Updated GRO

dido2

I have wondered about that too MYOB, there were mothers maiden names along with date of births both of which are used for Financial institutions verification when dealing with a customer, if someone knew my maiden name and rough idea of age then it wouldn't be too hard to get the right details....

CassieManson

dido2 wrote: »

I have wondered about that too MYOB, there were mothers maiden names along with date of births both of which are used for Financial institutions verification when dealing with a customer, if someone knew my maiden name and rough idea of age then it wouldn't be too hard to get the right details....

Yes it seemed too good to be true, especially since they refuse to publish the 1926 census!

Its going to be a very long weekend....kinda stuck now...

dido2

Yes thats what I wondered!! I always thought up to 1958 was reasonable.... What I would have loved to see is before 1900 the full details of parents and addresses!!! I'm sure at this stage anyone born before 1900 are long gone!!!

shanew

same here re the recent data worries... so the 'temporarily unavailable' message was promising, in that it suggested maybe a technical glitch.

Anyone can research the index books, so thought the captcha and agreement might cover any data protection concerns, as the data should not be visible to search engines

dido2

They might just remove dates of births, and marriages too.....

L1011

Up to 1958 was what was made available to the LDS church in a time a hell of a lot closer *to* 1958 but the index isn't as detailed as this.

I suspect we're going to see the 50/75/100 (death/marriage/birth) rule proposed for certs apply to this also. Which will be rather irritating even if it does provide something to do every January...

mickmackey1

At least I got a lot of pages saved

Waitsian

shanew wrote: »

same here re the recent data worries... so the 'temporarily unavailable' message was promising, in that it suggested maybe a technical glitch.

Anyone can research the index books, so thought the captcha and agreement might cover any data protection concerns, as the data should not be visible to search engines

See that's what I don't get! The records aren't top secret. Much like electoral registers they're available to anyone who wants to access them - why should availability on a website make that any different?

Jellybaby1

Well that's a turn up for the books all right! Just checked it and the link for Civil Records is gone all right. At the bottom is "Search Online Records' and it offers a list of fourteen links, Griffiths, Soldiers' Wills, NLI, Tithe Applotments, Census, etc. Have they now changed their minds about giving us the Civil Records that we had for oh such a short period of time? I had got a lot of information from it but lots more to do. Rats!

Edit: And I never heard of DHO: Discovery Interface! When I clicked on it this is what I found:
"As of August 31st, 2013, the activities of the Digital Humanities Observatory have ceased. Although DHO:Discovery will continue to be hosted, there will be no further updates to collections or development of new data visualisations. Any queries about this project should be directed to the Royal Irish Academy at info@ria.ie"

CassieManson

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Well that's a turn up for the books all right! Just checked it and the link for Civil Records is gone all right. At the bottom is "Search Online Records' and it offers a list of fourteen links, Griffiths, Soldiers' Wills, NLI, Tithe Applotments, Census, etc. Have they now changed their minds about giving us the Civil Records that we had for oh such a short period of time? I had got a lot of information from it but lots more to do. Rats!

Edit: And what is DHO: Discovery Interface then?

Hopefully we are worrying for nothing and maybe as we speak they are working to fix the problem!

Jellybaby1

Fingers and toes crossed that you are right Cassie!

Waitsian

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Fingers and toes crossed that you are right Cassie!

Claire Santry is on the case but if you check her latest blog post she, as yet, has no definitive news.

Jellybaby1

Someone make Claire Santry the patron saint of Genealogists!

kitchenkid

I suspect there were data privacy concerns.

Hermy

kitchenkid wrote: »

I suspect there were data privacy concerns.

Anyone know yet what the likely implications are if it is indeed data privacy concerns.

Jellybaby1

When I heard the records were on the way I thought I might come as far forward as 1950's, and to be truthful they came almost to the present day which was a major surprise, nay, shock! I wonder what the cut off point will be.

dido2

I think at this stage someone saw there was a problem at lunchtime on friday and Said It can wait until monday!!!!!

expectationlost

Genealogy site left personal data open to identity thieves, says commissioner http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/genealogy-site-left-personal-data-open-to-identity-thieves-says-commissioner-1.1872664

i was surprised to see recent years keyed in my mothers maiden and fathers name it didn't work and thought nothing more of it

shanew

Hermy wrote: »

Anyone know yet what the likely implications are if it is indeed data privacy concerns.

probably a redacted version with less details, e.g. no date of birth, maiden surname etc for more recent records, or a cut off system like the GRONI and Scotland's people. 100 years for births, 75 for marriages and 50 for deaths.

pinkypinky

I feel a bit like a bold child who has been caught and only sorry because she was.

How could they not have checked this with the Data Commissioner? New Tanaiste is going to be embarrassed here.

L1011

The main issue seems to be the assumption a mother's maiden name is a secure fact by businesses, banks, etc. It never was!

shanew

MYOB wrote: »

The main issue seems to be the assumption a mother's maiden name is a secure fact by businesses, banks, etc. It never was!

used as a security question by several fin. institution for me...

and date of birth is often asked, even non Gov. bodies - e.g. Liberty insurance

pinkypinky

It was never secure but certainly is a question asked by organisations. I wish I'd thought of a fake one to use consistently from the beginning!

This article with further analysis is not 100% accurate: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/personal-details-removed-from-site-over-identity-theft-concerns-1.1872741
Mentions data not available online - it is but not quite the same, anyone with a bit of nous and cash could get this information. Certainly this was was quicker to mine the data though. Also mentions the launch of irishgenealogy.ie last year, which is not quite right.

Also no blame attached SW department who are in charge of the GRO, not Deenihan (a now conveniently gone scapegoat).

shanew

I wonder would a sign up process and a small free, cover the concerns - this would stop random searchers, and linking a credit card for the payment would give at least some security. In data protection terms, might just be considered the equivalent to researching in the GRO, which anyone can do..

It's a bit of a conflict... I'd prefer that my and my family's details were private online, but the genealogy aspect is tempting

shanew

p.s. I've been to security conferences where our Data Protection Comm. spoke... should have paid more attention. Horrible suspicion that this is going to feature at the next conference as an example of how not to handle personal data!

Hermy

The words p!ss-up and brewery come to mind!

First off, it's taken the best part of eight months for this site to go live.
Secondly, since going live the website has been a pain to use, between captcha's and log-ins and the lack of cookies to remember your search preferences. And what's worse the church records section is now working in the same frustrating manner.
And now thirdly, the whole thing's been pulled because someone doesn't know one end of the data protection legislation from the other.

At a time when so little money is available how much has been and will be wasted on this mess.

Hermy

Latest blog post from Claire Santry here.

dido2

Does anyone wish they went backwards with the records instead of forwards, like including mothers maiden names back from 1927 to 1864, this to me is what we need in genealogy, it's the older records, the newer ones past 1960 aside from the deaths were of any use really... But they are probably all gone now because there won't be any finances to fix it...

CassieManson

dido2 wrote: »

Does anyone wish they went backwards with the records instead of forwards, like including mothers maiden names back from 1927 to 1864, this to me is what we need in genealogy, it's the older records, the newer ones past 1960 aside from the deaths were of any use really... But they are probably all gone now because there won't be any finances to fix it...

They seem to be looking at a cut off date of 100 years... which means this website will be of very little use really as most of the data is already on familysearch.

For me the most useful information was the marriage records as this was the only site that showed both parties in one record.
I agree that the post 1958 information was of limited use, I was very surprised to see that this was included at all.

Just really hope they do not limit the data on familysearch...those born in the 1920's, 1930's, 1940s and 1950's may also have data protection concerns

dido2

The Marriage info was much better, but at least Find My Past and Ancestry have the possibly spouses on each page so it at least had it down to 4 potential spouses....

Seems Data Protection is all over the place... I'm sure there are loads of ways around the problems but I can't see it being fixed because that would require probably more money to do it and I doubt they'll get it!