Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.
An Irish town digs into its dark past at a former home for mothers and babies
A Globe and Mail deep dive on the legacy of the St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, Tuam, Ireland, “run by the Catholic Church from the 1920s to 1990s, when Ireland was desperate to differentiate itself from its Protestant English colonizers.”
Grenville County Ontario Digital Newspaper Archive
35,000 scanned and OCR’d pages of newspapers, dating 1889 to 1965, from the Prescott area are now online, courtesy of a Grenville County Historical Society initiative. There are search and advanced search capabilities. Results are shown alongside a section of the original paper. Click through to see the full page with the search term highlighted. Achieved with the cooperation of OurDigitalWorld and a grant of $48,933 from Library and Archives Canada’s Documentary Heritage Communities Program. Well done.
Ireland Census 1926 digitisation project
How’s progress toward the release of the Irish Free State Census on 18 April 2026?
The Latest Bytown Pamphlet
#129 in the Historical Society of Ottawa pamphlet series explores challenges women have faced and the remarkable progress they have achieved over the past few decades. It’s based on the winning essay submitted by Amilia Matheson for the Society’s 2024 Colonel By Award in History.
Directory of Graveyards in the Dublin Area, and more
John Grenham has slowed posting on his Irish Roots blog, so I don’t scan it often. Fortunately, Gail Dever does and included his latest post in This week’s crème de la crème on her Genealogy à la carte blog. Explore — Gail and John both include more.
Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Teresa, and Unknown.
John, it was on a trip to drive Patricia to Halifax that I came across a book in a used bookstore (almost the only ones I ever visit) called Butterbox Babies. It told the whole story. Including that the nuns would feed the babies with water, which kept them quiet, but eventually they would die of malnutrition.
The most horrendous book I have ever come a cross. Cheers, anyways. BT
Cool information from NA Ireland about the 1926 project – looking forward to diving in next April!