the public domain and are free for all to use without permission. The books and works released can be found on various websites such as Google Books, Internet Archive, and HathiTrust. Many famous works released include The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille and The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie. New Hampshire by Robert Frost is in the public domain now, and this book includes many of his famous poems such as “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Fortunately, for genealogists, almost 11,000 digitized books that pertain to family histories and lineage publications are among those released.

Up until 1998, copyrights for books and works lasted for seventy-five years. In 1998, Congress enacted the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and delayed the release of these books for twenty years after pressure to protect the copyright of Mickey Mouse. Because of this, the works that should have entered the public domain on 1 January 1998 had to wait until 2019. The works published in 1923 will enter the public domain in 2020 and so on.

Nancy Loe in her blog, Sassy Jane Genealogy, posted an article “Genealogy Books from 1923 Now Available.” She has some great hints on how to find genealogy books released the first of this year. She states that “using the search string ‘date:1923 AND mediatype:texts AND genealogy’ at Internet Archive gives you a list of 187 genealogy books and other publications.” Nancy also suggests trying specific surnames or geographic locations to have more specific results.

GenealogyBank has a blog by Gena Philibert-Ortega, “Happy Public Domain Day! New Resources for Genealogists.” She found some fantastic social history information that would give us insight into the lives of our ancestors. A book Gena mentions is Edith Wharton’s A Son at the Front. A terrific book for social information about World War I and what it was like to lose a child. Another book she mentions is The Log of a Forty-Niner that has fun information on what it was like to be a fortune-seeker.

There are many books, now free to use, that can help us in our research or even to understand our ancestors better. As you check out the new releases, don’t forget the neat cookbooks that are a great insight into early 20th-century cuisine.