About FamilySearch
FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organisation in the world. We are a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and our predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years and we now have millions of free family history records available on our website. Our services and resources can be accessed for free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 6,000 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
About the project
This year we are working on Catholic parish records from Ireland, from the 1700s into the early 1900s. This is particularly important because large numbers of Irish family history records have been lost, so transcribing any existing records is all the more valuable. The records, including baptisms, marriages and burials, were typically handwritten in registers. Each batch of records consists of a single page from the registers, with a list of records. Each record should be transcribed as its own entry. Note that the handwriting on many of the documents is hard to read and some of the scans are unclear, so FamilySearch has given the record sets an ‘Advanced’ rating suitable for experienced transcribers.
If you have any problems on the day, please email jacobsonz@familysearch.org.
How to take part in the project
Step 1
Go to the FamilySearch volunteer page. Before joining this project, you will need to register for a free account on the FamilySearch website, which you can do by clicking the ‘Create Account’ button at the top right of the page and following the instructions. Then, click on the ‘Indexing’ option on the page and sign into your account.
Step 2
Click the blue button that says ‘Find a Project’. You will be shown a pop-up box with a list of projects. Type ‘Ireland’ in the Search box and click the blue ‘Search’ button below. It will show all the Ireland Church Record projects (scroll down to see all the options). Choose one and click the button that says ‘Index’. There are several counties available for indexing.
Step 3
A warning will pop up that this is an ‘Advanced’ record set, select ‘OK’. In some instances, you will also be given links to help you with common local surnames and localities, click on these links and they will open separate different tabs in your browser that you can refer to when indexing. Once you select ‘OK’ you will be shown an image of a record and asked ‘Should this image be indexed?’ Some of the parish registers are easier to read than others. If you have been given a page that you think will be too difficult for you to transcribe, DON’T press ‘Next’. Instead, click on the black back arrow in the top menu bar and this will take you to ‘My Batches’. Select ‘Manage’ and then select the ‘batch’ that you had opened and you will be given the option to ‘Return 1 Selected Batch’. You can then click on ‘Find a Project’ which takes you back to step one. Repeat this until you find a parish register that suits your transcribing ability. Once you are happy with the image and it has named entries on it, click ‘Yes’.
Step 4
The first thing you will be asked is to indicate what Event Type the record is. The options are: Baptism/Birth/Christening, Marriage, and Burial/Death. If you need help, go to the bottom of the transcription box on the left and click ‘Project Instructions’.
Step 5
Transcribe the information on the record into the boxes given. Where the record does not supply the information (for example, the bride’s mother’s name is not included in the record but there is field for that information), press Ctrl + B on your keyboard (or Command + B if you use a Mac computer) to enter the information as ‘<BLANK>’. As these records are Catholic, some of the columns may be in Latin. FamilySearch has a useful guide to the most common Latin terms used in Irish Catholic parish registers.
Some parish priests recorded names in their Latinised version. Do not try to convert the names back to their English version but write it as written in the document. So if a record says Patricius, then that is what you must put down, not Patrick. The same goes for shortened names. So, if you see Wm, write ‘Wm’ not ‘William’ or ‘Thos’ not ‘Thomas’. It is important to stick to what is written. The FamilySearch algorithm will recognise these alternative versions so they will still be found by future searchers.
If you are unable to read one letter or number, use a question mark (?) to replace the unreadable letter or number, for example H?ndley. For consecutive letters or numbers, us an asterisk (*) to replace the unreadable group of letters or numbers, for example Di*son. You will find the guides to surname frequency and the alphabetical lists of surnames for the county are invaluable resources to help you work out what surname is written down.
If you can’t make out any of the letters to complete a field (for example a given name) you can mark the field as Unreadable. To do this, click in the field and press Ctrl+U.
If an entire entry on a register is unreadable, including the name, date and any information for other required fields, press Ctl+Shift+U. Due to the quality of some of the scans in this collection, you may find you come across pages with multiple unreadable records.
Step 6
Once you have complete the last field of a record, it should automatically take you to the next record. You can move between records by clicking the arrows to the left and right of ‘Entry [number] of 125’. This enables you to go back to a previous record which can be useful once you have got your eye and you wish to change something from a previous entry. Continue doing this until you have transcribed all the records on the page. When you have finished, click ‘Submit Batch’ at the bottom.
Thank you for working on this project!