Bill, all, I'm in and it's amazing, they have done a wonderful job. I was in at 8:10 East Coast time but it's really slowing down now as more folks try it out. I was looking in the 1700's in Shanrahan Parish Tipperary so I don't know if Kerry is as good. I like what I've seen thus far. I'm no Latin scholar, I think it's fairly easy to understand. I'm hoping to catch a few Kerry folk that may have been missed or transcribed incorrectly. It's free and they've done a great job with the site so I'm grateful and happy that at last I can research at my leisure in the comfort of my own home! Helen -----Original Message----- From: beara-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:beara-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Bill Gawne via Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2015 8:07 AM To: beara@rootsweb.com Subject: [BEARA] Irish Catholics can now trace ancestry online back to 1740s Dear friends of Beara, Below, I quote from an article in today's Irish Times. I've tried to look at the site myself, and right now it's unreachable. No doubt it's being overwhelmed by all the people trying to look at it. I'm not sure there will be anything more in this than we've already had access to via the online records of the Diocese of Kerry, but we can always hope. Bill Gawne --- Begin quoted text --- Irish Times ~Irish Catholics can now trace ancestry online back to 1740s Almost 300 years of parish registers to be made available by National Library of IrelandThose of Irish Catholic ancestry, wherever they are, will be able to trace their origins back almost 300 years online from today (Wednesday). Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Arts, Herigage <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_person=Herigage&article=true> and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphries <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_person=Heather Humphries&article=true> will officially launch the entire collection of Catholic parish register microfilms held by the National Library of Ireland <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_organisation=National Library of Ireland&article=true> (NLI) online. Involved are over 370,000 digital images of the microfilm reels on which the parish registers are recorded and which will be accessible free of charge. These parish register records are considered the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 Census. Dating from the 1740s to the 1880s, they cover 1,086 parishes throughout the island of Ireland <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_location=Ireland&article=true>, and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records. The NLI has been working to digitise the microfilms for over three years under what is had described as its most ambitious digitisation programme to date. Ciara Kerrigan <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_person=Ciara Kerrigan&article=true> of the NLI, who has been managing the digitisation of the parish registers, said: “We announced initial details of this project last December, and received a hugely enthusiastic response from people worldwide with an interest in Irish family history. We are delighted that the week when we can publish all the digitised records online has now arrived.” It was, she said, “the most significant ever genealogy project in the history of the NLI.” The microfilms have been available to NLI visitors since the 1970s but digitisation means that for the first time anyone, anywhere will be able to access them. A dedicated hashtag for the new service is #ancestorsonline Further information at www.nli.ie, or @NLIreland ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BEARA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message