Online facility to aid researchers and amateur sleuths

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.

The Irish Archives Resource website, www.iar.ie, funded by the Heritage Council, has brought together descriptions of the collections held by more than a dozen local authorities, colleges and private institutions. It is now possible to use the site to check if information on a subject being researched is available, saving the need to directly contact each archive separately to find out details of their holdings.

Brian McGee, archivist at Cork City and County Archives, said the facility has been developed from a pilot stage and it is hoped to have collections from up to 30 archives featured on the site by the end of the year.