Findmypast Ireland is a new website set up by two experts in the field of family history: Eneclann, an award-winning research and publishing house with extensive experience in family history in Ireland, and findmypast, a leading family history website, initially launched in the UK.

Research your family history online with Findmypast.ie

Together, they have worked to bring you a website which will help you to understand your Irish heritage and make amazing discoveries about your ancestors.

Based in Dublin, findmypast Ireland has a dedicated team committed to providing you with the best possible experience when researching your Irish family history but also able to draw on the strength and resources of its two founding partners.

If you’re looking for Irish Ancestors, start your search Findmypast.ie you are able to:

View images and maps of where your ancestor lived

Find out what your ancestors did for a living

Discover which battles your ancestors fought in

Learn about the voyages your ancestors made

Find out more at Findmypast.ie 

Footnote.com has a database of over 70 million digitised historical images.

Millions of unique documents online

Footnote helps you find and share historic documents. Bringing you many never-before-seen historic documents through unique partnerships with The National Archives, the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Patented digitization processes help to bring other collections to life on the web everyday.

But Footnote is more than just a dusty, digital archive online.

They provide you the tools to share your historical passions and connect with others.
Footnote is perfect for;

• History Buffs
• Genealogists
• Researchers
• Family Historians
• Military Historians
• Teachers
• Institutions

History

The concept for Footnote.com is rooted in the company’s years of experience in the digitization business as iArchives, Inc. Starting in 1999, iArchives digitized historical newspapers and other archive content for leading universities, libraries and media companies across the United States.

From the beginning, the iArchives team developed a unique understanding of the value of creating an online repository for the world’s original source documents.

Leveraging the proprietary systems and patented processes built for the digitization of paper, microfilm and microfiche collections, the management team made a strategic decision: Use the iArchives platform to provide access to these historically significant and valuable collections.

In January of 2007 Footnote.com went live with over 5 million documents already featured on the site. Today,  they continue to grow and bring to life history that was once hidden.

Ancestry acquisition

In 2010 was acquired by Ancestry.com and like Ancestry, the Footnote website is user driven, with thousands of people uploading adding to data daily.

US genealogy

For those with a particular interest in US genealogical research, Footnote provides data on the Civil War, Vietnam, and US Census collections.

The “Black History” section documents how African Americans have played an integral part in the development and achievement of the U.S, revealing a side of the African American story that few have seen before. View more than a million photos and documents found nowhere else on the internet.

Historical Era

One of the features that we particularly like about the Footnote site, is the ability to search via historical era; from the Revolution years of  1700s – 1815, the creation of a new nation between 1815 – 1860, the boom and bust years of the 1920′s and 1930′s and so on until the 20th century.

More information

Footnote.com – Over 72 million documents online. A fantastic resource for genealogists and historians everywhere.

Ancestry.com - Aquisition of Footnote.com press release.

Family history can be quite a challenge especially when you are not quite sure where to start with official organisations.

Pen and Sword Books of South Yorkshire, have made tracing your ancestors that little bit easier with a new collection of titles.

Currently around 22 books are in the collection. They offer advice on a wide range of family history research including how to find information about an ancestor in the secret service.

Tracing your ancestors may need a bit of help

Other books in the Tracing your Ancestors collection include; how you can trace your railway or shipbuilding ancestors.

Tracing your criminal ancestors

Maybe one of your ancestors became involved in criminal activities and your research has started to dry up.

Stephen Wade has written a 176 page paperback offering suggestions on where to go for that illusive information. Using case studies, he provides suggestions on how you could take your research further and finally track down your relative from the dark side of life.

Tracing Your Criminal Ancestors is essential reading for anyone who wishes to explore the criminal past and seeks to trace an ancestor who had a criminal record.

Tracing your ancestors

The Tracing your Ancestors collection is available via Amazon using the links below.

The Irish Family History Foundation’s county genealogy centres provide Ireland’s largest genealogical research service, both online and via commissioned research services.

They would like to welcome all users, new and old, to their newly designed website.

It is hoped that this updated site will be more user friendly and allow you to advance your family history searches.

Among the new features is an improved help section, a pilot advanced search facility and a news section. The Irish Family History Foundation will also be highlighting new publications and events relating to genealogy, local history, tourism and culture.

If you have not visited the site in a while please log in and take a look. You will find new data and a new search facility.

Visit the Irish Family History Foundation website

Over 5 Million Parish Records are now available online. Search nearly 500 years of Baptisms, Marriages, Burials between 1538-1900.

Familyrelatives.com is pleased to announce the release of 5 million Parish records online. The database is a collection of historical parish and probate registers from many Counties of England and Wales dating from the early 1500s to the middle to late 19th Century.

Parish registers which are still kept today have been in existence ever since Henry VIII’s Chief Minister Thomas Cromwell, the 1st Earl of Essex ordered that each parish priest should keep a book to record the date of each wedding, baptism and burial, together with the names of those baptized, married or buried.

New Search Technology
The parish records are available for viewing online and using new search technology, it allows leading genealogy website Familyrelatives.com to provide 5 million parish records which document baptisms, marriages and burials dating from 1538 to be searched more easily

Centralised Civil Registration was introduced in 1837 to provide one location covering all the parishes in the area, however the parish church registers provide the original source data to this day.

How Parish records can help you?
If you have reached a dead end and want to search further back than 1837 then the Parish registers are ideal as they cover more than 300 years of family history and events.

References are made to the causes of death including the plague in 1563 and the Plague of London in 1665. Valuable information for your research may include the names of parents, dates, occupation, parish or place name.

Thanks to these registers, history comes alive when you discover records relating to William Shakespeare and his children in The Registers of Stratford-on-Avon (Warwickshire) for Baptisms 1558-1652 & William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare Baptised 26 April 1564 Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere

And his children

Susanna   Baptised 26 May, 1583 Susanna daughter to William Shakspere

Hamnet and Judith   Baptised 2 February, 1585 Hamnet & Judeth son and daughter to William Shakspere.

(Naturally Latin was in use at the time)

A wealth of family and social history
Ancestors who lived in the same Parish for more than a few generations, provide a wealth of continuous information. Unfortunately some of the actual Parish records have been lost or destroyed, while some have been copied and stored in County Record Offices. Now researchers have the thrilling prospect of quick, powerful results, and the possibility of finding an original register entry that recorded an event in their ancestors’ lives.

Familyrelatives.com now gives easy access to important local records, from churches in Cheshire to burials in Berkshire. Family historians can research their ancestors’ records as contemporaries of famous individuals during the times of Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell or Captain Cook.

Due to the age of the Parish registers they have been scanned and the images of the original printed pages have been made word searchable using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) which is the recognition of printed or written text characters by a computer to enable the data to be made available on your PC.

The records are free to search but you will need to subscribe to view the original images.

The collection is only a part of more than 650 million historic records available online to all members and visitors by way of an annual subscription.

More information

Visit the Familyrelatives.com website for more information.
How to trace your family tree - BBC Who do you think you are magazine website.

The Orkney Family History Society have ongoing projects to catalogue all of the graveyards of mainland Orkney and the surrounding islands.

Bound copies

Some of these sites have been completed and are now available in booklet form or members can view the details on the website.

Cataloging has been rigorous and you will find full inscriptions detailed for each entry.

For those who view the entries on line, there is an added advantage that a global search of all Orkney graveyards can be done by name.

A fantastic tool for the family historian and a real credit to the hard and diligent work of the society and it’s members.

The society have also published census details from 1841 to 1901.

Visit Orkney Family History Society

Find out more about Orkney

The owner of the Carlislehistory.co.uk website has now completed recording the names on the gravestones in Carlisle’s Richardson Street cemetery, the city’s main burial place since 1855.

A surname index has been produced to the 24,000 names recorded.
 Very useful for those tracing relatives or carrying out family history research.

The site operates a very basic A – Z index and searching the index is free of charge.

More detailed information, such as full gravestone transcription, map and set of pictures are available for a small charge.

Further information

Carlisle City Council Bereavement Services Information about Carlisle Cemetery and details of other municipal cemeteries. Details of opening hours and other services available

Historical searches can be carried out upon request, usually free of charge.

In the beautiful English village of Wreay, only five miles outside Carlisle is St. Mary’s church.

Built in 1840-1842 to the specific Basilica design of Miss Sarah Losh in memory of her sister Catherine and parents.

Losh family burial plot

To the North of the church lies the Losh family burial plot.  A unique design with balustrades of stone edging the site and ornate carvings on some of the memorial stones depicting pine cones, palm trees and sea shells.

These designs were popular around the late 19th Century, reflecting the poineering seafaring journeys and discoveries of the time.

Among the people resting here are:

John Losh, partner in the Walker Alkali Works, Newcastle, High Sheriff of Cumberland in 1811, Provincial Grand Master for Cumberland who died 31 Mar 1814 and his wife Isabella, 17 Oct 1799, daughter of Thomas Bonner of Callerton Hall, near Newcastle.

Joseph Losh, 1789 – 17 Jan 1848 aged 59.

Sarah Losh, amateur architect, who rebuilt St. Mary’s Church, Wreay in 1840-42 and also built the Village School and other buildings in the village, 29 Mar 1853.

Sarah & Katherine

Katherine Isabella, who died aged 43 and buried on 26 Feb 1835.

John Joseph Losh, Lieutenant Colonel, 42nd Madras Native Infantry, Military Auditor of  Madras, Died 12 Mar 1862.

Robert Henry Losh of Langarth Cottage, Brisco. Died 7 Nov 1867.

William Septimus Losh, 24 Sep 1888 of Woodside and his wife (and first cousin) Sarah Spencer, 1883 daugther of George Losh.

Frances Elizabeth Losh, 22 Nov 1878 and her husband, Francis Coleridge Hutchinson, M.D., of Douglas, Isle of Man, 6 Oct 1863, both of The Cottage, Brisco.

Some of the stones are well weathered and the inscriptions barely discernable.  However, those wishing to trace an ancestor may do well to vist the following site detailing a Losh family history.

Near the burial plot is a mausoleum dedicated to Sarah’s Sister Catherine, containing an alabaster figure of her seated and holding a pine cone in her hand. The work of a Carlisle Sculptor, David Dunbar.   Pine cones are symbolic of eternal life and are used widely throughout the site and the church, the most recent sculpture added in 2000 to commemorate to millemium.

Cross & Mausoleum

A runic cross stands behind the mausoleum in memory of Sarah’s parents, which is said to be a copy of the Bewcastle Cross.

Nestled in cemetary at the ancient 12th Century Priory at Lanercost in Cumbria are many graves belonging to people of note.  One of these plots belongs to the Howard family, who’s generations of males have held the title of Earl of Carlisle since the 17th Century.

Charles Howard was created Earl of Carlisle by Charles II. This title was to remain in the Howard family at Castle Howard until the division of the family estates after the death of the 9th Earl and Countess.

On the opposite side of the path from the Earl’s graves is the resting place of Ankaret Cecelia Carolyn Jackson (nee Howard). Wife of William Jackson & daughter of Charles James Stanley Howard, 10th Earl of Carlisle.

Alongside this is William Jackson 7th Baronet and his second wife Ina.

As one enters the priory gates, there is a small group of three trees to the left.  These were planted in 1964 in memory of George, the 11th Earl of Carlisle by his son Charles.

The Gravestone Photographic Research Project is a free genealogy resource that contains an index of the names and relationships that appear on grave monuments. This information is of special interest to anyone reseaching their family history as information on tombstones is rarely listed and it is often hard to find a grave.

Gravestone research project

The database currently holds information from Canada, Cyprus, Engald, Wales, Scotland and Australia.

Genealogical information
The genealogical information on this website consists of names, dates, age and relationships of people who were born before 1900.

The amount of family history information stored for each individual does vary depending on what is written on a monument and its legibility.

The genealogical information within the online database has been extracted from either photos taken by the Gravestone Photographic Resource or by volunteers who have donated them to the resource.

There are still many grave sites not on the database and volunteers are still required to help with this valuable project.  As gravestones decay and collapse, often never repaired or replaced and as old grave sites become reused with space a t a premium, it is vital that we record as much data as possible.

Visit the Gravestone Photographic Resource website