>What about the Kerry records prior to 1911? Are they still kicking that >political football around? > Don in sunny & cool Winter Park, FL some extracts below from yesterdays Irish Times. I dont have subscription but full articles (Pg 1 and 7) should be on www.ireland.com if anyone does. ...................... ...................... "This is the first time that people will be able to do this remotely and to do it with a names index. So there's going to be alot of genealogical interest in it" said Catriona Crowe, a senior archivist at the National Archives of Ireland. ...................... ...................... Organisers aim to post material on the rest of the country, as well as records from 1901 census, by the end of next year. The early 20th century census records are all the more important because those of the previous century were mostly destroyed. In what Ms Crowe described as "an unparallelled act of cultural vandalism", the census records from 1821 to 1851 were destroyed in an explosion at the Four Courts in 1922. "The Four Courts were occupied by the anti-treaty forces, and they stupidly put a huge landmine in the basement of the public records office, which at the end of June was hit by a Free State shell," she said. Historical records from the early 14th century to the late 18th century were also lost. Census records from the latter half of the 19th century are thought to have been pulped for recycling due to paper shortages during the first World War. Minister fir Arts Séamus Brennan, who launched the website, said it was a "huge step forward in making some of our most important documentary heritage accessible in a modern and easily usable way" ...................... __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! - the World's favourite mail http://uk.mail.yahoo.com