Church of Ireland Parish Registers are a genealogy goldmine

Over $110,000 was awarded to the Representative Church Body Library to support the digitization of the Church of Ireland parish registers in Ireland.

 The register records date back as far as 1619 and include the Church of Ireland parish registers for baptism, marriage, and burial; 1,110 sets of parish records in total and approximately 840 of which contain varying quantities of public records which have not yet been digitized.

Continue reading at https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/genealogy/church-ireland-parish-registers-online

Online Search Engines are a Genealogist's Friend

Diane wrote to Olive Tree Genealogy with this question

These 2 ancestors [William and Martha Medcalf] emigrated from Ireland to Ontario Canada in 1819 with 10 children we think. They are from Delgany, Country Wicklow but have not been able to access any information about them before coming to Canada. Much appreciated for any suggestions.

Diane - this is where Google is your friend (or any other search engine you prefer). A quick search using search terms "delgany ireland church records" brought several results indicating that these records are online.

I downloaded the PDF files for the transcribed records of THE PARISH REGISTERS OF CHRIST CHURCH, DELGANY VOLUME 2 BAPTISMS 1777-1819, MARRIAGES 1777-1819 & BURIALS 1777-1819, I found the following baptisms for children of William and Martha:

23 Nov 1809 Eliz’th MEDCALF Will’m/Martha, Downs
27 Jun 1805 John MEDCALF Wm/Martha, Downs
9 Feb 1812 Henry MEDCALF Wm/Martha, Downs
16 Oct 1813 Will’m MEDCALF Wm/Martha, Downs

"Downs" is their residence. I am sure you can find much more by downloading and searching more records.

You should also search the Upper Canada Land Petitions to see if the family applied for land once in Canada. Their petitions may reveal more about their lives in Ireland. You may wish to read my tutorials on searching those petitions and finding the actual images onlline once you have completed your search in the index.

Using Land Petitions to Learn about an Ancestor

Finding an Ancestor in the Challenging Upper Canada Land Books

Searching Ontario Canada Land Records, eh? 

 In fact I did a quick search and here are the results for MEDCALF. Using my tutorials to guide you, you can now find the actual petitions online using the index information for any names below that are of interest.

 

It appears that one of William and Martha's sons (Francis Henry Medcalf) became a mayor in Toronto Ontario. There may be quite a bit of biographical information about him in Toronto archives or libraries.

Update to Free Irish Births, Marriages, Deaths

Sample Page of Deaths

An additional 2 years of records of births, marriages and deaths have been added to the www.irishgenealogy.ie website.  The marriage Index data along with additional images has also been updated for the years 1864-1869 inclusive.

The years covered by the release of the historic records of Births, Marriages and Deaths after this update are

Births: 1864 to 1918
Marriages: 1864 to 1943
Deaths: 1878 to 1968

Records include transcripts of the baptism and marriage records of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kerry to c. 1900, All Roman Catholic baptism, marriage and burial registers for Dublin City, All surviving Church of Ireland baptism, marriage and burial registers for Dublin City, and more

Visitors can search the database freely. Images are also available. If you have Irish ancestors you will want to check this site out.

New BDM for New Brunswick online!

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick recently added more records to their searchable Vital Records database

As of September 12, 2019 there are 1,007,301 birth, death & marriage records online consisting of the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Births

Index	Description	Years	Records	Last updated
141A1b	Index to Late Registration of Births	1810-1923	111,915	2019-09-09
141A1c	Index to Late Registration of Births: County Series	1869-1901	2,294	2019-09-10
141A2/2	Index to County Birth Registers	1800-1919	87,950	2019-09-10
141A5	Index to Provincial Registrations of Births	1870-1923	158,708	2019-09-03

Marriages

Index	Description	Years	Records	Last updated
141B7	Index to New Brunswick Marriages	1847-1968	280,000	2019-09-12

Deaths

Index	Description	Years	Records	Last updated
141C1	Index to County Death Registers	1885-1921	40,447	2019-08-07
141C4	Provincial Returns of Deaths	1815-1919	84,191	2019-08-12
141C5	Index to Death Certificates	1918-1968	241,796	2019-09-12

Vital Records of Rhode Island, 1636-1850 online

Diane Boumenot of One Rhode Island Family has gathered links to the free set of Vital Records of Rhode Island, 1636-1850, First Series: Births, Marriages and Deaths is a series of 21 volumes compiled by James N. Arnold.

According to Diane "The volumes have been digitized and I have managed to find all of them available for free on the internet.  Some of the copies are poor quality, however, they may be better than nothing if you are far from a library that holds these."

Thanks to Diane, anyone with Rhode Island ancestors will want to check out her blog and follow the links she has provided to view these records. 

Why You Can't Find an Ancestor's Vital Registration

1907 Death Registration John Downey

How many times have you looked for a birth, death, or marriage in Ontario's Vital Registrations on Ancestry and come up empty? It's frustrating because you know Great-Grandpa Samuel Johnstone's death date and location. You know it was after Vital Registration began in Ontario in 1869. 

You've tried using wildcards to pick up variations in his surname, such as Jo*nston*. You've searched just under his first name. You've searched for any Johnstone, not using his first name. You've tried every trick in the book but you've come up empty. 

You're Not Alone

I've done it too. I have several people whose deaths or marriages or births are simply not showing up in the online Registrations. My most recent failed attempt was in searching for a murder victim and the woman who was executed for the crime. It was a very famous case in Ontario (James Workman the victim, beaten to death in 1872 and his wife Elizabeth Workman, the last woman hung in Ontario in 1873) and is still written about today as a miscarriage of justice. I wanted to see their death registrations for research I am doing on this family. But nothing was found. After several frustrating hours of creative searching, I wrote to the Ontario Archives and asked where the Death Certification of murder victims and the murderer were kept.

To my surprise I was told that they are filed with all deaths and registered with Ontario Vital Statistics so they should be found. Then the Archivist added that perhaps the families had not paid to have the deaths registered. This was news to me! So I wrote back and asked for clarification as to whether all individuals had to pay to register a vital event. The answer was YES. 

Archives of Ontario Explains

Here's the official explanation below:

People were required to pay (either directly or via family members, hospital, clergy or funeral home) for Ontario vital statistics registrations.  The cost to register a marriage was about .10 cents prior to WWII then the cost went up to about .25 cents after WWII.

Now I know why I can't find some of my ancestors and collateral branches' births, marriages or deaths. No doubt the family didn't have the money or thought it was a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Don't Give Up 

So if you have been hunting and unable to find a Vital Registration Event in Ontario (or elsewhere), consider the possibility that perhaps it was never registered. That doesn't mean you should give up after the first try! Use wildcards, they are your friend. For example Ancestry allows the use of * to represent more than one letter and ? to represent one letter.  If your surname of interest is Madden, try searching M*d*n to pick up Maden, Maiden, Maddin, etc.

Be creative in how many details you put in the search engine. In other words, loosen your search, make it less restrictive. Search just by a first name or just by a location and date (no name at all) 

Church Records

If all your searches are in vain, you might want to try church records. Even if the event was not registered at the Provincial level, odds are good that it made the local church. Ontario census records provide the religion of each person so it is fairly easy to locate nearby churches to where your ancestor lived prior to death.

Primary Records Can Be WRONG!

We all want our genealogy to be accurate.

We search and search for that primary record, the one that we've been told is "THE" record to find -- a death certificate, a church baptismal record, marriage record....

But - beware! Not all primary records are accurate. As good genealogists we must consider that there can be errors. The informant (person giving the information) may not know the answers and may thus provide incorrect details. The clerk recording the information may not hear the response correctly and may enter it incorrectly. The person giving the information may lie, especially about their age.

In my own family tree, my great-grandmother's official government death registration is incorrect. Her parents' names are wrong. Since I already knew who her parents were (Isaac Vollick & Lydia Jamieson) from other genealogy sources, I was completely bewildered at first by seeing her parents given as Stephen Vollick and Mary.

Then it dawned on me - Stephen was my great grandmother's husband's first name (Stephen Peer). Mary was my great grandmother's own name. (Mary Vollick)

So I looked at the informant's name. AHA! The informant was Mary's 17 year old son. Her husband having died long before Mary, and her older children married and gone, the task of answering the official questions fell to her 17 year old son who had cared for her in her final days.

It is easy to see how the young boy, when asked by a government clerk "Father's name?" (meaning father of the deceased), would have replied "Stephen", for in fact Stephen WAS his own father's name.

The question "Mother's name?" referring to the mother of the deceased, would be answered by the boy "Mary" which was HIS mother's name.

And thus the official death registration for parents of Mary (Peer) Vollick daughter of Isaac and Lydia Vollick, is forever rendered as Stephen and Mary Vollick.

So be cautious when you encounter a primary source that simply doesn't match other reliable sources. Investigate! Think! Don't just accept the new "facts" without further legwork to prove or disprove them.

Find Ancestors in Free United Kingdom Genealogy

Free UK Genealogy is the parent organization for FreeBMD, FreeReg and FreeCEN. Volunteers make transcriptions of the England and Wales Index of Births, Marriages and Deaths (FreeBMD), historic Parish Registers (FreeReg) and 19th Century Censuses (FreeCEN).

Each of the projects is a significant undertaking and in total, more than ten thousand volunteers have contributed over 350,000,000 records.

The three databases - FreeBMD, FreeReg, and FreeCen are completely free to access online.

If you are searching your UK ancestors, you might want to give these sites a try.

Irish Civil Records FREE online!

Irish Civil Records are now searchable online at Irish Genealogy. And they're free!

The site explains that

The Civil Records of Births, Marriages and Deaths are the official State records of Births, Marriages and Deaths in Ireland. The registers of births, marriages and deaths and the related indexes are maintained by the Registrar General in the General Register Office. The Index books can be viewed at the General Register Office, Werburgh Street, Dublin 2.

The General Register Office (Oifig An Ard-Chláraitheora) is the central civil repository for records relating to births, stillbirths, deaths, marriages, civil partnerships and adoptions in Ireland.

The Indexes to the Civil Records of Irish Births, Deaths and Marriages date from 1864 with non-Roman Catholic Marriages recorded from 1845. The indexes to Births over 100 years old, the indexes to Marriages over 75 years old and the indexes to Deaths over 50 years old.

Many of the records have been digitized and are available online. 

       Search the Irish Civil Records

10 Million Irish Catholic Parish Records Coming Online!

More than 10 million Catholic Parish records from Ireland are to be published online by Ancestry.com, the world’s largest family history resource. The collection means that Ancestry will have over 55 million Irish records and will provide the largest collection of Irish Catholic parish records available online.

The collection is made up of Baptism, Marriage and Burial records from over 1,000 Catholic parishes across the whole of the island of Ireland - both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Baptism and Marriage records make up the majority of the collection and Burial records can be found primarily for parishes in the northern regions.

Ancestry has indexed records from over 3,500 parish registers. This is the first time that the collection has been indexed with the images linked online.

John Slyne, VP, International Operations at Ancestry comments: “The Ireland Catholic Parish Registers is the single most important collection needed to trace Roman Catholic ancestors in Ireland in the 1800s and we are delighted to make it available through Ancestry.  Providing the very best Irish records to our members is important to us and this collection helps us do that, taking the total number of Irish records to over 55 million.  It also means we continue to provide the largest online collection of Irish Catholic parish records available anywhere which is good for those in Ireland and also those across the World with Irish roots.

The collection is set to go live on Ancestry.com in March 2016.

Why You Can't Find Great-Grandpa's Death Registration

How many times have you looked for a Vital Registration in Ontario and come up empty? But you know Great-Grandpa Harvey's death date and location. You know it was after Vital Registration began in 1869. You've tried using wildcards to pick up variations in his surname. You've searched just under his first name. You've tried every trick in the book but there is nothing found. 

I've done it too. I have several people whose deaths or marriages or births are simply not showing up in the online Registrations. My most recent failed attempt was in searching for a murder victim and the woman who was executed for the crime. It was a very famous case in Ontario (James Workman the victim, beaten to death in 1872 and his wife Elizabeth Workman, the last woman hung in Ontario in 1873) and is still written about today as a miscarriage of justice. I wanted to see their death registrations for research I am doing on this family. But nothing was found. After several frustrating hours of creative searching, I wrote to the Ontario Archives and asked where the Death Certification of murder victims and the murderer were kept.

To my surprise I was told that they are filed with all deaths and registered with Ontario Vital Statistics so they should be found. Then the Archivist added that perhaps the families had not paid to have the deaths registered. This was news to me! So I wrote back and asked for clarification as to whether all individuals had to pay to register a vital event. The answer was YES. Here's the explanation below:

People were required to pay (either directly or via family members, hospital, clergy or funeral home) for Ontario vital statistics registrations.  The cost to register a marriage was about .10 cents prior to WWII then the cost went up to about .25 cents after WWII.

Now I know why I can't find some of my ancestors and collateral branches' births, marriages or deaths. No doubt the family didn't have the money or thought it was a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere.

So if you have been hunting and unable to find a Vital Registration Event, consider the possibility that perhaps it was never registered. That doesn't mean you should give up after the first try! Use wildcards, they are your friend. For example Ancestry allows the use of * to represent more than one letter and ? to represent one letter.  If your surname of interest is Madden, try searching M*d*n to pick up Maden, Maiden, Maddin, etc.

Be creative in how many details you put in the search engine. In other words, loosen your search, make it less restrictive. Search just by a first name or just by a location and date (no name at all) 

If all your searches are in vain, you might want to try church records. Even if the event was not registered at the Provincial level, odds are good that it made the local church.

Tennessee Family Bibles Online

Vance Family Bible page

Tennessee birth certificates were not required until 1908 and thus Family Bibles can be a very important way to prove birth dates.

The Tennessee State Public Library has been collecting more than 1,500 family Bibles since the 1920s and these bibles are now available to the public. Cinnamon Collins is the volunteer who scanned all the Bibles into the database. She scanned the pages with notations on them but also read and examined the materials tucked inside — photographs, locks of a sweetheart’s hair, newspaper clippings, mementos. All the entries she saw were handwritten and sometimes difficult to read.

Read more details at Tennessee has more than 1,500 family Bibles online and State Library & Archives Puts Family Bible Records Online

To see if TSLA holds a Bible record for your family, visit the project online. If you are looking for Family Bibles from other locations, please see Family Bibles Blog

Featured Database Brixham Devon Church Records

This is a very location specific database but if, like me, you have ancestors from Brixham Devon, you will be thrilled that it's online and free. My Brixham ancestors go way back to the late 1500s so this free set of records for St. Mary's Church in Brixham is a wonderful asset.


In case anyone else has Brixham Devonshire ancestors, here is my list of surnames from this area: 

Moses, Hooper, Petherbridge/Pethebridge, Helling, Martin, Lelton, Downing, Moxey,  Skynner/Skinner, Cundett, Lucas, Nowell, Harvey, Joll, Prowse, Norman, Williams, Doust, Cole, Burd, Lambshead/Lamsed, Pearse/Pierce. My ancestors were living there before 1850.
 
Follow the links below to search for ancestors in transcriptions of the Parish registers by Judith Smith and Marie Simkus, provided by the Brixham Heritage Museum:

Baptisms 1575-1631 Baptisms 1587-1646 Baptisms 1651-1698 Baptisms 1698-1739 Baptisms 1739-1765

Marriage Banns 1653-1662 Marriages 1556-1631 Marriages 1631-1646 Marriages 1653-1669 Marriages 1699-1742

Burials 1560-1631 Burials 1631-1647 Burials 1654-1697 Burials 1698-1738 Burials in Wool 1692-1730

Grandpa Just Keeps Surprising Me! Thanks to Ancestry.com Updates

Recently Ancestry.com updated their Ontario Births, Marriages & Deaths by adding a few more years to each database. Now you can search

* Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928
* Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947
* Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913

Personally I was thrilled because the new years for births and deaths allowed me to see my father's birth registration and his father (my grandfather McGinnis) death!

I knew when my dad was born. I knew where. I knew his parents' names. But I didn't know dad was born at home and not in a hospital. That was kind of cool to be able to add that bit of detail. After learning the street name and address I immediately went to GoogleMaps to see where it was, thinking I could make a personal trip to view the home where he was born. Sadly all the houses have been torn down and a shopping mall stands there now.

But the real surprise came with my Grandfather McGinnis' death record. I have his death date and cause of death as written in the family bible. He was not very old when he died - only 58 years of age.

My mom told me that my grandpa was injured at work in the early 1900s, hurt his back and was on Workman's Compensation for many years after that, never being able to work again. Nope. The cause of death was not what is written in our Bible. And I know now why she thought he hurt his back.

The cause of death was uremia and chronic nephritis. It is noted on the death record that he hadn't worked for 9 years because of it. I know that symptoms include back pain and hypertension (which is what is written in our family Bible as cause of death). So it appears Grandpa wasn't injured at work, and the reason he couldn't work was his nephritis not a bad back.

The death record also showed that he had last worked as Foreman at a "Sewerage Company" That must mean he worked for the City of Guelph which was also a surprise.

I had another surprise about Grandpa earlier this year when I found out he was a Fireman in Guelph's first official Fire Department! You can read about that at Museums: A Hidden Genealogical Treasure Trove. As the Ancestry.com commercial on television says "Who forgot to mention that?"

If you've got Canadian ancestors now's your chance to take another look in the Vital Records on Ancestry.com. You may get some surprises too!

Indiana Marriages 1811-1959 online

FamilySearch Labs has added Indiana Marriages 1811-1959 to their online set of Collections at Record Search.

I wanted to write about this a few days ago but became frustrated at not being able to easily find a list of databases as they are added. Even when I found this specific database noted, the text was not copyable!

Don't get me wrong, FamilySearch is amazing and we genealogists should be bowing down before them. But why can't they issue a Press Release or Database Announcement that we bloggers can easily copy? Or have I just missed it somewhere out there on the 'net?

Rensselaer County New York Marriages online

Volume VI and VII of the ten volume set of Rensselaer County Marriages with their 8,014 names, has now been added to the Troy Irish Genealogy website.

You can view these marriage records by going to the Troy Irish Genealogy website and clicking on TIGS PROJECTS. These records and are not restricted to Irish surnames.

The index provides the name of both bride and groom, as well as the date of marriage. Easy instructions are provided for ordering the full marriage certificate from the Rensselaer County Clerk's Office. The full record provides

1. Name, address, occupation, age, and place of birth of bride and groom.
2. If marriage for each is first, or second. If second, was first ended by death or divorce and when.
3. Names of parents of bride and groom, including maiden name of females, and country/state of birth.
4. Names of witnesses to wedding.
5. Date and place of wedding and name of clergyman, minister, rabbi, etc.
6. Race of bride and groom.

Plan to Digitise Vital Registrations England & Wales back to 1837, Fails

A government website, which promised direct access to 171 years of family records, had been delayed indefinitely following the failure of a Whitehall computer project.

An attempt to scan, index and digitise 250m records of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales from 1837 to the present day was supposed to result in a new public website that would let people trace their ancestors at the touch of a button next February. Now, three years after the government awarded the £16m contract to German computer giant Siemens, the deal has been terminated with only half the work done.

The General Register Office (GRO), which is responsible for the records, said only 130m had been scanned, and plans to make the index public had been shelved. Missing are details of birth records from 1837 to 1934 and death records from 1837 to 1957. The Identity and Passport Service (IPS), which runs the GRO, said it had only paid half the fee as a result.

Continue reading

To search other English records see AllEnglishRecords.com

Ancestor Marriage Record Finder

Can't find your ancestor in Marriage records?

Most genealogists search Marriage records such as Church records and Vital Stats (Marriage Registrations or Certificates). If we don't find our ancestor in one of those Marriage records, we're stuck! Where to search next? My AMF (Ancestor Marriage Finder) can help.

I am pleased to announce that Ancestor Marriage Record Finder: Tips on Finding a Marriage Record When You've Hit a Brick Wall is now available as an E-Book on Amazon for only $1.15

What happens when a couple marry? What events take place around a marriage? What kind of Marriage record paper trail is created at the time of marriage of an individual? The answers to these questions will lead you to other sources of marriage records and hopefully end that brick-wall.

When an ancestor is married, many records leading up to and surrounding that marriage might be created. Let's talk about records kept before an ancestor marriage and those created after a marriage.


Get tips and ideas in my E-book for alternate record sources when you've hit that brick wall

Get Help finding Ancestors with Ancestor Birth Record Finder & Ancestor Death Record Finder