CAPE TOWN FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

WE HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED AS MEMBERS OF THIS ORGANISATION

Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO)

Established in 1992, CIGO has been researching on behalf of genealogists, worldwide, interested in Irish ancestry. We are primarily a lobby group for national and international organisations who share an interest in Irish genealogical history. The group works for better and greater access to source material and, through their efforts they give to all those involved in Irish genealogical research.

How CIGO Works

The council of CIGO meets bi-monthly and consists of two representatives from each of it's constituent member organisations. In addition there is a chairman, honorary secretary, treasurer and two executive liaison officers.

The agenda for each meeting generally follows a fixed pattern, which having dealt with correspondence and housekeeping matters, then goes on to consider and discuss in detail current and longstanding issues affecting and pertinent to Irish genealogists.

At any meeting the scope of issues discussed may range from impending legislation, (for example, relating to civil (vital) records); influencing central and local government policy; to the day-to-day service being provided at the General Register Office (GRO), National Archives of Ireland (NAI), Registry of Deeds (ROD) or the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).

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COUNCIL OF IRISH GENEALOGICAL ORGANISATIONS LINKS PAGE UPDATES

9th January 2012

Links on CIGO Website

We have added lots more new links to the CIGO website. Of keen interest to the Irish family historian will be links to the Chief Secretary Office’s Registered Papers (1818-1822) from the National Archives of Ireland; Irish Military Archives; lists of newspapers held at the National Library of Ireland; Street Directories; gravestone inscriptions; Religious Census returns, 1740 & 1766; Dissenters Petition of 1775; Coroners Reports held at PRONI to 1920 and lots more.

Visit the ‘links’ page here.

1926 Census now in the new Irish administration's 'Programme for Government'
7th March 2011

Following the recent Irish general election Fine Gael has become the largest party in the Dáil, and has agreed to form a coalition government with the Labour Party, which will take office on Wednesday 9 th March. CIGO is delighted to announce that the new ‘Programme for Government' negotiated between the two parties includes a commitment to release the Irish 1926 census. Given the destruction of Ireland's nineteenth century census returns in the conflagration which consumed Ireland's Public Record Office in 1922, access to the 1926 census returns has been an objective long pursued by CIGO. Although lobbied by both CIGO and the Genealogical Society of Ireland, the outgoing Fianna Fáil-led government never really grasped the compelling arguments in favour of allowing access to these census records. By contrast CIGO found Fine Gael's spokesman on Tourism, Culture and Sport, Jimmy Deenihan TD, very receptive to the arguments, which he explained reinforced the party's own policy development in relation to the stimulation of roots tourism. And he went on to say that this fitted well with their plan to develop in Dublin "a national archives and genealogy quarter, providing easy access to archives and tapping into an area of cultural tourism which is of huge interest to the vast Irish Diaspora".

Of course researchers shouldn't hold their breath on this issue as it will take time to prepare the necessary legislation to amend the Statistics Act 1993 and, in line with Fine Gael policy, to formulate wording to allow for the redaction of so-called “sensitive” data. Co-operation will likely be the key to final success and CIGO's supporters can be sure that we will continue to follow through on our effective lobbying by working with all other interested parties to ensure delivery of this important source for Irish genealogy.