I can't begin to tell you how frustrating it was trying to deal with local "genealogical" societies when we visited Monaghan, Tyrone and Armagh in 1993. Whatever little information they had was hoarded and kept to themselves in an attempt to extract exorbitant sums of money to perform "research" based on information supplied to them. And even when you gave in to their extortionary techniques, the information provided was useless !!! I wish the government and the bureaucrats well and God speed in their efforts to indeed bring Civil Registration into the 21st Century. The success of this initiative will indeed be a boon not only to genealogists but to the economy of all of Ireland. Regards, John Patrick Hagan