Ulster Historical Foundation U.S. Tour Webinars

The Ulster Historical Foundation annual tour of the United States finishes today in Little Rock, Arkansas. Last week, they visited Fountaindale, Illinois, and the Fountaindale Public Library has made all of their presentations available to view on Youtube and their Fountaindale Public Library Genealogy & Research blog.

Of particular interest to this blog are the presentations:

Emigration from Ireland to North America: An Overview



Emigration from Ireland to North America: Strategies for Researching Emigrant Ancestors

 

Tewksbury Almshouse Inmate Biographies

American and Canadian almshouse records from the 19th century have always been fruitful hunting grounds for information about immigrants from Ireland. I have previously written about Saint John Almshouse in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada and now it is the turn of Tewksbury, located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Tewksbury Almshouse first opened in 1854 and quickly saw more admittals than the number it was built for.[1] Those who were admitted came from all over Massachusetts. What is very interesting about this institution is that detailed notes taken from a patient's intake interview have survived. Known as 'inmate biographies,' many of these are lengthy, detailed narratives that cover the person’s full life history, focusing on family relations, work, and health.[2]

The first phase of this digitization project has seen records from 1854 to 1883 come online, however, there are very few records from before 1860. There are currently records for approximate 40,000 individuals that can be viewed online. The final phase of digitization will see records added through the 1890s. There are records from after these years, but they will not be placed online. Some of the original records are at the Museum of Public Health in Tewksbury, while transcriptions of other original records, since destroyed, are available on microfilm at the Massachusetts State Archives. The digitized records come from both of these institutions. 

The records are heavily populated with immigrants from Ireland with the following example showing the genealogical gold they contain: [3]

Mary Stanley, inmate biography, 1873

Reg. No:              41109

Age:                     56

Name:                  Mary Stanley

From:                   Boston June 4 1873

Condition:           Well

Discharged:         June 24 1873

Removed:            Boston

By Whom:           Tupp [?]

For Nos:

56 b[orn] Ire[land] Co. Roscommon Land[ed] Quebec Ca[nada] May 15 1837 per Ship Emerald. Direct to Boston and resided in Boston since.  M[arrie]d Henry Stanley in Boston 1838. N.N. [?] No R[eal?]. Est[ate?] No taxes Laborer died Boston Jan[uary] 1856. Son Thomas Stanley stone mason resides #25 Northampton St. Daug[hter] Mary H[ouse?] w[i]f[e] of Benjamin Washington. #5 Smith's Court off Joy St. P[arents?] Richard and Ann O'Brien d[ied?] Ire[land]. Last lived rear of 383 Harrison Ave with Mrs Dayley. Says [she was] in no other inst[itution]. Officer Prouty [?] of Station 5 knows her. Rheum[atism?] In City Hosp[ital] 2 years ago. No M[oney?]. No Home.

As best that I can tell, the website on which this collection is hosted, University of Massachusetts Lowell Digital Initiatives, does not have a standalone database where you can search this collection. Instead, the search facility searches all digitized collections. However, all names from the Tewksbury Almshouse collection have been indexed.

You can read more about the collection here and access the records here. Browsing the records is also available, beginning here.

My thanks goes to R. Andrew Pierce, a professional genealogist in Boston, for telling me about this digitization project.

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[1] Meltsner, Heli. The Poorhouses of Massachusetts: A Cultural and Architectural History. Massachusetts: McFarland, 2012, pp. 32–33.

[2] Fisher, Joseph. 'Tewksbury Almshouse Intake Record Collection at UMass Lowell,' Highlights. Boston Library Consortium (https://blc.org/special-highlights/tewksbury-almshouse-intake-record-collection-umass-lowell): accessed 19 February 2017.

[3] Tewksbury Almshouse, 'Tewksbury Almshouse Intake Record: Stanley, Mary,' No. 41109, 4 June 1873; Digital Initiatives @ UML, University of Massachusetts Lowell Library (http://libhost.uml.edu/items/show/1807): accessed 19 February 2017.

The Canada Company

Throughout history, private companies have always been interesting in settling people on colonized lands and large tracts of lands acquired from national governments and monarchs. It was no different in parts of modern-day Canada. One interesting example was The Canada Company. It was formed in the 1820s to sell and settle land in Ontario, of which its southern parts was known as Upper Canada from 1791 to 1841.

After settling the first generation of arrivals, it was in the interest of such companies to facilitate the settlers to write back to family members in their place of origin and send remittances. Both acts would encourage more settlers to come to the company's lands. The Canada Company settled a considerable number of Irish immigrants and compiled a large amount of documentation in the process.

The company's records were acquired by a Canadian archive after it ceased operation in 1951. Among the records were four volumes that reported on the company's efforts to assist settlers with their remittance payments.  Relevant genealogical information from these volumes was included in Genealogical extraction and index of the Canada Company remittance books, 1843-1847, published in 1990.[1] About half of those immigrants  were from Ireland. The records detail the residence of the settler and, crucially, the residence of person receiving the remittance in Ireland. These people are most likely to have been family members or those from the settler's place of origin in Ireland.

This publication is not universally available.  Copies can be found at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, Toronto Public Library, and elsewhere . The original records are at the Archives of Ontario.

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[1] Dwight D. Radford and Kyle J. Betit. A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors. Betterway Books: 2003, p.67.

British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) was founded in 1994. The organization encourages "family history research and its dissemination by people with ancestry in the British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands)."[1] BIFHSGO is one of the largest Canadian genealogy organizations and has a library, online databases, and multiple monthly meetings. Each year they host a very highly regarded conference.

The organization works in collaboration with the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society to run an Irish Research Group. The group meets every fourth Tuesday of the month (except June, July, August and December) at 7.30 pm at the McNabb Community Centre, Craft Room, 180 Percy Street, Ottawa. BIFHSGO's Brian O'Regan Memorial Library has a large selection of publications concerning Irish genealogy and they have a full catalog online.

BIFHSGO has published Anglo-Celtic Roots since 1995. Editions from 1995 to 2015 are available to read on their website. Below you will find a table of articles that focus on Irish related genealogy research in Canada. Anglo-Celtic Roots contains many interesting articles about Canadian records, resources and personal testimonies about family history research. I encourage you to peruse the article titles to see if any can help with your research.

Year	Volume	Issue	Article Title
2008	14	Summer	Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial Historic Site
2004	10	Winter	An Irish Fling: Delightful Discoveries! Part II
2004	10	Fall	An Irish Fling: Delightful Discoveries! Part I
2000	6	Summer	Unravelling the Mystery of the Mathews of Sligo
1999	5	Summer	The Irish in Osgoode Township
1998	4	Summer	Southeastern Ireland Names in Canada
1996	2	Winter	Monaghan, Cavan and Louth Names in Canada
1995	1	Summer	I Found My Irish Ancestry in Canada

In the internet age, joining a genealogy society or organization is often overlooked as a way to help further your research, particularly by those who come to genealogy via online records and DNA tests. If you're tracing ancestors in Canada, and particularly the Ottawa region or in Ontario, then BIFHSGO seems like an organization worth being a member of.

EDIT 17 January 2016

Barbara Tose, President of BIFHSGO, was in touch to offer a correction and helpful updates.

In 2015 we found ourselves without a librarian and, after much deliberation, decided to give our library to the Ontario Genealogical Society-Ottawa Branch (OGS-OB). They are currently in the process of amalgamating our collection with theirs. So the Brian O'Regan Memorial Library no longer exists but the resources are still available at the City of Ottawa Archives under the Ottawa Branch's library. We continue to work with OGS-OB and support the library through donations of books and other resources as well as providing volunteers to assist the OGS-OB librarian, Grace Lewis. For the moment our catalogue, as it was in December 2015, is still available online. However, once the amalgamation is complete this will be removed as it will no longer be accurate for locating resources. However, the OGS-OB has their catalogue online and it can be searched using keywords (http://ogsottawa.on.ca/libsearch/).

I would also like to mention that we do hold monthly meetings for anyone in the area on the second Saturday of every month between September and June. A short educational program runs from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. followed by a half hour break when people can socialize and peruse a variety of "Discovery Tables". The main meeting with a lecture of about an hour starts at 10:00 a.m. These meetings are open to the public and we welcome visitors from out of town. The program for these meetings can be found on our webpage (http://www.bifhsgo.ca/eventListings.php?nm=127).

And finally, our conference this year will be taking place Sept. 29-Oct. 1 and will focus on English and Welsh family history and Methodology/Evidence Analysis. Next year's focus will be Scotland and Ireland will be the focus for 2019.

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[1] British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa. About our Society. 2017. British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (http://www.bifhsgo.ca/about.php): accessed 8 January 2017.

You Want To Learn More About Your Irish Ancestors?

Repost from 2014 & 2015.

The Christmas and New Year holiday period is a time when families travel great distances across the U.S. and Canada to be together. It can often be a time for reminiscing about family occasions and those from older generations who have recently passed away. This conversation can gradually turn into a genealogical investigation without anyone realizing. Questions are asked about grandparents, great-grandparents, when ancestors first came to North America, and before you know it, you have just spend a couple of hours trying to find information about your ancestors online.

For those of you with Irish ancestors, some of the same refrains can be heard when this conversation begins: "well, your grandfather didn't talk much about where his parents came from in Ireland", "we only ever see Ireland on the records we have", and "I think they might have been from Cork, wait, or did their ship leave from Cork?"

If you have come across Townland of Origin as you try to Google information about your ancestry, then welcome, and have a look around. Start in the About section to learn what this site does and what exactly a townland is. Next, try the archive and select the country, state, or Irish county that you are interested in to read the posts about those areas. Did any of your ancestors immigrate through Ellis Island or live in New York City? Then I encourage you to learn what my book Finding Your Irish Ancestors in New York City  (cover image above) has to offer. 

If you are looking for an introduction to genealogy research in states that have large Irish-American populations then check out all the free articles that I wrote for Irish Lives Remembered genealogy magazine. Lastly, do you want to get more involved in your genealogy research in 2017? If so, I definitely recommend joining your local genealogy group/society. Check out my GSI (groups/societies/institutions) database to find one in your area.

Best of luck with your Irish genealogy research in 2017! 

Irish Emigration to New England Through The Port of Saint John

Saint John, New Brunswick is a port city that Irish immigrants have used since the 18th century as a gateway to North America. Located on the Atlantic seaboard, it provides for easy access to a wide range of Canadian and American locations. During The Famine, thousands of Irish immigrants arrived at Saint John. Tracing Famine arrivals is difficult at the best of time so it is great to have Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849 to assist research efforts.

First published in 1996 (then re-published in 1997 and 2004) and written by Daniel Johnson, it is a compendium of extracts from the records of various institutions in Saint John County, New Brunswick. They include hospitals, asylums and workhouses, along with information gleaned from the journeys of the immigrants, their receiving of outdoor relief, and where they might have lived or temporarily resided in Saint John County.

Interesting examples abound in the publication. Names derived from a "Catalogue of immigrants from the United Kingdom relieved on parish poor accounts and not charged to the immigrant account year 1842," a document at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, are accompanied by Irish counties of nativity. Patrick May, 58, from County Kilkenny, [condition] sick and asmatick [sic]; William Freil, 76, from County Donegal, blind and feeble; and Barbara Ford, 47, from County Leitrim, dropsical [sic], are just three examples.[1]

Records for the year 1841 in the temporary lunatic asylum also have detailed information. Catherine Coyle, 33, and John Clougher, 26, both from County Roscommon, were two of the people admitted on 1 May 1841. Mary was discharged five months later but John was still there in 1844.[2]

It is often forgotten that Canadian ports were used to immigrate when the final destination was in the United States, hence the name of the publication. Therefore, don't discount this important work if you are researching Famine immigrants in Massachusetts, Vermont or elsewhere in New England. The book is also available in digitized format via the database 'Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849' on Ancestry.

Click here for a long list of other sources to do with New Brunswick that I have written about.

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[1] Johnson Daniel F. Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849. Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 15-16; digital image, Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed 3 December 2016.

[2] Johnson Daniel F. Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849. Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore, Maryland. p. 13; digital image, Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed 3 December 2016.

Upcoming Talks

I have two talks coming up next week, details of which you can find below.

Tuesday, 6 September: Ten free websites for U.S. genealogical research

This is part of the lunchtime series at the National Library of Ireland. It starts at 1pm and is free to attend with no booking required.

Thursday, 8 September: Tracing Galway's Emigrants in the United States and Canada

I will be giving this talk at the Emigration and our Galway County Diaspora conference. There is an excellent lineup across the day and my talk is at 3:45pm. The conference is in Clarinbridge and is free to attend.

From Schull To New Brunswick And Beyond

If you cannot find the place of origin for your Irish ancestors then it is always a good idea to look at other Irish immigrants who formed part of their community. The main reason for this is that immigrants to the United States and Canada sometimes traveled in groups and often participated in chain migration.

One book that provides an excellent example of this is Ireland to North America: Emigrants from West Cork by Joseph A. King (1994, K & K Publications, California). The publication also provides a case study of a feature of Irish immigration to North America that is less well studied - initial immigration to British North America (Canada) and then migration on into the American mid-west states. Emigrants from Schull Civil Parish, County Cork are the focus.

So, if you have any Driscoll, Mahoney, Donovan, Regan, Sullivan, Daly, Brien, Coghlan, McCarthy, Hickey, Kingston, Goggin, Sauntry or Lucey ancestors and you found the adult immigrant generation living by the Miramichi River in New Brunswick in the 1820-1840 time period and/or the next generation in Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Washington states, then they may very well have been from that part of south-west County Cork.

The 21st Century Parish History

When you find the civil parish of origin for your Irish ancestors then one of your checklist items should be to find out if a parish history has been written. The quality of such publications ranges from the forensically brilliant to the superficially glossy and everything in between. Regardless, if at all possible, it should be consulted as the type of information they contain might concern your ancestors and not be found elsewhere. For example, I recently had reason to read Forkhill Protestants and Forkhill Catholics, 1787-1858, a truly outstanding publication about Forkhill Civil Parish in County Armagh.

That important point is a somewhat tenuous segue into the recent announcement by Ireland XO of a new website feature called Chronicles.  Chronicles allows those with relevant information to add people, buildings and events associated with a particular civil parish. Their helpful video explains what it is all about and upon viewing, it struck me that it has the potential to become the 21st century parish history.

From Carlow and Wexford to Canada, 1817 and 1818

In November 1817, officials from the British Colonial Office began to organize for hundreds of families to emigrate from Counties Carlow and Wexford to British North America. The families were to travel to Quebec in Spring 1818. Two lists were compiled, one Roman Catholics and the other Protestant, and they provide the head of household names and the number of family members for 710 Protestant and 281 Catholic families.

First page of Roman Catholic list[1]

First page of Protestant list[2]

The lists survive in the papers of the Colonial Department and Colonial Office, CO 384 at the National Archives in England. These papers have been digitized and are available to view in the database Canada, Immigration and Settlement Correspondence and Lists, 1817-1896 on Ancestry. They have been indexed, but they are part of thousands of other folios that comprise the collection. The relevant papers can be browsed by selecting Canada, Immigration and Settlement Correspondence and Lists, 1817-1896 → Year Range 1871-1851 → (Volume 001) North America Settlers, 1817 → image 182 (Protestant list) / image 192 (Roman Catholic list).

Transcriptions of these lists are available to view elsewhere online. The Ship List has transcribed them and also provide a small amount of analysis to help researchers.

It is important to remember that these lists provide information about families that intended to emigrate. They may never have actually emigrated or other families could have also travelled.

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[1] United Kingdom, War and Colonial Department and Colonial Office, Emigration Original Correspondence 1817–1857 and 1872–1896, CO 384/1, p. 188, A Release of Roman Catholic families preparing to emigrate from the counties of Carlow and Wexford in the insuing Spring [New] Ross 29th November 1817; digital image, "Canada, Immigration and Settlement Correspondence and Lists, 1817-1896," (http://www.ancestry.com), Ancestry, accessed 18 June 2016.

[2] United Kingdom, War and Colonial Department and Colonial Office, Emigration Original Correspondence 1817–1857 and 1872–1896, CO 384/1, p. 178, A Release of Protestant families preparing to emigrate from the counties of Carlow and Wexford in the insuing Spring [New] Ross 29th November 1817; digital image, "Canada, Immigration and Settlement Correspondence and Lists, 1817-1896," (http://www.ancestry.com), Ancestry, accessed 18 June 2016.

Documentary On One - A Genealogical Perspective

One of the best radio documentary series is the simply but aptly titled Documentary on One on RTE Radio 1. A full back catalog of hundreds of hours is available to listen to on the RTE website. Over the years, many documentaries have focused on migration from Ireland to North America and other topics that will be of great interest to genealogists. I have compiled a list below of such titles. Enjoy.

Migration

The McGraths (2000) - McGrath family reunion in Lanesborough, County Fermanagh. Members of the family first emigrated to the United States in 1827.

My Dear Cousin  (2012) - Letters sent between two cousins in Ireland and the United States between 1917 and 1971.

The Cons (2009) - The annual visit of the Smith family from America to County Cavan.

The Anaconda Road Massacre (2015) - The murder of Irish immigrant Thomas Manning in Butte, Montana 1916. Includes back story on Irish immigration to the town.

Kenmare Street (2012) - The story of Tim Sullivan, the son of two assisted emigrants from the Lansdowne Estate in County Kerry to New York City's Five Points.

The Newfoundland Connection (2003) - The links between south east Ireland and Newfoundland.

Other documentaries of genealogical interest

Strangers in Ireland (1985) - The Huguenots who settled in Ireland.

Battle of Carrickshock (1983) - Includes the history of the 1823 Tithe Composition Act, Tithe Applotment Books, and tithe defaulters.

The Murder, Me and My Family Tree (2015) - A member of the Haskins family 

uses DNA and documents to see if he is related to the last man hanged in Wicklow jail.

Lost Children: Children in Irish Workhouses (1982) - The story of children in Irish workhouses in the 19th century.

Bound By Regulations (1995) - The history of the hiring fair, which resulted in internal migration of agricultural laborers within Ireland.

Immigrant Ancestors Project

The Immigrant Ancestors Project is located at the Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is a project and database that is very useful for genealogists in that it provides the place of origin from countries such as Ireland for immigrants to the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. It sources from "emigration registers to locate information about the birthplaces of immigrants in their native countries, which is not found in the port registers and naturalization documents in the destination countries."[1]  It began in 2014 and is ongoing. Currently, it lists the National Library of Ireland, Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, The National Archives (UK), and the British Library as institutions it has worked with.

A search for those from Ireland who immigrated to the United States and Canada returns over 1,500 entries. Some of those records come from small, but interesting record sets and publications:

• Castlecomer [Kilkenny] Poor Law Union Assisted Emigrants 1847-1853
• Irish Emigrant Letters 1842-1910
• Irish Emigrant Personal Accounts 1838-1901        

At the time of writing, information for more than 90% of Irish immigrants to North America in the database comes from one collection - WO23, Examination of Invalid Soldiers from The National Archives (UK). This is a collection which lists invalid soldiers who were given permission to stay in what was British Canada in the 19th century.

This clearly is a project with a lot of potential as there are many less well known record sets in Irish and British archives that contain Irish place of origin information for many who immigrated from Ireland to the United States or Canada. Dependant on funding, hopefully this is a database that will grow over the coming years.

Access here.

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[1] Center for Family History and Genealogy. Immigrant Ancestors Project. 2014. Available online at http://immigrants.byu.edu/about/iap: accessed 6 May 2016.

Digitized Irish Records In The Familysearch Catalog

UPDATE 31 May 2016: See the Irish Genealogy News blogpost about this topic before reading.

Last November, the Familysearch blog outlined that the most requested microfilms at the Family History Library would be digitized, with access to the images available through the Familysearch Catalog. Before this, digitized records were, and still are, found in the Records section, with the Historic Record Collections list the quickest way to identify records of interest. Digitized record sets have the image of a camera beside the title. Just like in the Records section, selecting on the camera icon in the Catalog listing will allow you to view any of the newly digitized records.

Digitized Irish records on the Familysearch website. Camera icon highlighted.

The plan to digitize microfilms and place the images in the Catalog has very quickly provided an unexpected boon to Irish genealogy research. Two weeks ago, John Schnelle contacted Claire Santry about the availability of digitized Griffith's Valuation House, Quarto, and Field books (read the blog post here and access the Catalog listing here).

My AncestryProGenealogists colleague, Eimer Shea, brought it to my attention that wills from the Tuam probate district have been digitized and are also available in the Catalog. A subsequent perusal of the Catalog by us found that digitized wills from 11 of the 12 post-1857 probate districts in the Republic of Ireland are also available to view in the Catalog (wills from the Dublin probate district are not listed in the Catalog). These wills are available to view up to various cut of years around 1900.

Digitized wills from Tuam Probate District. Camera icon highlighted.

As well as the Valuation Books and wills, there are other microfilms that have been digitized, for example:

• Gowran, County Kilkenny Roman Catholic Church parish registers
• Irish Reproductive Loan Fund records

The Family History Library obviously has a  huge collection of microfilmed Irish records and it is very likely that other interesting records have been digitized. As such, the Familysearch Catalog should now be a mandatory place to look online for digitized Irish records. Of course, this digitization project is not just confined to microfilms of Irish records. It therefore offers a new and exciting research path for people researching ancestors who immigrated to the United States, Canada, and elsewhere, as microfilms of records from other countries are also being digitized.

If you have not used the Familysearch Catalog before then follow this step-by-step.

1. On the Familysearch homepage, select Search, then select Catalog

2. Select Search By: Place

3. Enter the Irish county you want to consult and select Search

Pioneer Irish of Onondaga

Pioneer Irish of Onondaga is an early 20th century publication that offers biographies, ancestral pedigrees, and Irish places of origin for immigrants from Ireland who settled in this New York county from about 1776 to 1847. The book is divided into 22 chapters, with 20 of those devoted to various cities, towns, and areas in the county.

In the book it mentions how many of the immigrants arrived in Onondaga having first set foot on the continent in Canada. Therefore, those with Irish ancestors from Canada, upstate New York, and neighboring states, such as Vermont, should also check this book out.

The index at the back of the book is very useful as it contains about 3,200 entries. The vast majority are for names of Irish immigrants who are mentioned, along with a sizeable number of Irish place of origin such as counties, town, and parishes.

As always with such publications that do not cite the source of their information, use it as a guide to help you find the original documents for the person of interest. This book is widely available online via Internet Archive, Familysearch Books, Ancestry, and American Ancestors.

Familysearch Letures

There are myriad online resources to help with genealogy research in Ireland, Canada and the United States. What is harder to come by are lectures that focus on researching in the United States and Canada with the aim of getting back to Ireland. Luckily, Familysearch have some resources available in that category. Their website is primarily known for the billions of free records from all over the world. However, less well explored sections of the website include the Family History Research Wiki and the Learning Center.

The learning center has a number of interesting lectures that are specifically aimed at those who are trying to find where their ancestor(s) came from in Ireland.

• Ireland Beginning Research Series Immigration Part 1: Strategies (21 mins, slides and handout)
• Ireland Beginning Research Series Immigration Part 2: Famine and Post Famine Sources (31 mins, slides and handout)
• Ireland Beginning Research Series Immigration Part 3: Ulster and Scots Irish Sources (27 mins, slides and handout)
• Ireland Emigration (1 hour 28 mins, slides)
• Irish Emigration to North America: Before, During, and After the Famine (47 mins, handout and slides)

NIFHS Cemetery Inscriptions

Following on from last week's post about genealogy organizations outside the U.S and Canada that have relevant records and resources, this week's post looks at the North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS). NIFHS "is a voluntary not-for-profit organization encouraging an interest in family history with particular reference to the nine counties in the historic Province of Ulster."[1]

One of their offerings is an index to graveyard inscriptions extracted from journals that the society subscribes to. The usefulness of the index is that you can quickly find out if a family name is included in the listing of inscriptions from a particular cemetery that you are interested in. Members of the NIFHS can avail of a lookup service if there is a cemetery of interest among the extensive list. This list includes transcribed information from some cemeteries in both the United States and Canada.

You can learn more information about this index and the NIFHS on their website.

IR[2]	Article Title	Journal
043/002	Memorial Stones in the USA	Galway Roots Vol 2 Page 79
043/003	New Brunswick, St. John County Alms & workhouse	Galway Roots Vol 4 Page 125
050/005	Andover, Mass. USA emigrant burials	Irish Ancestor Vol 1 Page 23
055/001	Tombstone Inscriptions of Irish interest in British Columbia	Irish Family History Society Vol. 2 1986 Page 59
055/002	St. Mary’s Cemetery, Lee, Mas., U.S.A.	Irish Family History Society Vol. 3 1987 Page 32
055/005	Irish graves in Ontario, Canada	Irish Family History Society Vol. 6 1990 Page 39
055/009	Irish Burials in St. Augustine’s Catholic Church Cemetery, Hamilton – Wentworth region, Ontario	Irish Family History Society Vol. 10 1994 Page 61
055/009	St. Joseph’s R.C. Church Cemetery, Bimbrook, Hamilton – Wentworth region, Ontario	Irish Family History Society Vol. 10 1994 Page 62
055/009	Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Catholic Church Cemetery, Freelton, Ontario	Irish Family History Society Vol. 10 1994 Page 63
055/009	St. Thomas R.C. Cemetery, Waterdown, Ontario	Irish Family History Society Vol. 10 1994 Page 64
055/022	Bakerville Cemetery & Richfield Cemetery, B.C., Canada	Irish Family History Society Vol. 17 2001 Page 119

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[1] North of Ireland Family History Society. North of Ireland Family History Society. Available online at http://www.nifhs.org: accessed 27 January 2016.

[2] There is no indications as to what this acronym stands for but it likely to be internal reference.