Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland

Question

I just received this in an email today. This should, in time, become an incredibly valuable resource for Irish genealogy:

https://beyond2022.ie/

Beyond 2022 is an all-island and international collaborative research project working to create a virtual reconstruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland, which was destroyed in the opening engagement of the Civil War on June 30th, 1922. 

The ‘Record Treasury’ at the Public Record Office of Ireland stored seven centuries of Irish records dating back to the time of the Normans. Together with our 5 Core Archival Partners and over 40 other Participating Institutions in Ireland, Britain and the USA, we are working to recover what was lost in that terrible fire one hundred years ago.

On the centenary of the Four Courts blaze next year (30 June 2022), we will launch the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland online. Many millions of words from destroyed documents will be linked and reassembled from copies, transcripts and other records scattered among the collections of our archival partners. We will bring together this rich array of replacement items within an immersive 3-D reconstruction of the destroyed building.

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland will be an open-access resource, freely available online to all those interested in Irish history at home and abroad. Many of the most important memory institutions worldwide are joining us in this shared mission to reconstruct Ireland’s lost history. The Virtual Record Treasury will serve as a living and growing legacy from the Decade of Centenaries.

Collaborations

Beyond 2022 is funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under Project Ireland 2040. We are proud to have inspired a unique collaboration between our Core Partners and a growing list of ParticipatingInstitutions in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

• The National Archives (Ireland) 
• The National Archives (UK)
• The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Belfast)
• The Irish Manuscripts Commission
• The Library, Trinity College Dublin  

Answer 1

Also, please note that there is a separate project ongoing by the RCB to digitise COI records:

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/8258/ministerial-visit-to-rcb-library

There are still a lot of COI records that are not digitised, indexed or transcribed.  My understanding is the completed work appears here:

www.irishgenealogy.ie

The date of the article is 2018, but I spoke to someone from RCB in the last few months who confirmed this is still an ongoing piece of work (and separate to the Beyond2022 project).

It's good to know that more records in Ireland will become accessible in the future!

Comments

What are RCB and COI acronyms for?

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COI is the Church of Ireland, which is part of the Anglican communion (Episcopal church in the U.S.). it was the established church in Ireland until the 1870s. Because it was the established church, its records where considered state documents and many parish records were in the government repository that burned in 1922 as part of the Irish civil war.

RCB is Representative Church Body, or Representative Body of the Church of Ireland ~ according to their website:

acts as the charitable trustee and ‘civil service’ of the Church, holding property and administering funds on its behalf.  It consists of the archbishops and bishops, lay and clerical members elected by the dioceses, and twelve co–opted members (https://www.ireland.anglican.org/about/about-us).

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Thanks B. J. for the explanation of the acronyms.

Answer 2

Thank you for posting this, George. This sounds like a wonderful resource.

Answer 3

This sounds like a fabulous resource. Thanks for sharing.

Answer 4

Any initiative that seeks to make Irish records available is welcome and commended by those of us who have undocumented Irish ancestors.

Answer 5

This will be an awesome addition for obtaining Irish records