Just a wee rider re payments scotlands people has now gone up to £7.oo now Alex On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 7:34 PM, P Keenan <keenan-p@sky.com> wrote: > I am hoping that the owners of the sites offering public records for > sale at premium prices are reading the recent posts on this site. Or, > that the negative impact of the unofficial boycott will have on their > revenues to the point where the degree of pain will cause them to > revise their charging policy. I note that the Easter reduction on the > new site is reduced to 5 euro per search and still going..... maybe > they will continue to All Saints/Souls ..... just a wee bit annoyed > having spent EU50 searching in vain for records the week before the > reductions in pricing...grrr. > > My own personal experience of the original UHF site was outstanding, > although I dread to add up what I had to spend to find the marriage > record of my gr gr grandparents. All I had was a Scots' birth cert. > stating the marriage date in Ireland in 1854 with no indication of > County. So I have mixed feelings about the 'value' of these sites and > often reflect on what it costs to visit and search the records in > person. Having had 4 visits to Ireland recently: 3x NLI Dublin and 1 x > Belfast at PRONI, I feel that there is a lot of value in these sites > however, the indexing and search tools must be at a level where we can > purchase with, reasonable, confidence that the money we spend is > delivering information we can use. > > A recent comparison of the value of scotlandspeople.gov.uk site to > these sites illustrates the benefits of having the entire data base > under the control of one authority and administered as a public > reference service. The Scots' site is outstanding and retains all > previous searches in an easy to use file format for each registered > member (free membership only pay for a number of credits...approx 6 > BMD records for £6, EU8, $12) > > One day the entire Irish record will be available in this format...in > the meantime, they have had one or two other pressing priorities to > focus attentions on. When the social welfare, education, health and > justice processes are in place, they may then decide to spend some > valuable resources on the relatively (hehehe) less urgent needs of > amateur genealogy researchers. It is easy to forget that for the vast > majority of us family research is a hobby or pastime (albeit an > extremely engaging one). Let's keep some persepective in this debate. > > There are many examples of confusion over names and denominations. At > one time I thought I had that sussed out. However, experience has > taught me that there is no science to it and the variables are almost > endless. I would have said Drysdale was almost certainly Presb. > However, I also thought that Cunningham was also Presb. There are > however, many RC. I wonder if anyone has a good insight to this? Did > this happen where some families decided not to join the reformed > faiths or did they change and change back, or did small pockets remain > RC? > My own gr gr gr grandparents are John Keenan and Ann nee Lindsay both > b c1800 and I know they were RC. Keenan I understand was originally an > Irish name O'cianian and many remained RC even when most of the > Northern part of Down and the Ards penninsula was cleared of that > faith to create a secure bridgehead in the N/East. I am assuming that > when my gr gr grandfather married in Gilford in 1854 he was one of the > first groups who had only recently arrived in that area on the Bann to > work in the newly automated textile mills. My understanding is that > there were no RC families in that area between the immediate aftermath > of the Williamite wars and the beginning of the Penal laws. They only > came back c1830's as a migrant workforce in the new mill towns..can > anyone offer me some good feedback on this view? > > As a boy I played football (soccer) with a Gordon Keenan and his > family were Preb. he told me his family were originally from Airdrie > area of Lanarkshire and I have since found many Presb. Keenans in both > Ireland and Scotland. Does anyone have a line on this ...when and why > did the families change or choose to (or not to) as the case may be? > > The Lindsay name would have suggested to me a Scots planter name, > again it was only after completing some detailed research that I > discovered that there were some of that name who remained RC or > returned to that faith. There are some examples in records around the > Mourne area in Kilcoo, Kilbroney and around Rosstrevor and > Warrenpoint. I have been unable to find the marriage record of John > Keenan and Anne Lindsay c 1825 and would welcome any help or guidance > to where they may have married or where I could look for Anne's > descendents. > > Paul Keenan > > Giffnock Scotland > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NIR-DOWN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- wee-eck