Most members of the New England Historic Genealogical Society now have immediate online access to a huge amount of Irish genealogical and historical Information. The new addition is a result of an agreement between the society and Otherdays.com, an online database provider with headquarters in County Wicklow, Ireland. Not only does Otherdays.com already have more than 100 databases available today, the company typically adds one more per week.
Here is today's announcement from the New England Historic Genealogical Society:
Otherdays.com – Premier Online Irish Resource Now Available to NEHGS MembersExplore your Irish roots and the Ireland of your ancestors! NEHGS and Otherdays.com have teamed up to allow NEHGS members* access to the unique content of Otherdays.com at no extra charge!
The new partnership between the New England Historic Genealogical Society and Otherdays.com gives all individuals with NEHGS research, family, associate, patron, and life memberships access to this valuable online research tool. This benefit is not available to Institutional Members at this time. Otherdays.com normally charges $44 per year for this access. NEHGS members will now receive the same access for no extra charge above the normal NEHGS membership fee.
Anyone tracing their Irish ancestry will find Otherdays.com's offerings invaluable. The site offers not only a unique set of databases but also collections of maps and photographs and a number of other tools and resources for the Irish researcher. In addition, the site's collections include an archive of general background and historical information.
There are currently over 100 databases on Otherdays.com. The databases include Griffith's Valuation; Placenames of Ireland; census and census substitutes; a variety of different types of directories; newspapers; gravestone inscriptions; vital records; wills and deeds; and land and property records. One new database is being added every week.
The centerpiece of the genealogy databases is the Griffith's Valuation of Ireland from 1847 to 1864. As described on the website, it is a comprehensive listing of persons who rented land and property throughout the country and is the most complete record of heads of household for Ireland during this period, as most census records for the nineteenth century were destroyed. Through this database, Otherdays.com provides a comprehensive online index to Griffith's Valuation. The database covers all thirty-two counties. The records provide the following information: townland name, Ordnance Survey Map number, plot number, name of land/house holder, immediate lessor, description of holding, acreage, and valuation. The results are linked to images of the actual pages.
Each entry in Griffith's Valuation is linked to the relevant Ordnance Survey Map. Ordnance Survey Maps show the county, barony, parish and townland boundaries, and the cities, towns, and villages throughout Ireland. These maps are detailed enough to allow one to identify individual houses and other structures.
The Placenames of Ireland database has more than 80,000 place names and covers all towns, villages, townlands, and streets. Each place name is linked to the corresponding entries from Griffith's Valuation and to the relevant Ordnance Survey Map.
A significant number of the databases on the site may be found under the Census and Census Substitutes heading. These databases include records extracted from city directories; lists of clergy of various denominations in a variety of locales; hospital applications and departures; lists of people in various occupations; and crimes and victims of crimes, to name a few. There are also historical Newspaper databases on the site extracted from three early newspapers—the Belfast Newsletter, 1801; the Freeman 1775-1776; and the Dublin Penny Journal, 1832-1836.
A number of other resources and tools are available on the site. They include Genwizard, an interactive guide to tracing Irish roots; Timelines; the Galleries of Photographs; Maps; and Genealogy Workshops, a series of articles providing information on Irish sources, research services and using the website's tools. The site also has a Personal Portfolio feature whereby users can assemble and organize the sources relevant to the families they are researching into specific folders.
This website offers much more than what appears in this article. There is an inestimable value to having Griffith's Valuation with links to the corresponding Ordnance Survey Maps at your fingertips.
Otherdays.com is a tremendous resource for anyone tracing Irish ancestry!
* Please note that this benefit is not available to Institutional Members at this time.
Explore Otherdays.com at http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/database/Individual/default.asp.
