St. Mary and St. Anne Cathedral now does genealogy lookups

[skibbgirl]

The Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne on Shandon Street  has an online (for modest fee) lookup service.

http://www.corkcathedral.ie/Genealogy/Genealogy.html

[Sonas]

€15 for a single record search?? These records were mentioned lately in an Irish Times blog http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/irishroots/2012/06/04/whats-wrong-with-cork/. I assume from this and the reference to a hard copy being in the Co Library that these records are in a database. Anyone know for sure and who did the transcriptions?

edit - sorry just read that blog entry properly - yes, there is a database. Not sure how a 15 euro charge can be justified.

[skibbgirl]

€15 for a single record search?? These records were mentioned lately in an Irish Times blog http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/irishroots/2012/06/04/whats-wrong-with-cork/. I assume from this and the reference to a hard copy being in the Co Library that these records are in a database. Anyone know for sure and who did the transcriptions?

edit - sorry just read that blog entry properly - yes, there is a database. Not sure how a 15 euro charge can be justified.

Well to each his own.  A lot cheaper than traveling there.  I know a few people who have already leaped on this and were the ones who directed me to this.

[Sonas]

Sure it's cheaper than travelling there if you're abroad etc and people can obviously spend their money any way they want.

That is not the point though. €15 is completely out of whack with charges imposed by either the GRO or Roots Ireland for a single record. Personally, I think it is a complete rip-off.

Does anyone know what is the position of the copy in the Co Library? Do they do lookups and do they charge?

I think there are also larger issues at play here. This parish is in the Diocese of Cork & Ross and the cathedral parish to boot. Why is it not on Irish Genealogy? Why does a single record search cost so much?

 I don't know the background to this but presumably there is some sort of politicking going on here with transcription having been done previous to the establishment of the project that led to Irish Genealogy?? From the small bit of Googling I did, the Cork Ancestral Project employed FAS workers who would have been paid out of the public purse.

[skibbgirl]

Sure it's cheaper than travelling there if you're abroad etc and people can obviously spend their money any way they want.

That is not the point though. €15 is completely out of whack with charges imposed by either the GRO or Roots Ireland for a single record. Personally, I think it is a complete rip-off.

Does anyone know what is the position of the copy in the Co Library? Do they do lookups and do they charge?

I think there are also larger issues at play here. This parish is in the Diocese of Cork & Ross and the cathedral parish to boot. Why is it not on Irish Genealogy? Why does a single record search cost so much?

 I don't know the background to this but presumably there is some sort of politicking going on here with transcription having been done previous to the establishment of the project that led to Irish Genealogy?? From the small bit of Googling I did, the Cork Ancestral Project employed FAS workers who would have been paid out of the public purse.

Everything that is free comes at a cost.  Now you can charge it up front or you can extract it in another way but there is still a cost to pay somebody, to maintain a database, and so forth. 

I really don't know how happy the Irish are with the household tax or the other austerity measures that have been leveled on them so that we can have free records.  Are they all getting better off with the loads of tourists the country is supposed to have with all these genealogy projects that have been loss leaders to attract tourists to the country?  I don't know.

[Sonas]

Skibbgirl, you're quoting me but I never said I wanted free access to records. I don't mind paying a reasonable fee but I consider €15 per record unreasonable.

To say that we have austerity measures or a household tax to fund free access to records is, to be honest, laughable.

[wild rose]

There is an online debate going on about this very sensitive subject and which is receiving much attention in Cork, and around the world. Please go to http://mjordan.wordpress.com

Wild Rose

[skibbgirl]

There is an online debate going on about this very sensitive subject and which is receiving much attention in Cork, and around the world. Please go to http://mjordan.wordpress.com

Wild Rose

Thanks Wild Rose.  I have indeed been following this on Margaret's website.   Maybe I am just old and cantankerous, but I am always flummoxed when I see people who expect certain things to be ultra-cheap or free.   Even worse, I have seen people spread misinformation for some 15 years on the Internet about their own family histories when if they had invested 8, 12, or 16 euro in a few records it never would have happened.

Whenever money changes hands or goes into a paycheck, there is always politics attached, unfortunately.  Why can't the world's billionaires put some of their spare change  in resources like this?!?

I apologize if I've offended anybody.  And - anybody here who has given their time and effort to help somebody for free deserves five gold stars, in my opinion.

[Sonas]

I don't see much 'debate' on Margaret Jordan's website about this - more comment that people would like to see access being given to the records.

Whatever of anyone else, I don't don't expect records to be 'ultra-cheap or free' as Skibbgirl says. I think very many people who are interested in genealogy expect to pay some money but it is difficult to see how a single record could feasibly cost €15 each when other entities (including genealogy centres which have to at least break even) supply records for considerably less.