GENIRE-L Archives
Archiver > GENIRE > 1999-08 > 0933700316
From: < >
Subject: Re: Family Heritage Centres - an alternative approach
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 17:11:56 GMT
R Warnock () wrote:
: If the Irish Parliament spent its money on microfilming and
: distributing it to local libraries it would escape the adverse
: comments that pervade Irish research at present. The ball would be in
: the researchers court and if you don't find a record then it either
: doesn't exist or you haven't looked properly.
You've missed the whole reason for existence of the Heritage Centre
system. What you are proposing is already available in Dublin, and
possibly from LDS Family History Libraries. The point of setting up the
heritage centres was to provide a computer database to index the records.
Of course, if you already know the name, date of birth, and parish, then
there is no value in this. You can look up the microfilm at the National
Library, crank the reel 'til you get to the right page (assuming that
year's book didn't get "burned in the fire" or otherwise lost) and
transcribe the data you want.
If on the other hand, you only have a vague idea of which parish, or the
exact dates, then a computer database is of enormous value.
Allegations about the quality of the data, and variety of pricing
structures aside, this is very different from simply having microfilm at a
local Library. If you are at the locality anyway, why not try and see the
original books themselves? It's worked for me, but I've also taken
advantage of the data at a heritage centre as well and benefitted from
both.
-dja
This thread: