New Records Available To Search This Findmypast Friday

There are more than 1.9 million new records and newspaper articles available to search this Findmypast Friday, including:

Irish Newspaper Transcript Archive, ffolliott Collection 1756-1850

Search a comprehensive catalogue of more than 54,000 biographical notices from Irish newspapers compiled by the celebrated Irish genealogist Rosemary ffolliott. Each record includes a transcript and original image that enable you to discover if your Irish ancestors had details of their birth, marriage or death announcement printed in a newspaper.

Rosemary ffolliott was Ireland’s premier genealogist, at the age of 23 she had her first book The Pooles of Mayfield, a history of settler families in the Cork area published in 1958. From the 1950s to the 1970s she was a member of the panel of freelance researchers engaged by the Genealogical Office, becoming a prominent member of the Irish Genealogical Research Society whose journal The Irish Genealogist she edited for a time.

In addition, she revised a simple guide to Irish Genealogy which was originally written by Father Wallace Clare, the founder of the society. In 1966 she became a Fellow of the Irish Genealogical Research Society, the first woman to be recognised in this way.

Kerry Histories & Reference Guides

Explore three fascinating publications to learn more about the history of Kerry and its inhabitants. Each record is available in a PDF format. Use the previous and next buttons at the top of the page to browse through the publication. This collection currently holds the following titles:

• A History of the Kingdom of Kerry – Published in 1871, written by M.F. Cusack. The book covers the history of the county from early times. There are extracts from different documents, these include the Charters of the towns of Dingle and Tralee, etc and the complete text from the 1673 report on the State of Kerry.
• A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to Killarney, The Kerry Coast, Glengariff, Cork and The South West of Ireland – First published in 1880, this is the seventh edition of the guide. Illustrated throughout, the guide includes photographs, maps, advertisements and descriptions of the places visited.
• The Ancient and Present State of the County of Kerry – Published in 1756, written by Charles Smith M.D. Originally published privately by Charles Smith after the Dublin Philosophical Society had ceased, this is the fourth county history written singularly or jointly published from Smith.

Limerick Histories & Reference Guides

This collection also contains three historic publications that can be used to learn more about the place and time in which your Irish ancestors lived. This collection currently holds three titles:

• Limerick and its Sieges – Published in 1890, written by Rev. James Dowd, A.B., T.C.D. This is the second edition of the book. Dowd begins his preface with the following; ‘This sketch of Limerick and its Sieges, as well as other notes concerning the place of chief historic interest in the county of Limerick, were put together by the writer more for his own information than with an eye towards their publication, at least in a book form’.
• Round About The County Of Limerick – Published in 1896 written by Rev. James Dowd, A.B., T.C.D. Dowd begins his preface with the following; ‘In asking my readers to accompany me on a Historical and Archaeological Tour Round About the County of Limerick, I have consulted their convenience by grouping events around the places brought under notice. The arrangement may lead to occasional repetition, and the narrative may sometime be left incomplete, to be resumed and finished elsewhere. But, on the other hand, it possesses the undoubted advantage of fixing the attention of the reader upon the events and occurrences which render the places visited memorable.’
• The History, Topography and Antiquities of the County and City of Limerick, 2 Vols – Published in 1826 and 1827, written by Rev. Patrick Fitzgerald and John James McGregor. The book begins with the following; ‘An author who should undertake the difficult task of writing a general history of Ireland, must, for the most obvious reasons, divide his work into three grand periods, namely, the fabulous, the obscure, and the authentic.’

United States Passport Applications

Over 62,000 additional records spanning the years 1795 to 1925 have been added to our collection of United States Passport Applications. This collection of regular passport applications has been compiled from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) collections M1372 and M1490. Each record will provide a transcript and, where available, an image of the original documents.

Transcripts will reveal when, where, and why your ancestor travelled as well as their date of birth, place of birth and the name of their spouse. Images may reveal additional details relating to their citizenship such as when and from where they immigrated, by what means they arrived in the United States, and when they were naturalized.

For those born in the United States, you may learn details of their fathers’ naturalization: full name, birthplace, and date and place of emigration. Additional details were also recorded such as detailed physical descriptions. Most applications are one to two pages in length and, starting on 21 December 1914, photographs were required with applications and can be viewed on the second page.

England, Domesday Book 1086 Browse

Explore Britain’s earliest public record as part of your subscription to Findmypast with a browse search allows you to search each counties book from beginning to end. The Domesday Book is Britain’s earliest public record, it was commissioned in December 1085 by King William the Conqueror, and it provides an invaluable insight into 11th century Norman England.

The ‘Great Survey’ was completed in August 1086, it contained records for 13,418 settlements in England south of the rivers Ribble and Tees, the border with Scotland at that time. The book is written in a short form of Latin.

Needing to raise taxes to pay for his army, the survey was used to assess the wealth and assets of his subjects throughout the land. The survey provides extensive records of landholders, their tenants, the amount of land they owned, and how many people occupied the land.

International records update

Our international collections continue to grow. This week we have added four new indexes from the Central American country of Costa Rica. The new indexes contain over 800,000 records covering baptisms, marriages, deaths and civil registrations between 1700 and 1975. These records have been sourced from the International Genealogical Index. Our Costa Rica collections currently include:

• Costa Rica Baptism Index 1700-1915
• Costa Rica Marriage Index 1750-1920
• Costa Rica Death Index 1787-1900
• Costa Rica Civil Registration, 1860-1975 Image Browse

British & Irish newspaper update

This week have added 139,520 new pages to The Archive. We are delighted to welcome four brand new titles this week, three of which cover the late twentieth century: London title the Harefield Gazette, the Reading Evening Post and Buckinghamshire title the Amersham Advertiser. Rounding off our new titles this week is the Orcadian, which covers the years 1854 to 1912 and was published in Kirkwall, Orkney.

We have updates to ten of our existing titles this week, with new pages covering the length and breadth of the British Isles and Ireland. We have updates to titles covering the counties of Kent, Middlesex, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, and Warwickshire, as well as updates to our Scottish and Irish titles.