Having viewed the opinions/comments expressed on this forum re IFHF’s Online Research Service, we wish to clarify a number of points; no further replies to comments subsequent to this posting will be made.
The Irish Family History Foundation Ltd. is the umbrella body representing county based family history centres on the island of Ireland. The centres elect the IFHF board, a voluntary body whose members receive no expenses/remuneration. IFHF is funded by voluntary subscriptions of its member centres and does not receive state funding. Each county centre is independently managed; many are run by local voluntary boards, providing a focal point in their area for research/tourism concerns. Each centre owns its data and supplies it subject to legal agreements.
While IFHF strives to ensure a standard pricing structure in its member centres, all centres offer differing services based on available staff resources; many have a consultation service which allows clients to engage the services of a local genealogist; an invaluable service offering clients access to people with years of expertise in the records of a particular county couple with local knowledge that can be critical in research. Our genealogists/researchers are professionals though the consultation fees charged are not comparable to those charged by other professionals such as accountants/private genealogists etc.
No IFHF member centre is funded by the state to carry out genealogical research or computerization. Some centres operate government training schemes where local unemployed people are trained in skills to assist their return to the workforce. The schemes are funded by government agencies; centres supply premises, staff, insurance, heat, light, computer equipment etc., meeting the strict criteria and expectations of the funders. At no time does a centre control the funding for training. Trainees are trained in office based skills and do some work inputting records. Both training bodies in Ireland, north and south, FAS and ACE, acknowledged the immense benefits centres have provided in training the long term unemployed. Many other organizations in Ireland have availed of such government backed schemes.
The EUR€5 fee was set by our member centres; it is inclusive of bank charges, credit card charges and online payment processing charges. Income is used to fund site development/maintenance, IT costs, taxes. Our company’s administration of this operation is supplied voluntarily by our board. Centres can use income to assist in computerizing outstanding records.
The online service commenced with Co. Armagh and transactions were conducted in £ Sterling. As the Rep. of Ireland (EURO) based counties came online we determined a single currency; EURO was agreed as the majority of centres are based there. To allow a customer to use their credit throughout the site a single currency is required. At time of credit purchase the fee is in EUR; the credit card company automatically calculates the exchange rate. When dealing directly with a member centre it will quote its fees in its local currency.
The IFHF is always developing new ways to assist the customer. It is hoped a new subscription based search facility will be available by early 2009. This will allow a client to search by parents’ names for children and by spouse name for marriages. We are currently testing this facility.
The
www.rootsireland.ie website is unique. The majority of our records are Church records which predate civil registration and cannot be accessed anywhere else online. We continue to add other sources as we can. Please be aware that not all the records which a centre has computerized have been placed on online as yet. IFHF recommends that a customer contacts the relevant county centre to see if it has any other records available. Recently, we released an index to the Griffith's Valuation online free to all users. Our site also has a unique standard surnames index which allows the user to have all variations of the surname searched, thus increasing the chance of locating their ancestor. In 2000 the Irish government commissioned an independent audit, conducted by Eneclann Ltd., on the accuracy of our records which showed an error rate of 1.87%. Centres conduct ongoing amendments and corrections to the databases and acknowledge that they are only as good as the people who inputted the records. It is worth noting that the original records can be incomplete, contain discrepancies, omissions and the inaccurate recording of events.
Our online research service was created to assist individuals in tracing their own family history. It is not for the use of persons who might sell this information at increased fees to others. As part of our site security we monitor all accounts and we will disable any account if someone is considered to be using the site against our terms and conditions. Please refer to our terms and conditions of use on the site. To the customer who is genuinely searching their 'own' family this should never apply. Our centres are happy to assist any client with advice or help in locating their ancestry.
We hope this will clarify the IFHF position regarding our online service at
www.rootsireland.ie. The original sources are available in various repositories in Ireland. The site is a service provided as an optional tool for research. Queries regarding our site are answered in the FAQ section.
