Off topic: chat

pinkypinky

Wow, I didn't know the NAI had older Rotunda records.

The Rotunda has existed since 1745, so not surprised there are some sort of records.

This section of the NAI website talks about hospital records - I see that the Rotunda is still the data controller of this info, so each person wanting to access those records would have to apply for permission to the hospital. Essentially, that means red tape would stop nearly everyone.

https://www.nationalarchives.ie/article/guide-hospital-records/

L1011

The author mentions having got permission from the Master of the Rotunda. He replicated two full pages of the registers, so they were willing to allow full data - albeit not very much full data - out at that time.

Would think that someone like DC Thompson/Eneclann would look to make a request and image the lot. That may already have been tried!

pinkypinky

Certainly worth highlighting. If you're on twitter, you could comment on it & @ FMP, Ancestry, etc.

It'd be a great one for Rootsireland to enhance their Dublin city offering, which is very poor.

L1011

I'm not really a genealogy Twitter person, it's mostly pubs and Dublin history. Well, this is Dublin history...

There's deaths recorded as well as births - shocking maternal death rates back then - and again possibly the only record of their death if poor and died pre 1864

mindhorn

Ancestry DNA matches have really dried up in the last six months or so. I thought that whatever Thanksgiving/Christmas/Paddy's day/etc offers going around would have led to more connections but not seeing any of note.

VirginiaB

I'm having the same lack of close matches on Ancestry for months now. Lots of useless 8 or 9 cM matches--I check every one--and of course no trees. Periodically, I check 'unviewed' and '16 to 19' cM and occasionally find a few I can identify but not with any further help in my own tree. Maybe this quote from an Ancestry press release helps to explain why--I wonder what the results in Ireland would be, a lot better I suspect.

"LEHI, Utah -- March 30, 2022 – Today, a new survey from Ancestry®, the leader in family history, found more than half (53%) of Americans can’t name all four grandparents – demonstrating a knowledge gap in key information about more recent family history."

Mick Tator

Ancestry has dried up for me also, the few new matches I get are all below 20cMs and even then none have matched known paternal/maternal relatives. I’ve been sorting matches into paternal & maternal lines and recently (thanks to poster spook) rejoined and have looked at trees but to little avail. I also have my mother’s DNA on MyHeritage and the new match count from it is considerably worse than Ancestry.

That 30 March press release from Ancestry is truly shocking if it is true. Frankly, I don’t believe it, and would like to see the figures behind the report. I'm not going to comment on the US but really, has it descended to a condition where half its children cannot name their grandparents?

Jellybaby_1

Over the last two years Ancestry have been sending me emails trying to entice me to return and I've ignored them until recently when they offered 4 months for £20Stg so I caved and bought it. So far I have found a few unexciting very distant relatives but that's all. Nothing on my very elusive grandmother, nor any further information on my grand uncle and great-grand uncle who are doing great impressions of the invisible man.

pinkypinky

That's a pity.

Deja Boo

Did the DNA matches start waning after Ancestry was bought out by Blackstone Investments, I wonder?

If so, perhaps the company is experiencing a shift in the paradigm - from promoting family research to a primarily focusing of selling existing DNA data to corporations ? (I dunno)

pinkypinky

It's a while since I had a decent high match on any site - apart from recently testing my aunt, so that wasn't a surprise!

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119155517#Comment_119155517

My new matches on MyHeritage are probably more infrequent than with Ancestry; on both, I’ve had almost none >20cMs in recent months. Without inside knowledge of Ancestry’s numbers, it’s impossible to answer your question.  Is Ancestry, with 20+ million DNA kits reaching saturation point on DNA kit sales? About a decade ago it was calculated that there were 108 million visits a year to genealogy websites, so at a unique visit per week that means 108/52 = 2 million active genealogists in the major English-speaking countries. Is there room for DNA sales growth outside those with a big interest in geno?  Perhaps the 2 million regulars versus 20+ million kits sold explains the contraction in sales (and the lack of response on email contacts with ‘cousins’!)?

The first rule of investing is ‘Never fall in love with a stock’. Blackstone would offload Ancestry in a shot if it thought it could make a faster or easier buck elsewhere. Use of DNA data for medical purposes is fraught with difficulty and could be a trigger to dispose as easily as a reason to retain/grow its investment.

Blackstone is just an investment vehicle like any of its kind. None care whether the investment is in property, pharma, I.C.T. or genealogy, they simply look at the figures – bottom line and forecasts. All want to get maximum return. That means they will ‘sweat’ the asset, driving efficiencies, cutting costs and boosting sales. Occasionally that means taking a ‘long view’ and investing for further growth before an eventual disposal. AFAIK there has been no announcement on the future of Ancestry by either company since the 2020 acquisition. However, Ancestry is investing in its future as it continues to develop & refine its ‘Ethnicity’ data and it also recently launched ‘Sideview’ detailing ethnicity by parent.

Interesting recent article in the New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/05/09/our-obsession-with-ancestry-has-some-twisted-roots-maud-newton-ancestor-trouble

pinkypinky

I thought that was a very problematic article. She obviously didn't talk to any genealogists or hobbyists for it. Most of us are not interested in Royal or illustrious ancestry.

APG actually published a response to it.

https://silkstart.s3.amazonaws.com/59223d29-f147-4e19-8851-92535377c5a2.pdf

Mick Tator

I thought that might wake you up!😁 There are elements of truth in it, though, particularly for a few sectors of an American audience. The APG response was very reasoned.

Mick Tator

Interesting

https://youtu.be/WIb3p5TKSA4

short film. God to see Glasnevin getting its act together

Mick Tator

I’m going through a busy work period so waaaay behind on Geno stuff – Pinky, catching up with my LinkedIn account just now I see you had an interesting letter in the Irish Times – please share!

pinkypinky

I did!

Here it is.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2022/06/11/meeting-great-grandparents/

VirginiaB

Great letter. I was blessed to know all four of my grandparents until young adulthood--three of them danced at my wedding--but none of my great-grandparents. I'd think that would be unusual.

Mick Tator

My maternal grandparents were dead before my mother married. I have a few memories of my other grandmother, she lived far away, an invalid, died when I was just seven. My other grandfather I remember well, from my teens onwards he did not approve of me, my lifestyle, my career choice, etc. Although later he liked my wife, his views of me were unchanged; we has absolutely nothing in common and zero relationship. He died before we had children so I don't know if that might have changed his outlook. I was working abroad when he died, I made no effort to return for his funeral and have never regretted that decision or changed my view of him.

Hermy

My mothers father died before she married and her mother died shortly before I was born but I knew my dad's parents well who both died in the 1990's.

My birth mothers father died shortly after I was born but her mother and my birth fathers parents also lived on into the 1990's though needless to say I never met any of them.

Interestingly, my partners granny knew of her grandparents but didn't know their names because, she said "You didn't ask."

Mick Tator

Inaccurate and downright poor article in the Irish Times yesterday on the new records being made available online. It wasn’t even properly proof read (‘the postwar 1851 census’ – whatever war that was?). The Down Survey maps have been online for quite some time, the data attached to them shows pre- and post- Cromwellian ownership. Also, it’s unclear what exactly is being launched on June 27th, the 'Beyond' programme or new data availability.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2022/06/17/recovered-census-will-help-unravel-life-in-pre-famine-ireland/?fs=e&s=cl&fbclid=IwAR1tIm6J1tTz0WjQf1TDlziJBsNP6eGBrAtgeX7B9oiSWmxfOMvejKIwAb8

Hermy

At least they didn't mention the fire in the Custom House in 1916 that destroyed all the civil records!

pinkypinky

I only skim read the article but did think they were bigging up something that is not going to give much detail. Brian Gurrin gave a great talk to the IGRS a couple of months and he discussed this census. There wasn't uniformity in the response, some places didn't bother, some places just gave numbers, some gave household surnames, etc. It didn't cover the whole country.

Add to that, most people can't easily go back before 1820. 1766 is 2-3 generations before.

I don't have a single branch I can trace to that period yet, after 25+ years work.

mindhorn

Anyone here use geni.com? Find it to be a pretty underrated resource. I've managed to break a few brick walls as a result of finding some trees that were uploaded 15 years ago (with the added bonus of the uploaders including a lot of photos).

Hermy

Same here MH - I occasionally find trees there with useful info that doesn't appear on the bigger sites.

Hermy

Another possibly less well known site I've begun using is geneanet.org which has been great for my recently discovered French ancestry.

Hermy

I hope I don't get banned for cross posting but this news is worth repeating.

Today the President signed the Birth Information and Tracing Bill into law.

Finally I have the legal right to know about my life prior to adoption.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2022/0701/1307901-birth-information/

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119274993#Comment_119274993

Hermy if you are going down the French research road you should subscribe to / look at Anne Morddel's blog. An American, she is a sort of Claire Santry for French research! In addition to publishing 'how to...' pieces, her site has links to all the Departmental sites with summaries of what is available, which is a huge timesaver. https://french-genealogy.typepad.com/genealogie/

Hermy

Super stuff Mick - I hadn't come across that before so chapeau!

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119275635#Comment_119275635

Merci, volontiers!