Family tree?

dubtom

I've recently started doing my family tree with a program from my heritage,family tree builder. Some of the options, such as smart research,where it automatically searches other genealogy sites etc, I'm barred from using unless I sign up for a premium account, 60 quid sterling. I'm unsure if I should,I assume most of the sites would be UK based and not deal with Irish unless of course they lived in england. I have little info to go on at this stage,although I must admit more than I had when I started,going back two generations on each side,although I was surprised to learn that Guinness have info on past employee's going back to the 1800's,which may be of help to me.Anyway,are these sites generally worth the bother,as in paying for the extra's. TBH I've really very little idea of where to start,I've quite a few people in the family who I hope have some memory of past generations,just haven't got around to them all yet.Any suggestions,or warnings, appreciated.

Anatomy Boy

So far in my research the best source has been the Irish Times Archive!! But now you have to pay for it:

• 1 YearEUR € 395
• 1 MonthEUR € 65
• 1 weekEUR € 26
• 24 HourEUR € 10

If you can compile as much as possible from your family, and then spend a day searching you'd be surprised what shows up. They used to print all the job promotions for any of the big companies (Guinness, Jacob's etc.) And if anyone in your family was in the RIC or Dublin Met. or the army/navy there's bound to be a mention at some stage, mainly in the fantastically titled "News from the Provinces" page.

pinkypinky

Hi Dubtom,

I would wait before subscribing to any services or, at least, try them out for a trial only. I know Ancestry and Origins both do an option for either a trial of 2 weeks or a 72 hour subscription. An annual subscription to Origins has been useful for me because I'm doing a course in genealogy but if I was just researching my own history, I would have gone for a shorter term sub. I haven't heard of the site you mentioned. Could you please post a link?

Ancestry has very little of use to Irish research unless you have British army ancestors. Origins has some good bits and they are improving it too.

In a nutshell, my advice is to hold off until you've talked to all the older people in your family. The 1911 census for Dublin is free online (www.census.nationalarchives.ie) and the 1901 is coming later in the year. From that, you may be able to get some useful birth and marriage certificates (which will cost money but not £60!)

Regards,
Pinky

dubtom

Thanks for that,the link is, edit,sorry,have to find out how to get their home page,it's linking to my personal page.It w ect myheritage.co.uk
I'll hold off on the sub. I've got quite a bit of info already from the 1911,looking forward to the 1901. In the case of my Grandfather,I've only found one entry with his name in Dublin,which in turn gave me the rest of his family,who I hadn't a clue existed. Of course,I'll have to verify if indeed it is him with family I haven't seen in 40 years. It's all adventure,eh.

Anatomy Boy,would the Irish times have lists of the Irish fallen in WWI,is it online or do you have to scour microfilm or old papers?

Ponster

dubtom wrote: »

Anatomy Boy,would the Irish times have lists of the Irish fallen in WWI,is it online or do you have to scour microfilm or old papers?

Online via Ancestry as they were British soldiers at the time.

dubtom

Ponster wrote: »

Online via Ancestry as they were British soldiers at the time.

I've tried ancestry,too many of the same name.I was hoping the times would give a list of the daily killed and perhaps some family connection,ie, Joe blogs, military number,died of wounds in flanders etc,husband of etc. I know it's a long shot as I don't know either number or when or where killed. 4 years of daily paper searching would be a task I know,it's probably the last hope as far as my grandfather is concerned.

pinkypinky

Have you looked at the http://www.cwgc.org/ site?
Lists any soldier who died in WWI, I believe.
I haven't used it myself because all my ancestors who fought survived, thankfully.

Gone Fishin

Hi there,
The easiest way for you to start your Family tree is to speak to your parents. Get their dates and places of birth. If possible, get the dates and places of births of their parents too. I'm 36 and I did this, so straight away it brought me back into the 19th century. You can get copies of their birth certs from the GRO Office in the Irish Life Mall. You can also find a lot of info in the Library in Pearse Street, they have lots of records on microfilm. Also in the National Library in the city centre, they run a help desk on Saturday mornings from 10-12. Its very interesting but be prepared to do a lot of running around and paper trail chasing. Also be prepared to uncover some strange stuff. My great grandad turned out not to be my great grandad, it was actually his brother who was my great grandad, it turns out that he was playing the field with my great grandmother whilst my ex great grandfather (if you know what I mean) was away in the first world war! Mad stuff altogether. The last thing is older people can be a great help but be prepared because some of the things you will ask them may hurt or they just don't want to relive them.
Best of luck!

dubtom

Thanks for the replies. Yes pinkypinky I've used the Gwgc, actually I paid a guy in England to do a search for me in the national archives UK but didn't turn up much. He gave me a couple of possibles,one of which was in the Royal Irish Rifles.I wonder is there still a record for the regiment in Ireland.
Gone fishin,I'm sick asking,most of my relatives are getting on now and their memory's are shady. But I did find out today that the grandfather above died in 1918,which has wittled down some of my search.I also got word of another grandfather from Guinness that they have a definate record,if nothing else I should positive dob and address from that.Still like to know from anybody who has searched if the times listed the war dead during WW1,probably a long shot, having one year to search would make it easier.

pinkypinky

Dubtom, do you have enough information to be sure you have the right person with the army records? The service records I found on ancestry for one of my great-grandfathers listed his wife and children's names as well as address, age, etc. It is worth checking back with Ancestry every now and then because they are still working on the service records...more are added every so often. If you've got an army death in 1918, then you should check both 1918 and 1919's death records. There is a list of overseas deaths at the back of each book too. In case you don't know, you can search for deaths in the Irish Life Centre Research Room and then order the cert then and there but they charge per search or €20 for the day. You can also search the indexes only online
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#c=1408347;p=collectionDetails;t=searchable

dubtom

Thanks for that Pinky.I searched the indexes at that family search and had no hits on any of my grandparents.Even took a stroll up to mount Jerome to find a grave I was certain I knew it's location,couldn't find it. It seems I have a dodgy memory too and I wonder why the oldie's in my family can't remember anything.
fair play to the staff up there,they did a few searches for me with little info,free. I see Glasnevin charge a fiver per search online,don't know if they charge at the office.It could be an expensive day searching up there. Unfortunatly I have little info on my Grandfather who died in WW1,only his wife's name,an address,which they could have moved on from and a child,a year of birth and death.I did get some medal cards for his name,actually I think they made a mistake and gave me 6 for different people,all the same name,for 2 quid. I will keep checking of course.When you say check 18/19 death records,do you mean on ancestry or the indexes at family search.Would a spouse get a death cert in Ireland for someone killed in the war?

Snickers Man

pinkypinky wrote: »

Have you looked at the http://www.cwgc.org/ site?
Lists any soldier who died in WWI, I believe.
I haven't used it myself because all my ancestors who fought survived, thankfully.

The CWGC.org site is extremely useful up to a point. It helps if you know the exact year of death of your relative/ancestor and also if they have an uncommon name. If you are searching for a J Ryan or P Murphy who might have been killed in the First World War.....good luck!

In some cases, about a half in my experience, it will give an address for a next of kin, typically parents or sometimes a widow. This can be useful but be advised that the address may not be contemporaneous with the soldier's death. Often these were added to the records, or amended many years later and could be a completely different one.

So if you were looking for somebody who you knew came from Mayo, say, and you found the address of a next of kin that was in Dublin or England, don't rule it out. They could have moved there many years later and had their details recorded then.

Certainly that is the case with one of my ancestors. It stumped me for a while.

pinkypinky

dubtom wrote: »

I did get some medal cards for his name,actually I think they made a mistake and gave me 6 for different people,all the same name,for 2 quid. I will keep checking of course.When you say check 18/19 death records,do you mean on ancestry or the indexes at family search.Would a spouse get a death cert in Ireland for someone killed in the war?

That's not a mistake - that's just the way they're scanned. Useful thing to remember if you are looking for 2 people with the same surname. I mean on family search. If an Irish subject was killed abroad or at war, then their death would be registered in Ireland, but sometimes it was after the year ended. Each index book (by year - when you look at the physical books) has a separate list of deaths/marriages/births abroad at the end of it. I'm not sure if the LDS have included these lists so it's probably worth a visit to the Irish Life research room to view the physical books for each year. It'll cost €2 to search 5 books of consecutive years.

dubtom

Snickers Man wrote: »

The CWGC.org site is extremely useful up to a point. It helps if you know the exact year of death of your relative/ancestor and also if they have an uncommon name. If you are searching for a J Ryan or P Murphy who might have been killed in the First World War.....good luck!

In some cases, about a half in my experience, it will give an address for a next of kin, typically parents or sometimes a widow. This can be useful but be advised that the address may not be contemporaneous with the soldier's death. Often these were added to the records, or amended many years later and could be a completely different one.

So if you were looking for somebody who you knew came from Mayo, say, and you found the address of a next of kin that was in Dublin or England, don't rule it out. They could have moved there many years later and had their details recorded then.

Certainly that is the case with one of my ancestors. It stumped me for a while.

Trouble with my grandfathers name is that it's fairly common. All of my possibles had no details,as in no address or next of kin. I was given 4 possibles by the searcher I used,which is who I got the medal cards for.It's good to know though that there is a possibility that the info I need may be the Irish life,I'll check that out soon.

sweet-rasmus

Just to note: hold back on forking our the money. I know it can be tempting, with the notion of all the answers behind a subscription, but this isn't always the case. I recommend you head the the National Archives on Bishop Street, sign up (free - bring ID) and search the 1901 census for the exact street that you found your relatives living in 1911. If you are lucky, they will be at that address still and you may learn more clues. If not, don't waste hours and endure headaches to find their house - wait for it to be digitised, then search the name.

Good luck, and remember it may be years until you get to some juicy information. It is a lengthly process, but keep at it.

gerardpallen

dubtom wrote: »

I've recently started doing my family tree with a program from my heritage,family tree builder. Some of the options, such as smart research,where it automatically searches other genealogy sites etc, I'm barred from using unless I sign up for a premium account, 60 quid sterling. I'm unsure if I should,I assume most of the sites would be UK based and not deal with Irish unless of course they lived in england. I have little info to go on at this stage,although I must admit more than I had when I started,going back two generations on each side,although I was surprised to learn that Guinness have info on past employee's going back to the 1800's,which may be of help to me.Anyway,are these sites generally worth the bother,as in paying for the extra's. TBH I've really very little idea of where to start,I've quite a few people in the family who I hope have some memory of past generations,just haven't got around to them all yet.Any suggestions,or warnings, appreciated.

Try tribalpages, it's a free family tree site.......

jaqian

gerardpallen wrote: »

Try tribalpages, it's a free family tree site.......

Tribalpages.com is good site if a little basic. You can also print of descendant charts and download the gedcom file. MyHeritage.com is also a good site.

Don't go near Geni.com as it is impossible to delete your tree once you link it with someone else. Not sure what its like if not linked.

Ancestry.co.uk/.com offer little to Irish people, don't bother signing up.

pinkypinky

I agree about geni.com.
A friend mentioned it to me and I signed up and then I discovered that other people can edit my tree if they link to it, without any proof that their information is more correct than mine. I got my tree removed completely by emailing them.

I think it's best not to put any family tree on the internet, or at least to only have a basic one with deceased ancestors. Identity thieves love family trees: they can get your date of birth, mother's maiden name, possibly place where you were born in one handy file...

jaqian

I always hide living descendants anyway so shouldn't be a problem. But it is something to bear in mind for newbies.