The National Library of Ireland
Photo by YvonneM at Wikipedia Commons
The following words of wisdom are based on my own experiences. Please get in touch if you can add to this advice with other interesting examples you have found.
What is this archive and what might you find there?
The National Library of Ireland is located in Kildare St., just south of Trinity College and dates from the 1870's. At its heart is the most beautiful circular reading room with hundreds of plaster cherubs cavorting round the roof and I urge you to visit at least once just to see this splendid room. There are computer terminals to help you interrogate the catalogues and a reception desk to submit your requests to staff. Just off the reading room is a microfilm room where you can view newspapers.
How to find your way to treasure in this archive, in person or remotely?
If you are planning a visit, then take some time to have a good roam around their website by clicking on the green link above - you will find details of rules, opening hours, how to get a readers ticket etc. The NLI Catalogue takes a bit of navigating like most archive catalogues but there are lots of items that are readily available online as well as many more you will need to visit in person to see. Another good finding aid is the Sources catalogue, described as a database for Irish research. This will help you navigate the manuscripts collection and also learn the location of useful articles in journals and periodicals.
As a major repository for Irish newspapers, there used to be an NLI newspaper database that could be searched by keyword and returned details of changes of name, extent of holdings and other places that held copies. In a massive step backwards, they got rid of this and if you want to find out about their newspaper holdings, you are going to have to wrestle with their catalogue. However, like most academic catalogues in my opinion, you are playing good old-fashioned letterbox Scrabble again and you almost have to know what you are looking for in order to find it! The data in the database would have come from the Newsplan projects that were undertaken across the UK and Ireland in the 1990's to provide the necessary scope for a microfilming project. The rather bland NLI newspapers reference page mentions the Newsplan report for Ireland as a useful research tool but neglects to provide a link to it, so click on mine in blue! This lists the newspapers alphabetically by name with some cross-referencing for changes of name. The most popular ones are in drawers in the microfilm room (e.g. the Irish Times I think) but you will have to order up other regional newspapers for viewing.
Having encouraged you to make a beeline for the beautiful reading room, there is another smaller room just off to the right of the staircase as you make your way up from the entrance that you might just take up residence in all day! This is the Genealogy Room where you will find computer terminals giving free access to FindMyPast Ireland and some other on-line subscription services e.g. the Irish Newspaper Archives. There are also shelves of reference books so be sure to have a browse and see what might be useful, perhaps before investing in a personal copy.
Opposite this room on the other side of the staircase there was a bit of a dungeon housing microfilm readers and cabinets of film. This used to be the only place you could view the NLI's collection of precious Roman Catholic parish registers. However it has probably been cleared now as, in July 2015, the NLI released digital images of these registers on-line which you can browse via Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI. There are no indexes but there are finding aids including a splendid map that can help you locate parish registers for you to browse. Do follow their recommendation to visit Shane Wilson's brilliant site to make use of his set of RC parish finding aids if you are not sure which parish you need to look at. Alternatively if you have a subscription to RootsIreland, you will find indexes to transcribed RC records may be available for you to search there by county to help you narrow down the time period to apply as a filter on the NLI images. However, check the sources for the county on RootsIreland very carefully before you search and sadly be prepared to put up with having to play "letterbox scrabble" through their awful query screens.
Browsing can be time-consuming I admit, but it can be a good way to get to know the different families in a community and see how they grew and intermarried. In fact, based on personal experience, I encourage you to do just that as you may also find pages have been scanned and / or filled out by the priest out of order and you may miss records if you just rely on the transcribed indexes and year filters. You may also find incidental records along the way to distract you that you might not necessarily ever thought to search for in an index.
And finally...!
I can't mention the National Library of Ireland without recalling my own very spooky experience there (follow this link to my blog on my sister website, Kindred Ancestry) that ultimately introduced me to 3 new distant cousins and many new breakthroughs together on our shared ancestors.
What is this archive and what might you find there?
The National Library of Ireland is located in Kildare St., just south of Trinity College and dates from the 1870's. At its heart is the most beautiful circular reading room with hundreds of plaster cherubs cavorting round the roof and I urge you to visit at least once just to see this splendid room. There are computer terminals to help you interrogate the catalogues and a reception desk to submit your requests to staff. Just off the reading room is a microfilm room where you can view newspapers.
How to find your way to treasure in this archive, in person or remotely?
If you are planning a visit, then take some time to have a good roam around their website by clicking on the green link above - you will find details of rules, opening hours, how to get a readers ticket etc. The NLI Catalogue takes a bit of navigating like most archive catalogues but there are lots of items that are readily available online as well as many more you will need to visit in person to see. Another good finding aid is the Sources catalogue, described as a database for Irish research. This will help you navigate the manuscripts collection and also learn the location of useful articles in journals and periodicals.
As a major repository for Irish newspapers, there used to be an NLI newspaper database that could be searched by keyword and returned details of changes of name, extent of holdings and other places that held copies. In a massive step backwards, they got rid of this and if you want to find out about their newspaper holdings, you are going to have to wrestle with their catalogue. However, like most academic catalogues in my opinion, you are playing good old-fashioned letterbox Scrabble again and you almost have to know what you are looking for in order to find it! The data in the database would have come from the Newsplan projects that were undertaken across the UK and Ireland in the 1990's to provide the necessary scope for a microfilming project. The rather bland NLI newspapers reference page mentions the Newsplan report for Ireland as a useful research tool but neglects to provide a link to it, so click on mine in blue! This lists the newspapers alphabetically by name with some cross-referencing for changes of name. The most popular ones are in drawers in the microfilm room (e.g. the Irish Times I think) but you will have to order up other regional newspapers for viewing.
Having encouraged you to make a beeline for the beautiful reading room, there is another smaller room just off to the right of the staircase as you make your way up from the entrance that you might just take up residence in all day! This is the Genealogy Room where you will find computer terminals giving free access to FindMyPast Ireland and some other on-line subscription services e.g. the Irish Newspaper Archives. There are also shelves of reference books so be sure to have a browse and see what might be useful, perhaps before investing in a personal copy.
Opposite this room on the other side of the staircase there was a bit of a dungeon housing microfilm readers and cabinets of film. This used to be the only place you could view the NLI's collection of precious Roman Catholic parish registers. However it has probably been cleared now as, in July 2015, the NLI released digital images of these registers on-line which you can browse via Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI. There are no indexes but there are finding aids including a splendid map that can help you locate parish registers for you to browse. Do follow their recommendation to visit Shane Wilson's brilliant site to make use of his set of RC parish finding aids if you are not sure which parish you need to look at. Alternatively if you have a subscription to RootsIreland, you will find indexes to transcribed RC records may be available for you to search there by county to help you narrow down the time period to apply as a filter on the NLI images. However, check the sources for the county on RootsIreland very carefully before you search and sadly be prepared to put up with having to play "letterbox scrabble" through their awful query screens.
Browsing can be time-consuming I admit, but it can be a good way to get to know the different families in a community and see how they grew and intermarried. In fact, based on personal experience, I encourage you to do just that as you may also find pages have been scanned and / or filled out by the priest out of order and you may miss records if you just rely on the transcribed indexes and year filters. You may also find incidental records along the way to distract you that you might not necessarily ever thought to search for in an index.
And finally...!
I can't mention the National Library of Ireland without recalling my own very spooky experience there (follow this link to my blog on my sister website, Kindred Ancestry) that ultimately introduced me to 3 new distant cousins and many new breakthroughs together on our shared ancestors.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2020
