Off topic: chat

stopthevoting

This is what I get when I try to search records on www.IrishGenealogy.ie . Is it just me, or is it down for everyone? The main page and some other links are ok, but the civil and church records are not working. I have tried both Firefox and Chrome and it is the same for both.

55Gem

Same for me, it was fine earlier today.

pinkypinky

Down for everyone. People have been discussing on Twitter.

Hermy

Irish Genealogy is back up and running.

EDIT: I spoke too soon - there are still issues with it.

Hermy

Seems to have settled now - hopefully that's it.

Mick Tator

A bit of a giggle

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cwm13IToIve/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D&fbclid=IwAR0OeQ42pXeU8qth59dWNgUanDGXwUry4RePQNH_yka7xwo232-EU-Rv70g

Hermy

I feel her pain.

I too have been subjected to other peoples complete aversion to family trees. 😊

VirginiaB

😂 Rolling on the floor laughing.

Jellybaby_1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121055481#Comment_121055481

I'm not seeing anything, blank screen and no account. Is it also on Youtube? Link?

L1011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_xViaIGbRU

Jellybaby_1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121057449#Comment_121057449

Now I'm worried! Is there a hidden camera in my living room? I've had this very same conversation (almost) with my family! 😢 It's soul-destroying trying to pass on any family history!! 😭

pinkypinky

Shameless self-promotion here: I'm in the Irish Times today talking about using DNA for your family tree.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/09/06/using-dna-to-solve-a-family-mystery-it-brought-great-comfort-to-some-of-the-older-relatives/

Mick Tator

Well done! Nice to see some recognition after all your hard work and studies!

L1011

Despite all my research, it took RTÉ to tell me that my great grand aunt was the last native Irish speaker in Beaver Island (and hence probably Michigan)

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2023/0904/1403306-donegal-pipe-band/

Hermy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076289#Comment_121076289

I think the point you make about genetic genealogy widening trees rather than pushing them back is a good one.

JDERIC2017

hopefully sorted soon

Jellybaby_1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082146#Comment_121082146

'Service unavailable' for me. Maybe good news soon.

euro_girl21

Hi, has anyone experience of using the Dublin electoral lists from 1938 onwards in the City Archive/Pearse Street libarary? I thought they were searchable but have been told they have bound copies by electoral ward and I need to provide the exact details of addresses, etc. I would appreciate any advice.

pinkypinky

They are inaccessible at the moment because they're on an old computer and the IT department hasn't updated it. Totally unacceptable. The librarians will do a look up if you have a specific address but not a speculative search.

Please do email to complain because the more people that do, the better chance of rectifying it.

euro_girl21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121104403#Comment_121104403

Thanks a lot for your help, I will follow up about it.

spurious

I seem to have lost my 'Help' button on ancestry.

I know the message boards were not very active but I used to drop in every so often.

Up the top left, it used to say Home Trees Search DNA Help, now all except Help.

Not sure if they are gone altogether.

Comsewogue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121265390#Comment_121265390

It's still there but it's been moved. Look for the ? icon next to your profile on the right side of the top navigation bar. Click that and under 'Community', you'll find the link to the message boards.

BowWow

Is there anything as useless as the "Notifications" button in Ancestry's revised menu bar at the top of their page?

e.g. "Hi, well done, you've added "X (1700-1750)" to your tree. Why don't you post a photo of them now?"

spurious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121266205#Comment_121266205

Or the hints. Is this their wife Mary Jane (1911-1971)?

VirginiaB

There’s a discussion on Ancestry’s message boards about the boards’ new secret hiding place and whether it presages an eventual end to them. Only the persistent can find them and newbies might never know they are there.

VirginiaB

This is really off topic but is historic so I hope someone here might know. I recently re-read a book about the Donner Party episode in the 1840s in American history. It relies a good deal on a diary kept by Irish immigrant, Patrick Breen from Co Carlow. In it, he refers to beginning 'the thirty days'. He is referring to Advent. Google has been no help so does anyone know if Advent was once referred to as 'the thirty days' in Ireland--or anywhere?

As an aside, his wife Margaret Bulger, whom he married in Canada, first port of call for both of them, was also from Co Carlow. The book is "Ordeal by Hunger", not about the Famine.

pinkypinky

I don't but there's a new book out called the Irish and Christmas edited by Salvador Ryan. He's on Twitter and might know. @SalvadorRyan

VirginiaB

Thanks for that. He does seem to be an expert on the subject as this book is just out and his cv is very impressive.

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121454682#Comment_121454682

Growing up in Ireland I never heard of the ‘thirty days’. Advent did not feature in my childhood other than to be aware of it from liturgy – the first Sunday in Advent, etc. Technically, Advent must contain four Sundays, so it can be as short as 23 or as long as 28 days, but never 30. I have a vague recollection of Advent calendars (covering the full month of December?) back in 1960’s Ireland but not before that.

Have you had a look in the Folklore Commission files? https://www.duchas.ie/en

VirginiaB

Thanks for that info. It does help to know that 'the thirty days' is not something recalled by those living. So whatever it was, it is either a long-past custom or one very local to this family. I do know about the Folklore Files but I think that would e a bit of a rabbit hole for me for this question.

Patrick Breen's Diary is digitized and the actual diary indicates the family started 'the thirty days' on Christmas Eve, not the beginning of Advent as the book seemed to imply--or I read it incorrectly.

Thanks again to both of you.

Later--More research revealed that 'the thirty days' was an old devotion of saying a specific prayer to the Virgin Mary for thirty days. The prayer is in some old prayer books and also online, found with some digging. It is said, as the name implies, for thirty days. There is no specific connection to Advent or Christmas. Margaret Bulger Breen did exclaim her thanks to the Virgin Mary when the family were rescued at the point of death in the Sierra Nevada mountains.