Family records, historical documents and items from clubs and societies going back centuries are gaining more relevance as their contents are being detailed online.

THE fascinating archive of businessman Richard Dowden, who was the mayor of Cork in 1845, has finally been catalogued after a painstaking 12-month project by staff at the Cork City and County Archives.

A previously unknown letter written by a Cork lord mayor who died on hunger strike in a British jail has been sold to the Cork City and County Archives.

RESEARCHERS, amateur historians and people tracing their family tree can find out where the records they are looking for might be held without leaving their desks or even lifting a phone.