Author name: Ruth Blair

Dublin City Public Libraries & Archive “Whole New World” Digital Collections

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Dublin City Libraries and Archive have put images and special collections online.

The Digital Collections Gallery has 529 images and counting. There are photographs from the 1974 Dublin Bombings; Dublin’s Sporting Heritage which honours the fact that Dublin was made European Capital of Sport in 2010; Vanishing Dublin shows places that have disappeared or changed completely in the last half of the twentieth century; Dublin Pubs provides images of pubs both past and present; and Working for the City which is photographs of Dublin City staff at work.

The sporting heritage photos that sparked memories for me were the Liffey Swim of 1999, the Royal Dublin Horseshow and Landsdowne Road. My grandfather won the Liffey Swim when he was a young man. We used to go to the Royal Dublin Horseshow if we were in town when it was on and Landsdowne Road was near where my grandparents lived.

The saddest one for me was Vanishing Dublin. In some of the pictures you would not recognize the area anymore. The photo of Moore Street in 1959 brought back fond memories. I can remember in the 1970s going down to Moore Street and the ladies still used perambulators to transport their wares. Moore Street today is still a market place but things have changed.

The Working for the City gallery is a reminder of how the way we do things sometimes does not change. The cleansing department is a couple of men with brushes pushing two bins on a cart. I remember the Liffey clean up in 1976.

The next gallery is Improvement Works which is current improvements to two libraries in Dublin.

The last gallery is Treasures from the Collections. Capital Letters shows a few of the collections they own by Irish authors. Celebrate! is about festivals, feasts, civic events and commemorations that were held in Dublin. Here you will find a souvenir of the Parnell monument unveiling in 1911, a photograph of the royal visit in 1911, the Papal visit in 1979 and a yearbook from the Dalkey Festival in 1989 amongst other items.

Getting Around provides images of maps and other items relating to the theme. Unfortunately they are not the complete item but snippets. Other collections include Little Treasures which contains material related to children, Rich and Rare which showcases books, manuscripts and broadsheets held by Dublin City Public Libraries, and Women’s Health and Wellbeing which features advertisements promoting “medicines” marketed towards women.

The photographs were most interesting to me. The other items provide a small image and not much else because you have to go into Dublin City Public Libraries & Archive to view the originals and to find out more.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research

The Family Search Online Research Courses

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Did you know that you can view online video courses for free at Family Search? You can find courses on researching records in Ireland, England, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Mexico, Russia and the United States.

There are a series of courses on Research Principles and Tools plus Reading Handwritten Records.

The Association of Professional Genealogists, Board for Certification of Genealogists and ICAPGen – The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists have lectures available on the site.

You click on download course and get a video. There is a course outline and/or handouts available in PDF form. You can offer feedback on the courses.

Some courses you click on the course title and go right into a video with a PowerPoint presentation running beside it. In these courses look below the video to see if there are any handouts or other information. You are also given information on the length of the presentation and references to sponsors.

These courses provide good information to help you with your research and assist you with methodology. The accreditation, certification, and professional presentations provide aids for professionals and those thinking of becoming professionals.

If you have half an hour, why not go in and take a quick course on Irish Immigration.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research

Twelve Months of Genealogy – March

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The first thing that comes to mind for March is St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th. In Wales it is St. David’s day on March 1st. On March 8th it is Working Woman’s Day. In addition March is Woman’s History month and National Craft month so let’s look at these celebrations as well.

The first week of March is St. David’s Day. Have you been to the National Library of Wales website? They have a great website full of interesting things that relate to your family history. They have an interesting article on “Women’s Clothes 400 Years Ago” and there are links to other articles.

The section on Family History is very informative. If you look at Search Archival Databases it provides you with a list of online databases to help you with your research. There is even free access to digital images of wills through the online index.

There is a list of genealogical sources available at the library. Here they provide a little background into the record source as well as telling you what is accessible in the library and online.

Finally take a look at the section on Further Reading. This will provide you with more resources to help you with your search.

The second week of March lets research our female lines. Search for the females in your family that did not marry. Sometimes they can provide more information than their married sisters. A will of an unmarried lady could provide names of siblings, nieces, nephews and other family members. It was usually the unmarried ladies that knew the family history and may have held some important documents.

Since March 8th is Working Woman’s Day lets investigate the history of traditional female jobs. How has housework changed in the last 100 years? What did your pioneer ancestor have to deal with to try and keep her family and home clean? What other responsibilities besides housework and raising children did women have?

We talk of spring cleaning, were there other season specific chores that your female ancestors completed? How is your life different to that of your four times Great Grandmother? Research these activities and write up a synopsis to add to your family history.

The third week of March is St. Patrick’s Day so this week we will look specifically at your Irish ancestors. If you know the county, town or parish of origin do you know what records are available for those areas? Two excellent resource books are James Ryan’s “Irish Records: Sources for Family and Local History” and John Grenham’s “Tracing your Irish Ancestors,” all three editions. Another good resource is James Ryan’s “Irish Church Records.” These three books will help you discover what records are available in the area you are researching.

A good online resource is the Sources database at the National Library of Ireland. This is an online version of Hayes Manuscripts and provides locations of records relating to Ireland.

The fourth and fifth week of March lets get creative. Create a scrapbook page or whole book for one family unit. Or maybe collect all those family recipes and put them into a cookbook and add some pictures and family stories.

If you are particularly energetic make a few of the recipes and take photographs to add to the book. This could be fun if the recipes are from 100 years ago or more. What would your family think if you served them a dinner that their three times Great Grandmother might have served?

Have some fun with your family history this month.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research