Prince Edward Island Research

The Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society (Canada) and its members have been very active over the years when it comes to compiling publications that can aid Irish genealogy research. They have compiled two publications of Irish genealogy records along with a considerable collection of headstone transcriptions from Catholic cemeteries and those of other denominations.

Gallant, Peter and Nelda Murray. From Ireland to Prince Edward Island : a list compiled from newspapers, obituary notices and cemetery transcriptions of (some) immigrants to Prince Edward Island, from Ireland. Charlottetown: P.E.I. Genealogical Society. 1999.

Gallant, Peter. An index of Irish immigrants based on obituaries and death notices in Prince Edward Island newspapers, 1835-1910. Charlottetown: P.E.I. Genealogical Society. 1990.

A good introduction to the topic of the Irish in PEI is provided by O'Grady, Brendan. Exiles and Islanders: The Irish Settlers of Prince Edward Island Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2004.

New Website: Irishnewspapers.com

Last week, there was an interesting development for Irish genealogy in the U.S – Newspapers.com (owned by Ancestry.com) has partnered with Ireland-based Irish Newspaper Archives (Irishnewsarchive.com) to launch a US version of this website called Irish Newspapers (Irishnewspapers.com). Confused with all that? Well, this all boils down to there now being a U.S. based website where you can do research in local and national newspapers from Ireland and pay in dollars.

Irish Newspaper Archives has been in existence for a number of years and currently has 46 digitized local and national newspapers. Not all of these papers are available on the US site; 37 titles are by my count. Those that have made the migration to the US site are only available up to 1980, with the earliest year of coverage starting in 1738.

The website has the same format and search functionality as the existing Ancestry newspaper site, Newspapers.com. Currently, Irishnewspapers.com lacks some of the bells and whistles of the parent site but these will probably be added in due course. The search functionality allows for keywords, places and dates. There is a useful ‘Papers’ section where you can get to grips with what papers are available and what time period they cover.

The browse format is very user friendly and you can quickly get to a specific county, title, or date of interest using this feature. There is one very significant error in the way the papers have been allocated in the browse function. All of the newspapers that have national coverage have been placed in the ‘County – Dublin’ section. This is particularly unfortunate as, for example, the Irish Independent and Irish Press are available to search for many years from the 20^th century and families from all over Ireland placed death notices in these papers.

I have been surprised over the last couple of years by the lack of knowledge about the existence of Irish Newspaper Archives among the Irish genealogy community in the U.S. It’s rarely mentioned in the same breath as the well-known Rootsireland.ie and National Archives of Ireland website (genealogy.nationalarchives.ie). I don’t believe that’s the fault of folks on this site of the Atlantic as it’s not heavily advertised or promoted on the ‘starter’ websites, such as the Irish government’s Irishgenealogy.ie.  It will be interesting to see if this will change now that commercial behemoth Ancestry.com is involved. If you plan on doing research on the new site there are two subscription pricing options, $19.99 per month and $99.99 for one year.

Below, you will find a table of all the newspapers that are available on both Irishnewspapers.com (US) and Irishnewsarchive.com (Ireland). Titles in bold are only available on the Ireland-based website and you’ll have to subscribe to that site if you want access to them.

Geographical Coverage	Title	Years Digitized (Format is day/month/year)	Website Availability
Notes:  •They are gaps in the years of coverage that have been digitized                •Table last updated 24 March 2015                •Some papers listed under county Mayo such as Connaught Telegraph and                    Western People also cover counties Galway, Roscommon, Sligo, and Leitrim
National	Freeman’s Journal	03/01/1763 - 19/12/1924	Irishnewspapers.com
National	Irish Examiner	30/08/1841 - 31/12/1949	Irishnewsarchive.com only
National	Irish Farmer’s Journal	16/03/1957 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
National	Irish Independent	02/01/1905 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
National	Irish Press	05/09/1931 - 25/05/1995	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-1995)
National	Sunday Independent	07/01/1906 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Northern Ireland	Belfast Newsletter	09/01/1738 - 30/08/1890	Irishnewspapers.com
Cavan	Anglo-Celt	06/02/1846 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Cork	Skiberreen Eagle	02/01/1882 - 08/07/1922	Irishnewspapers.com
Cork	Southern Star	13/02/1892 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Donegal	Donegal News	14/03/1903 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Dublin	The Nation	15/10/1842 - 05/06/1897	Irishnewspapers.com
Fermanagh	Fermanagh Herald	09/02/2011 - Current	Irishnewsarchive.com only
Galway	Connacht Sentinel	02/08/1927 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Galway	Connacht Tribune	22/05/1909 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Galway	Galway City Tribune	07/09/1984 - Current	Irishnewsarchive.com only
Galway	Tuam Herald	13/05/1837 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Kerry	Kerryman	20/08/1904 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Kerry	Kerry Independent	28/10/1880 - 10/01/1884	Irishnewsarchive.com only
Kerry	Kerry Star	15/05/1861 - 27/03/1863	Irishnewsarchive.com only
Kerry	Killarney Echo & South Kerry Chronicle	26/08/1899 - 14/08/1920	Irishnewsarchive.com only
Kildare	Kildare Observer	23/10/1880 - 04/05/1935	Irishnewspapers.com
Kilkenny	Finn’s Leinster Journal	01/04/1792 - 31/12/1828	Irishnewspapers.com
Kilkenny	Kilkenny People	01/01/1921 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Leitrim	Leitrim Observer	02/01/1904 -Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Limerick	Limerick Leader	02/01/1905 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Longford	Longford Leader	14/08/1897 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Louth	Dundalk Democrat	20/10/1849 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Mayo	Ballinrobe Chronicle	03/02/1866 - 10/09/1903	Irishnewspapers.com
Mayo	Ballina Herald	06/08/1927 - 28/04/1962	Irishnewspapers.com
Mayo	Connaught Telegraph	22/09/1830 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Mayo	Mayo Examiner	06/07/1868 - 30/12/1876	Irishnewspapers.com
Mayo	Mayo News	07/01/1893 – 29/12/2004	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Mayo	Western Journal	03/06/1977 - 11/03/1983	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-1983)
Mayo	Western People	04/05/1889 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Meath	Meath Chronicle	01/05/1897 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Montana	Butte Independent	22/01/1910 - 27/12/1930	Irishnewsarchive.com only
Offaly	Leinster Express	24/09/1831 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Tipperary	Nenagh Guardian	21/07/1838 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Tipperary	Nenagh News	05/01/1895 - 28/12/1924	Irishnewspapers.com
Tyrone	Gaelic Life	14/01/2011 - Current	Irishnewsarchive.com only
Tyrone	Strabane Chronicle	10/02/2011 - Current	Irishnewsarchive.com only
Tyrone	Tyrone Herald	07/02/2011 - Current	Irishnewsarchive.com only
Tyrone	Ulster Herald	15/08/1901 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Waterford	Munster Express	04/01/1908 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)
Westmeath	Westmeath Examiner	28/09/1882 - Current	Irishnewspapers.com (see Irishnewsarchive.com for 1980-Present)

                          

Finding Grandpa Irish Genealogy Videos

Finding Grandpa is a professional genealogy service based in New Mexico. The owner has created a series of 10 videos on YouTube, Building the Bridge Back to Ireland, that provide a step-by-step process for starting your research in the United States and progressing to research in Ireland.

I must disclose that I have not watched these videos but I imagine they would prove useful for those who are starting out with their family history. Topics covered include: cluster genealogy, American records, genealogy websites, Irish records, Griffith's Valuation, and an instructional video of a live lecture.

You can watch all the videos by clicking here.

The Irish Family History Forum Library

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Family History Center (FHC) in Plainview, NY is located at 160 Washington Ave. What makes this library stand out from the FHC crowd is that it is home to the John Rowane Memorial Library of the Irish Family History Forum (IFHF). The sole focus of this library is Irish genealogy.

It houses hundreds of publications, reference material, journals, newsletters, and other items that can help you with your research. Irish Family History Forum members are also available to assist you with your research if you visit. Since the library is at a FHC, you can also order microfilms from the Family History Library and access subscription genealogy websites for free.

The opening hours of the library are the same as the FHC and are listed at the end of this post. A catalog of most of the library's collection is also available on the IFHF website. Click here, or scroll down if on the homepage, to read more about the Irish Family History Forum.

Opening Hours

Tuesday: 10:00am-2:00pm and 7:00pm-9:30pm

Wednesday: 10:00am-2:00pm

Thursday: 10:00am-2:00pm and 7:00pm-9:30pm

Saturday: 11:00am-3:00pm

Link to Plainview, NY FHC operational information and contact details.

The Irish Family History Forum

The three biggest Irish genealogy societies in the United States are The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA), based in Boston, the St. Paul, Minnesota-based Irish Genealogical Society International (IGSI), and the Irish Family History Forum (IFHF), located on Long Island, New York. I have previously profiled TIARA (here and here) and now it is the turn of IFHF. IGSI will be profiled at a later date.

IFHF was founded in 1991 and since then has grown to be the premier Irish genealogy society in the New York metro region. Meetings are held on the third Saturday of every month, except in July and August. For the first hour of the meeting Kathy McGee, who I can vouch for as an Irish genealogy expert, runs a help session where different topics are discussed, patrons can ask questions,  and provide success stories about their research. A guest speaker comes for the second hour of the meeting. Meetings are held in Bethpage Public Library, starting at 10am.

The IFHF also produces an award-winning quarterly newsletter. This publication is a fantastic resource to get in your mailbox every few months. In-depth articles, the latest Irish genealogy news, and people’s experiences with their research are just some of the excellent features that one can read. Even if you live nowhere near Long Island, it is worth being a member just for the newsletter.

You can consult their website for more information about the Irish Family History Forum. You can also interact with them on Facebook.

Note: I must disclose that I have been a member of this organization, on and off, since I first moved to the United States. They have also, very kindly, had me speak a number of times at their meeting in the last few years.