Ancestry Sites

There are new ancestry sites popping up all the time. Every time I do a new search I find something more so DO keep checking back on this page and also DO keep googling your family names and places, you will be surprised at how many people are sharing their ancestry these days and that can only be a good thing.

Also, keep your eyes and ears open for the 1911 census of all Ireland. The National Archives have started digitizing these and have completed those for Dublin. They have started on County Down and will eventually have the whole of Ireland online. You can search these and view the original documents free of charge (link below). ****UPDATE**** All 32 Counties are now online as of Friday 28th August 2009. Click on the link for the national archives below and the best of luck finding your family members!!

The next part of their project will be to include full transcriptions and then have the 1901 Census transcribed and online. The 1901 project will begin late 2009 - Early 2010.

http://www.placenamesni.org/ - This site is a very useful resource. You can search the townlands and places in Northern Ireland you can also view maps, including maps of 1830 and 1850

http://www.monaghan.ie - This is the official Monaghan County Council website and includes the Monaghan County Libraries. If you choose Library from the menu you will find the link to history and genealogy which has an extensive range of information, links and resources. Also an information file on how to go about tracing your ancesotrs, what records are available and where to access them. Very useful indeed!

http://sites.google.com/site/rushfamilytree/home - The family history site of the Rush family of County Monaghan.

http://www.gillespiesofstonebridge.org - A new website created by Joe Gillepsie whose family came from Stonebridge, Monaghan (near Roslea). Lots of very good information, especially birth, marriage and death records for Gillespies in Clogh Church. There has been talk of a Gillespie having owned or worked at the flax mill in Tattinbar and that the mill was burned down around the late 1800s or early part of the 1900s. If you have any information about the mill, in particular the fire, it would be great to here from you. You can reach me using the 'contact me' link on the left.

http://freeukgen.rootsweb.com/ - This site contains three subsites, FreeBMD (Indexes for Births, Deaths & Marriages from September 1837 - 1984), FreeCen (Census information from 1841 - 1891) and FreeReg (databse of Parish Registers). Find out more by going to the main site and looking at each one.

http://fultonhistory.com/ - A great site that was recently posted on the Fermanagh Gold mailing list. If your family has links to USA (especially New York) you may find this site an excellent resource. There are news stories from many areas outside the US so I strongly advise you to at least have a look and do a keyword search to see what comes up. You can view scans of original newspapers. One thing I will mention is the fact that I assume the keyword search is based on text recognition from the newspaper text. This being the case means due to some newspaper text being a bit hard to read, your search might throw up what appears as gobbledegook. If this is the case there would be no harm having a look at the newspaper so you don't miss something potentionally important.

http://ahd.exis.net/monaghan/ - This site has many, many resources for County Monaghan history, including information on the Churches and the records they hold.

http://griffiths.askaboutireland.ie/gv4/gv_start.php - Here you can view the original papers for the Griffiths Valuation of Ireland as well as maps of the townlands. It has a searchable database where you can search by surname or placename.

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ - This site has births, deaths and marriages indexed for all of England and Wales. It is an ongoing project undertaken by many volunteers and when it's finished it will cover 1837 - 1983. I have found many of my own family's bmds. If you can't find the person you're looking for keep checking back as chances are they might not have yet been transcribed. Once you find your family member you will be able to order their birth/death/marriage certificate at a cheaper cost as you will have the Volume and page numbers so instead of £10 you will get it for £7.

http://rooneys-of-roslea.com/ - A new site dedicated to the Rooney families of Roslea. it was created by Sean Rooney, a friend of mine and a descendant of the Rooneys of Eshnadaragh, Derryartry and Kilcreen, although during his research he has linked to Rooneys of surrounding townlands.

http://www.eppi.ac.uk/eppi/digbib/home - This site is full of Parliamentary papers ranging from 1801 to 1922, for the whole of Ireland. It contains papers such as Land Commission records, Petty Sessions records, old Census information for numbers of people living in townlands and much, much more. The first page will have a basic search bar and there is a link for an advanced search too. I have found many records on this site and advise everyone to at least have a look. Don't forget to try variant spelings and phonetic spellings... you'll be surprised what may be hiding away under a different spelling.

http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ - As mentioned above, this site will eventually have the whole of the 1911 Census for Ireland online, free of charge with viewable original documents. this is going to be great and even better if/when they get the 1901 Census done. ****UPDATE**** All 32 Counties are now online for the 1911 Census.

http://www.proni.gov.uk/ - For access to Freeholders, Ulster Covenant and, most recently, Wills Abstracts. These are free to search and I have been told recently that the original documents will be available to view, free of charge, as the next step in this project. I cannot stress enough how important some of these records are, especially the Wills Abstracts, which can give vital clues as to the townland and/or other family members. An example of the information held for Wills is as follows....

Note: This information is subject to copyright by Proni. For details please go here

This is will information for my GG Grandfather. I am told that in some cases there is more information available to order from Proni. While some were destroyed during the Four Courts others remain intact so it might be a good idea to contact Proni to find out.

*Update - I have recently added a page with some wills which were obtained by Sean rooney, a friend of mine, for his family in Roslea and Monaghan. These will give you an idea of what information you may be able to get hold of should you decide to order the documents from Proni. Ordering is easy, all you need to do is send an email to proni requesting the wills, giving the reference number and deceased's name as well as their date of death (these you will find on the wills calendar search). You will then be sent a form, via email, with the total cost of the documents requested plus P&P, which you can fill in and fax back to them. The reason you'll need to fax the form back is because you will be giving your credit card details and their email is not secure. Good Luck!

http://www.libraryireland.com/ - Many townland and county directories for trades people and residents for Ireland here. I have just recently found this site and I'm hooked

http://geocities.com/jamesmullan@rogers.com/  This is a new site created by James Mullan and Maureen Batty who have been researching their Beggan family of Roslea. There is a whole lot of information, census records for 1901 and 1911, and not just for Beggan surnames. This site is a must for Beggan researchers!

http://members.tripod.com/~Al_Beagan/start.htm - Another Beggan site. Anyone researching the name Beggan, or any variant spelling, i.e. Beagan, Beggin, Bagan, etc, in Monaghan, Fermanagh and USA, would do well to visit this site.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html For news new and old a great site. You will have to register to access the news clippings and some of these are pay per view but there are many that are free too. Given that many Irish families migrated to USA, there's a good chance that you'll find something interesting.

http://www.irelandoldnews.com/ - For Old news in Ireland. Old newspapers are gradually being digitised and this is good news for us researchers. From Obits to births and even petty crime news you're bound to find something on your family. Don't let the title of the paper put you off you're just as likely to find news from Armagh in a paper with the title Cavan and vice versa. So do use the search facility on the opening page and call back there often as new papers are being put on there constantly.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~nirfer2/ A great source of information. I have found this site invaluable in the past and present.

http://www.failteromhat.com/ I recently came across this ancestry website and this is one of the best I have found yet. I have spent almost every day since using it's many resources. It is a credit to the site owner that he seems to have taken a lot of time and energy creating the site and it's FREE too.

http://www.familysearch.org/ This site, run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is definitely the place to go if you're looking for birth, marriage or death records whether you're looking for ancestors in Ireland or indeed around the world. You can also get the Census for USA (1880), Britain (1881) and Canada (1881)For tips on how to use the site click here

http://www.rootsweb.com Another great site if you're looking for your ancestors

http://www.seanruad.com/ A searchable database of all the townlands of Ireland. A very good resource indeed!

http://www.raymondscountydownwebsite.com/ If your ancestors were from Counties Down and/or Armagh this site is one of the best there is.

http://www.leitrim-roscommon.com/GRIFFITH/more_to_griffiths.html Everything you'll ever need to know about the Griffiths Valuation and how to interpret the data contained in them is here. From this page you can download the article in pdf or word format. Much more on this site too!

Non-Ancestry Sites

http://www.blebdisease.com/sp/portal.php In October 2004 (the day of my mother's funeral) I had 100% collapse of my left lung. After 3 chest drains failed to re-inflate my lung, I had to undergo surgery to stick my lung to the inside of my chest wall. Another 2 chest drains were inserted following the operation. This was a very scary and upsetting thing to happen, especially at a time when I could have done without it. This is a link to a forum full of other people who have had a collapsed lung or sp (spontaneous pneumothorax). I have found this site very helpful in coming to terms with what happened and learning all about this pretty common, it seems, medical condition.

http://www.history-matters.com/index.htm Yes, I'm a Kennedy conspiracy freak. Only kidding, I'm interested in most aspects of real crime and history

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/index.php Another history link. In case the title doesn't give you a clue, it's about HMS Titanic (the unsinkable passenger liner...... that sank)

http://crimelibrary.com  Surely I don't have to explain this one :-P

http://www.imdb.com/search.html Ever sat for hours wondering "what's the name of that film?" I find myself on this site at least once a week for one reason or another to look something up. The Internet Movie Database will tell you everything you need to know about any movie. If it's not in here, it's probably not worth watching anyway.

http://tv.cream.org/ Feeling nostalgic? This is THE place to be!!!

http://quiz.iplac.co.uk I love quizzes!

http://www.genuinelondonpearlykingsandqueens.com/ More history. Loads of information on the Pearly Kings and Queens of London and their charity work.