I'm gobsmacked, we've put up with the GB fiasco, (I refuse to add anymore on that one), then we have senators worrying about seagulls stealing ice-creams from kids, but this takes the biscuit.
Less than 3 weeks since the launch of Civil Registrations Database from irishgenalogy.ie and now it is gone. I had a suspicion that what they were putting up was too much personal information on living people and I did wonder how they got around that, but the answer is they didn't. What muppets, looks like they never checked with the Data Protection people. What a joke, this is just pathetic and embarrassing.
Have a read of the piece from the Irish Times and go on just cringe....
From the Irish Times this morning 21/07/2016
"Potentially sensitive personal details of every citizen born or who married in the State, Including information often used for security questions for banking, were openly available on a government website until last Friday.
The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has removed the database of civil registration records from the website irishgenealogy.ie following the intervention of Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes.
While they are not defined as “sensitive” personal information in the legal sense under data protection law, details such as a birth date or a mother’s maiden name, which were on the site, could potentially be used to attempt fraud or identity theft.
Mr Hawkes said his office had been consulted about the launch of the irishgenealogy.ie portal but said this had been based on the understanding that the information used would be historical information and not information on living individuals.
“We had been consulted on it in the context of putting on the registers which were over 100 years old – that would be fine. But this was a total shock to us,” he said.
He said the person who had drawn the attention of The Irish Times to the site had performed “an important public service, before it became a treasure trove for people of evil intent”.
While information on births, marriages and deaths is publicly available, previously anyone seeking it was required to pay a fee to get a copy of a record from the general registry. The information was not searchable online in a way that could be readily manipulated for potentially malicious purposes.
The genealogy database was structured in such a way that, with minimal information, anyone could carry out searches and build up a very accurate picture of a person’s family history, including birth dates, information on marital status, spouses and even children.
It appeared that, in the design of the site, no consideration had been given to the protection of the personal data of living individuals.
Access to the civil records was disabled within 24 hours of The Irish Times drawing it to Mr Hawkes’s attention last Thursday.
In a note on its website, the department said the civil registration data was “temporarily unavailable” and that further updates would be provided.
Mr Hawkes said the issue was “very shocking” and an example of what could go wrong when organisations did not take into account the privacy impacts of projects.
When he launched irishgenealogy.ie in March last year, former minister for heritage Jimmy Deenihan said it would bring together important records such as the 1901 and 1911 censuses."
18th July
OK, I've just come to terms with the new site. Is it something I said? .
If it does come back up, then hopefully this will be helpful or maybe not.
The site asks for your name, input it, or initials work either.
The site uses captcha, and if you go to make a cup of coffee when you come back you will have to do it again. Get over it. Mind you when using my phone I only had to input a captcha once.
Search facility, couple of flaws here, if you are checking for a Mac Mc or O', try all combinations as separate searches.
No fadas or accents, get over it.
If you don't tick either B D or M when searching for a particular year then the year selection does not work.
Some of the entries have an exact date, some have just quarters and some have just years.
My son does exist, just not on this database. From what I can see there are no births listed in Dublin after 1995.
Don't use a second name in the search field, if you are looking for John Alexander Murphy, you will just have to go through all the John Murphys.
If looking for a marriage not all of them have linked spouses so use findmypast first.
If searching for an entry in Dublin, try North South and Dublin as it seems to be using both County and Registration area separately.
Use familysearch first.
14th July
The GRO are now offering 8 certs per day, (if they get too busy, it's back down to 5). Try using the new random "Group Registration ID" and let me know if it works.
3rd-10th July 2014
6th July 2014 - NAI update for July
News from: National Archives Ireland July Document of the Month consists of a poster issued by the Department of Health in the 1950s urging parents to innoculate their children against diphtheria.
Plus
- Probate Office, Dublin: testamentary records relating to the year 1983 (2004/74)
- Castlebar District Probate Registry: testamentary records relating to the years 1988 (2009/2), 1990 (2011/2) and 1991 (2012/2)
- Cavan District Probate Registry: testamentary records relating to the years 1988 (2009/3), 1989 (2010/3) and 1990 (2011/3)
- Cork District Probate Registry: testamentary records relating to the year 1990 (2011/5)
- Department of Local Government: files relating to the provision of services by local authorities in County Cork, 1922–1982 (2014/16)
- Department of Local Government: files relating to the provision of services by local authorities in Cork City, 1917–1974 (2014/19)
5th July
Haven't had a chance to do much more checking, but my advice, Use both, check family search for any BMD's pre 1958 first before using the new irishgenealogy website. The lack of a second name in the database is infuriating, and I still have anomalies. Still can't find my son and my friend's child does not belong to her.
4th July 2014
Ok, so I've been up all night and I'm pulling my hair out. Still can't find my son born in the 90's so he must be an orphan and lots of other children must have been adopted as their mothers name is not as it should be.....
Having difficulty working out what the databased we are searching actually are, but what I can tell you from asking numerous questions is:-
What we're seeing is what the GRO staff have been using. An "improved" list.
From 1966 to 1990 GRO staff included actual dates of birth, marriage and death, the surnames of both spouses, and the marital status of the deceased, Because this worked for them, they started adding this info on older birth records 1900 to 1902 but not everybody was entering the same info, hence there is no consistency. They then worked on the records from 1903-1928, the information input improved but I'm finding lots of errors and they didn't continue this on after 1928 so 1928 to 1958 should be the same index as the LDS version,
Now it also seems that the marriage indexes have been enhanced from 1903 onwards too. GRO staff have indexed the spouses as a couple, bit sketchy up to 1913 but not bad, and yes we now have a new indexing system, each entry has been given an ID number, from what I can see it is a random number. I have been informed that was in place from 2005 onwards.
Ok folks, I'm still not up to speed but I'm learning and I've got over the fact that anyone who knows me can get my exact dob. Have a major problem with "second" names which I will try to figure out. I grandfather John Joseph Kelly's death is there but it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack if I din't have a date as there is no second name input for him.
3rd July 2014
The Irish Genealogy website now contains contains the Indexes to the Civil Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths. All of these records can be searched through the main search menu. Bit clunky and the site is up and down. It will take a little time to get use to, but will update you in the next day or so. For the moment all I can tell you it that covers:-
The indexes to the registers of births/marriages/deaths from 1845/1864 to 1921 for the whole island of Ireland. They are claiming that these are enhanced indexed to what we are use to. What we have been using is a copy that the Mormans microfilmed (up to 1958). Findmypast and Ancestry have enhanced these records so if you are looking for a marriage, it offers some suggestions for spouse.
Indexes to the registers of births/marriages/deaths from 1922 for the 26 counties of the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland (does not include Northern Ireland).
Births: From 1864 to 2013 (though I've found a few births for the 1840's!!)
The mothers maiden name is listed from 1903, but again I've found a few with earlier dates, but seems to be missing a chunk of births in the 1990's
Marriages: This seems to cover 1864- 2013 from what I can gather. But again on a quick search found some listed for the 1840's. (civil partnerships are also listed 2010 - 2013)
Deaths: 1864 to 2013, and on limited search it shows marital status.
Ok, work and time needed to figure this out. Initial impression, not sure,should I be afraid, my birth is there with an exact date of birth, (I was born in the 60's,) my marriage is there and lists my husbands name. So I can't lie about my age anymore.
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