Microfilming of RC parish registers in Ireland

[Paddy Casey]

I thought I'd start a new thread on this topic which was being discussed in a thread with an unrelated title at http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtop ... f=1&t=1678

Sharon Carberry wrote "The choice of using 1880 as a cut-off date in the filming of RC parish registers in Ireland appears to have been a decision by the National Library of Ireland, which did the filming. LDS films are copies from that filming, for the most part. See the pdf file on this NLI page: http://www.nli.ie/en/parish-register.aspx".

Do you know where this information came from, Sharon ? It's not in that PDF file. I'd love to know what exactly the arrangement was that led to the LDS being given rights to copy NLI films.

Paddy

[smcarberry]

I am sending contact information to Paddy so that he can pursue his question with a genealogist who more nearly dates from the time when the LDS Library obtained its copies of the NLI parish register films.

Back in the 1990s, the general scuttlebutt on this subject was that the Mormons had done the filming and obtained permission to film because a copy was provided to the involved parish. Perhaps that is still how the films done directly by the Mormons came into being, but that leaves unanswered the question of the NLI's motivation to provide copies of the many films it had done. I have seen some references (statements placed online by people I do not know) that the Mormons purchased their copies for the NLI (which seems reasonable, since giving microfilm away is not standard practice) and the Mormons emphasized their granite-mountain storage facility for safe-keeping and preservation purposes.

Perhaps Paddy C. can get to the bottom of this and fill us in at a later time.

Sharon Carberry

[pwaldron]

Keith Withington of FamilySearch International gave a lecture to the Irish Genealogical Research Society last night. He confirmed that the parish registers were originally filmed by the NLI and acquired by the Mormons at a later stage.

So it seems that Paddy Casey was correct in originally addressing his list of questions over at http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtop ... 3033#p3033 to the NLI and not to the Mormons.

Perhaps a Freedom of Information request to the NLI might elicit some of the desired answers!

It would also be interesting to know whether the copies of the microfilms recently acquired by the Clare County Library came from NLI or LDS.

\pw

PS: Sharon, I presume that "purchased their copies for the NLI" above is a typo for "purchased their copies FROM the NLI".

[smcarberry]

Right, right. My typing leaves so much to be desired. LDS purchased film from NLI, where as my fingers made it "for" and my eyes didn't pick up the error.

I think you will have an answer on the Clare County Library's source of its film fairly quickly here. I can't provide an official response.

Sharon C.

[Clare Admin]

Hello all.
Clare County Library purchased a total of 24 reels of microfilm for our parish register collection, http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/librar ... ecords.htm

12 reels were obtained from the Genealogical Society of Utah in June 2009; and 12 were obtained from the National Library of Ireland between September 2009 and February 2010.

Clare Admin

[pwaldron]

No wonder we were all confused about who made and who owned the microfilms!