Ireland is so wonderfully behind the times! Apart from not being able to search online, Irish folk were so relaxed about spellings - much more so than the English, Scots and Welsh. Whatever databases that do exist, like UHF, are so expensive to use, and incomplete. I've given up with that for both my Irish ancestral lines. My Morgan's seem to have jumped back and forth between Belfast and the shores of the Firth of Forth - no Welsh anywhere. My Hegan ancestors could be Hagan, Hagen, Heggan, Hagin, Higgin or almost anything similar. Access to all of these has defeated me for most of the last 10 years. I've spent time at PRONI with some success (but some of those films are totally illegible), and GRONI have been very helpful. However, without spending months in Belfast and Dublin I doubt I'll ever find more from pre-1860. At least I found the graves of my 4 great-grandparents, but that's where I'm still stuck from 7 years ago. Maybe in another 10 years we'll get co-ordinated - perhaps once the Census project is complete? Chris Morgan Sheffield ----- Original Message ----- From: "R L Young" <rsqyoung@blueyonder.co.uk> To: <irl-belfast-city@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:28 PM Subject: Re: [BELFAST] Records > My reply to Al Valentine's message was on the understanding that > Ireland, (North and South), BMD's need to be indexed in Electronic form > such as FREEBMD in the UK. And I totally agree with him > > Microfiche, paper copies were fine once upon a time, and we are all > grateful to the LDS centres, but in nearly 2008 so much more can be > gained by, index and sorting these electronically in a decent database, > by date. > > People spend hours huddle over microfiches in LDS centre, many folk > duplicating other people efforts, often missing the vital entries. > > Or if anyone is in any doubt about what I mean, the system used in > Edinburgh at New Register House is first class, or not quite so > convenient and expensive Scotlandspeople. > > Lookups done by other folk are fantastic and always gratefully received. > I also do lots too. But these usually only try to answer specific > questions. How often has a query been solved and another two or three > generated by the answer? And browsing indexes usually raises so many > more queries and answers. > > Come on everyone, how does one get the system changed? > > 1. Scotlands got it and linked to certificates. > 2. England and Wales are well behind but have FreeDMD and the likes of > 1837online > 3. Ireland nothing > > RLY

I personally think the old saying of "Born in a cabbage patch, while under the protection of the Witness Protection Program" originated in Ireland. :-P Jackie Christopher Morgan wrote: >Ireland is so wonderfully behind the times! > >Apart from not being able to search online, Irish folk were so relaxed about >spellings - much more so than the English, Scots and Welsh. > >Whatever databases that do exist, like UHF, are so expensive to use, and >incomplete. I've given up with that for both my Irish ancestral lines. My >Morgan's seem to have jumped back and forth between Belfast and the shores >of the Firth of Forth - no Welsh anywhere. My Hegan ancestors could be >Hagan, Hagen, Heggan, Hagin, Higgin or almost anything similar. Access to >all of these has defeated me for most of the last 10 years. I've spent time >at PRONI with some success (but some of those films are totally illegible), >and GRONI have been very helpful. However, without spending months in >Belfast and Dublin I doubt I'll ever find more from pre-1860. At least I >found the graves of my 4 great-grandparents, but that's where I'm still >stuck from 7 years ago. > >Maybe in another 10 years we'll get co-ordinated - perhaps once the Census >project is complete? > >Chris Morgan >Sheffield > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "R L Young" <rsqyoung@blueyonder.co.uk> >To: <irl-belfast-city@rootsweb.com> >Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:28 PM >Subject: Re: [BELFAST] Records > > > > >>My reply to Al Valentine's message was on the understanding that >>Ireland, (North and South), BMD's need to be indexed in Electronic form >>such as FREEBMD in the UK. And I totally agree with him >> >>Microfiche, paper copies were fine once upon a time, and we are all >>grateful to the LDS centres, but in nearly 2008 so much more can be >>gained by, index and sorting these electronically in a decent database, >>by date. >> >>People spend hours huddle over microfiches in LDS centre, many folk >>duplicating other people efforts, often missing the vital entries. >> >>Or if anyone is in any doubt about what I mean, the system used in >>Edinburgh at New Register House is first class, or not quite so >>convenient and expensive Scotlandspeople. >> >>Lookups done by other folk are fantastic and always gratefully received. >>I also do lots too. But these usually only try to answer specific >>questions. How often has a query been solved and another two or three >>generated by the answer? And browsing indexes usually raises so many >>more queries and answers. >> >>Come on everyone, how does one get the system changed? >> >>1. Scotlands got it and linked to certificates. >>2. England and Wales are well behind but have FreeDMD and the likes of >>1837online >>3. Ireland nothing >> >>RLY >> >> > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-BELFAST-CITY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > >