Church records to go online for free

Hermy · 07-07-2015 11:43pm

Does anyone know any deatils of the launch?

What time will the website go live for instance?

Thomas from Presence · 08-07-2015 12:16am

The NLI is closed until after 3pm. I imagine that there'll be some big green button wired to a light bulb beside some webmaster's desk that Enda will push with said webmaster revealing the microsite as though said green button did it.

The first news story is up with the worst sub-editing ever.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/irish-catholics-can-now-trace-ancestry-online-back-to-1740s-1.2276916

Waitsian · 08-07-2015 12:52am

1740s? Good grief, that was badly researched! I just helped a friend with some family history and I was aghast to discover that Clontibret parish records in Monaghan only start in 1861. Some people are going to be awful disappointed.

Hermy · 08-07-2015 1:04am

Wish the politicians would feck off and let those who did the hard work deservedly bask in the limelight!:(

And it's not just Irish catholics - it's everybody who can avail of these records now!

CassieManson · 08-07-2015 2:25am

tonycascarino wrote:

Tomorrow is D-Day. Can't wait

Looks like it will only go to the 1880's will be very disappointed if that is the case.

RGM · 08-07-2015 4:44am

CassieManson wrote: »

Looks like it will only go to the 1880's will be very disappointed if that is the case.

The list of exactly what the holdings are was posted earlier: http://www.nli.ie/en/parish-register.aspx

The Kurgan · 08-07-2015 8:14am

Think we'll have a very large deciphering thread to come....time to get the monocles out

shanew · 08-07-2015 9:10am

Hermy wrote: »

Does anyone know any deatils of the launch?

What time will the website go live for instance?

from the NLI News page ... The new website will be available worldwide from 2pm on 8 July

pinkypinky · 08-07-2015 10:14am

Ouch, I've apparently over-read for free on the IT site, had to look that one up on my phone.
It's a misleading headline but it's not wrong. There are some parishes in Dublin with records from then. Of course, many of them are already on Irishgenealogy.ie....

Anyway, Cinderella shall be going to the ball launch, so will do you a full report later.

Hermy · 08-07-2015 1:10pm

It's up!!!

oceanclub · 08-07-2015 1:30pm

Hmm, the only search available is by Parish Name. Am I missing something?

EDIT: Perhaps I misunderstood what the site would be but I'm very disappointed. It seems you can only search for Parish Name - nothing else. And the results are microfilm images.

Waitsian · 08-07-2015 1:53pm

oceanclub wrote: »

Am I missing something?

EDIT: Perhaps I misunderstood what the site would be

I'm afraid you did. Sorry. But we've always known the records would not be transcribed or indexed and would be simple scans of parish records off the microfilm at the NLI.

But it's a start! Half a loaf is better than no bread.

And don't despair. There are quite a few enterprising companies out there (and even volunteers) who will undoubtedly some day transcribe them. I know I will do so for Lower Killeavy bit by bit over the next few years.

snickerpuss · 08-07-2015 2:19pm

Wow it's really flying along. I thought it might be buggy at first.

Such a pity that there are no records held from Artane, Coolock, Clontarf and Santry. I wonder if there are any records from these areas at all. Scary to think it might just be the originals!

Ponster · 08-07-2015 2:40pm

The little map they have showing you the surrounding parishes suggests that someone in the project team knows a little about genealogy! I think that'll be very useful for a lot of people.

edit: a fluke I'm sure but I choose my parish and stopped at a random page and there I saw my g-g-g parents names from 1869 !

OU812 · 08-07-2015 2:48pm

Was so looking forward to this, but unfortunately can't find who I was looking for. There's a couple of pages where the names are "blacked out" & I suspect he may be under one of them

pedroeibar1 · 08-07-2015 3:46pm

Pedro is impressed. I like it, the nearby churches map is a good idea also. Now if only I could get broadband a bit faster than 3G........

Hesh's Umpire · 08-07-2015 3:58pm

What is the link please folks?

L1011 · 08-07-2015 4:24pm

http://registers.nli.ie/

Hesh's Umpire · 08-07-2015 4:30pm

L1011 wrote: »

http://registers.nli.ie/

Thanks. I'm getting a DNS entry error (whatever that is!)

L1011 · 08-07-2015 4:35pm

Hesh's Umpire wrote: »

Thanks. I'm getting a DNS entry error (whatever that is!)

Your ISP is slow at updates, likely. Either give it a day or two or look at changing your DNS settings if you're on a network you're in charge of (at home, etc).

Ponster · 08-07-2015 5:17pm

Hesh's Umpire wrote: »

Thanks. I'm getting a DNS entry error (whatever that is!)

http://137.191.249.36/

clashburke · 08-07-2015 5:40pm

mod9maple wrote: »

I'm afraid you did. Sorry. But we've always known the records would not be transcribed or indexed and would be simple scans of parish records off the microfilm at the NLI.

But it's a start! Half a loaf is better than no bread.

And don't despair. There are quite a few enterprising companies out there (and even volunteers) who will undoubtedly some day transcribe them. I know I will do so for Lower Killeavy bit by bit over the next few years.

Just out of interest what program are you going to use to transcribe them?

The records that are not on the prepopulated pages will be an awful pain. I cant make them out at all!!

McLoughlin · 08-07-2015 8:11pm

I'm amazed by the amount of records in Wexford town going back into the 1700's though its hard to read in some areas. Its a shame there is no deaths to go with them but its just brilliant to have these online.

CassieManson · 08-07-2015 8:47pm

oceanclub wrote: »

Hmm, the only search available is by Parish Name. Am I missing something?

EDIT: Perhaps I misunderstood what the site would be but I'm very disappointed. It seems you can only search for Parish Name - nothing else. And the results are microfilm images.

Once you pick the parish you can filter by event (eg marriage/baptism) and year/month. This is quite useful as I thought I would have to scroll down through the whole document to find the relevant records.

pinkypinky · 08-07-2015 11:32pm

Many many hours later, I'm home from a day of brilliant genealogy fun.

Enda and Heather made decent speeches - neither made any massive genealogy errors in what they said.

The new website is great. The images are much sharper and clearer than seeing them on microfilm. Being able to adjust the brightness, contrast and flip to negative is great.

For me the best bit is the map, it's so easy to see which parishes are adjacent to each other and then swoop in and search those for the rogue ancestors.

It's a fantastic resource. Roll on the deciphering thread.

Also great to see so many genealogists in one place...including some of our little boards gang.

Hermy · 08-07-2015 11:44pm

Just curious Pinky - was it invite only or were all welcome?

Hermy · 08-07-2015 11:49pm

Also, how are people getting on with the site - are ye finding things?

Have to say I'm very impressed with the ease of use but they seem to have excluded my relatives.:(:p

KildareFan · 08-07-2015 11:57pm

Great so far - have found my great great grandparents' marriage in Booterstown in 1845 - wish that priest had learned copperplate handwriting, can't read the witness names....

Alicat · 09-07-2015 12:15am

I'm still on one branch, but yes they are eluding me too!

However, I just found a microfilm roll for Rathmines, where the parish priest has put all the baptisms in alphabetical order, by surname. That man had vision!

Edit: Aaaand just found my relative!

Hermy · 09-07-2015 12:27am

Alicat wrote: »

However, I just found a microfilm roll for Rathmines, where the parish priest has put all the baptisms in alphabetical order, by surname. That man had vision!

I noticed something like that in one Dublin parish - as well as registers there were also indexes.

I'm gonna end up shutting my eyes and sticking a pin in a map. I've been chasing some Hearne relatives in Cavan for a long time and I really had high hopes that these records would help tell me something about them but not so far.

Church records to go online for free

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