Off topic: chat

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?"

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.

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

I’ve just read CB’s review of Ancestry’s new ‘Pro’ tool. It’s an interesting take, (and a blog worth following). https://cbgeneal ogy.ie/ancestry-pro-tools/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Of late, I’ve been bombarded with Ancestry’s product pop-ups and click-bait exclamation marks to the point of annoyance. It seems that Ancestry’s new owners mistakenly believe that sweating their assets through flogging the ‘Pro’ tool & ‘Pet DNA’ 🙄 has more potential than giving customers what they really want or something innovative.

Thanks Pinky, same to you and wishing you lots of 'finds' in 2024!

I'm fascinated....do keep us informed about your great uncle's 'exploits'. I don't have anybody in my tree who wandered that much! I haven't been receiving any €1 offers from Ancestry, only €20 for 4 months. I didn't bother.

I had great results from Guinness archives. I was able to make appointment to see the actual files as well which included a lot of detail.

I'm quite interested in that, one great great grandfather was somewhat notable (as in he gets mentioned in newspapers, for something other than his ads for his shop) in the Land League

Then on another side, the place that many generations were living was bought by the Congested Districts Board in one go to get rid of a particularly terrible landlord (bought the estate post famine and did a clearance to the US then to increase farm size; punitive rack rents; had people harshly prosecuted for wandering sheep etc etc etc)

Going to wait for a FMP free period though.

Tried out the Land Commission Advances - thanks to Waitsian. This is a great resource, particularly since the date is close to 1901 census. So it helps you make the connection between names in census and land records from Griffiths Valn in 1850's. Great if ancestor moved home during this period. To link up to the Griffiths maps you just need to match up the acres/roods/perches of the holding. Similar info can be got from Cancelled Books, but you have to visit Val'n Office in Dublin to see those. great to have info indexed online.

Well that didn't last long. Saw the database was there last evening after reading the above post, but when I tried to look something up this afternoon it was gone with a message about data protection 😢😢.

I did say rush but I didn't think someone would complain that quick!

You can still inspect the full, current electoral register; in person - and can't actually use the info except for electoral purposes; so the idea of choking it to 100 years is ridiculous.

And if they are going to do that, they should be updating the >100 year ones more frequently albeit I would not expect there to have been particularly good data for 1920-23 if at all.

Marketing purposes recently stopped, but any register pre 1990s was signed up for in full knowledge that it was open season

That's disappointing alright, I had made a couple of discoveries, but hadn't recorded them sufficiently to follow them up and now I can think of so many more searches I would like to have done.

How well maintained were the registers, for example, I was able to see a person in them at the same address up to 55/56, but not in 56/57 (but another member of the household continues to appear), given he was born in the 1880's it is reasonable to assume he died around then, but how long would it have taken to be removed from the register. He has a common enough name but is not one of the 10 people with that name who died in 1956.

I had a second example of a man who died in 1936, but was still on the register in 1944, I am told he had a son with the same name, who I have never been able to find a trace of, wondering if this is just non-removal from the register or possibly evidence of a son?

Do the actual registers contain any additional information like age or date of birth?

Is there any way to get information from the registers without going in person, I don't live in Dublin.

Claire Santry posts on her website today that all of FindMyPast's records are open and free this weekend thru Monday 10 June 2024 at 10am. There are just two exceptions. This is to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. You can read the details here https://www.irishgenealogynews.com/

I am not a subscriber to Findmypast at the moment. But it can be used to search for church records where it will throw up results that I can then use to access the free microfiche records on the Irish website. Much easier to find a record when you have a year/parish suggestion.