Barry O'Brien's Book in the Bronson

[smcarberry]

The celebration of Father's Day in the U.S. has brought free access to Newspapers.com with its very handy search engine. Although I was looking for other items, this one caught my eye since I know the involved library, personally visited during many a lunchtime while working in Waterbury, Connecticut.

The Waterbury Democrat
7 Dec 1907

One of His Books Now in the Bronson Library

The announcement that Barry O’Brien’s book “Two Centuries of Irish History, 1670 – 1870” has been placed in the circulating library has brought forward many inquiries about the author… Richard Barry O’Brien, the historian, was born at Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland, in 1847. He was educated by private tutors and at the Catholic university in Dublin. In 1874 he was called to the Irish bar and later to the English bar. After practicing for a time in England, he turned his attention to politics and literature, devoting himself mainly to Irish historical studies. Besides the book already referred to, he is the author of… [typed here in list form, not so in the original]
“The Irish Land Question and English Public Opinion”
“The Parliamentary History of the Irish Land Question”
“Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland”
“Thomas Drummond’s Life and Letters”
“Irish Wrongs and English Remedies”
“Life of Charles Stewart Parnell”
“Life of Lord Russell of Killowen”
“Autobiography of Wolfe Tone”
Besides these, he has done considerable literary work in newspapers and magazines of the old world. He was one of the founders of the Irish Literary Society, and since its establishment he has been its chairman.

[Kurt in S.A.]

The celebration of Father's Day in the U.S. has brought free access to Newspapers.com

Never heard such a thing. I went to Ancestry and found a record I have with a reference to newspapers.com. Wouldn't let me in other than a 7-day free trial and/or paying for a subscription.

Thanks...Kurt

[smcarberry]

Kurt,

I am not overly surprised that you couldn't access the involved newspaper database site by simply landing on the site from the Internet in general. When these free-access days pop up around holidays, I use the link provided in postings by other family historians made on sites like r/Genealogy on Reddit.

I recommend joining Reddit, which has many other such message boards for about every interest you can think of, including what's happening for any locality in the U.S. Unfortunately, the Reddit board devoted to Irish genealogy was started only about 2 years ago and never took off in terms of members and postings (thanks for prompting me to check it, which I haven't done in several weeks). Instead, the ever helpful members at the very busy r/Genealogy are prompt with supplying easy-to-use links to the major players like fold3 (watch for its free access July 4th, after the Memorial Day one that I was using). Those needing UK censuses and U.S. marriage-parish-register databases can watch for FindMyPast free access offers. The momentum these major players have gained is incredible - this trend is growing in popularity around even staid institutions with longtime indifference to genealogy. My family's RC parish registers in upstate New York are now transcribed online, whereas back in 1995 my only access to the marriage register was to travel 3000 miles back and sit down to pour through the books with my cousin, the parish secretary. So, now more is available but you still have to know how access is gained for each type of database. I have not been exposed to spam of any kind after doing free access and creating a registration on the sites I have used.

Sharon C.