The Irish in Scotland

[ninatoo]

I picked up a few great books just by browsing at second hand book shops. If you have the time, it might be worth a shot.

Nina

[Andrew C.]

I recently received an email from the Irish Family History Foundation saying that 60 million Irish Records had been put online. This is a great step forward if what appears to be being said is true, Although at £7.50 a record it is even more expensive than talking people however cheaper than going to PRONI. I was wondering if anyone has registered and used this service?

http://www.irish-roots.net/counties.asp

[Chris Paton]

Coming from Northern Ireland myself, I am sad to say that I actually boycott this site, as well as that of the Ulster Historical Foundation, which is associated with them, and which charges at similar rates.

My two points of contention are 1) the pricing policy is outrageous, and worse, 2) the search facility on their websites makes it as difficult as can be to narrow down the correct entry you are looking for. UHF policy is to charge £6 per record, but you can get a discount of £2 per record if you pay £30 a year membership fee! You then do a search on name, county and year only, for which you get five chances to find the right record. My 2xgreat grandfather was William Smyth, and I spent about £20 trying to find his birth before realising the whole system was designed to bleed me of my hard earned cash.

I don't believe that I should be held hostage to my own heritage in this way, and with the advent of digitisation in Ireland of vital records (currently out for tender), and the soon to be released online 1901 and 1911 censuses for free of charge, I think service providers like IFHS and UHF are soon going to have to join the rest of the genealogy universe here in the 21st Century, before pricing themselves out of existence.

To put it in perspective, for the cost of eight records, I can get to Belfast on the ferry and do the work myself at GRONI and PRONI, which I often do.

Chris

[Currie]

Very well said Chris,

I absolutely agree with your stand on the matter and think everyone should support it.

Alan

[Andrew C.]

Thanks Chris you have answered my puzzle as to why I got an unsolicited email from them, (I have registered with UHF). My concerns were as you said you could spend alot of money trying to find the right record. Saying that I was looking for a John Chambers born in Armagh in 1878 and there was only one hit so I presume that is who I am looking for. Do you know if this will give the same information as PRONI ie parents etc. Or would I be better sending off to PRONI for his marriage cerificate?

It is fantastic news that the official records are going out to tender however I am guessing it will be a few years away yet.

[Chris Paton]

Andrew,

I'd go for the cert - for a pound or two extra, you'll get the full monty! The records at IFHF and UHF are transcribed, so there is always the possibility of a transcription error.

Chris

[LizzieS]

Hi All,
Just to take you back to my original question re the book - I just thought I'd let you know I've followed up some of your suggestions with success.

We were down in Dumfries last week searching about for various clues to our ancestors and called in to both the Family History society and the library there. The FHS didn't have it, though found some interesting stuff there.
The library reference section had not one but two copies so we were able to have a quick look at it for the half hour we had.

Secondly Inverness Library is requesting an inter library loan so hopefully that will come this week and we can spend a bit longer reading through it.

Thank you all for your help and for the interesting discussion its generated.

Lizzie

[Chris Paton]

Hi Lizzie,

I hope the book is worth all the effort and that you find what you need from it! Good luck

Chris