You will no doubt have gathered from my last 2 posts that I think that the Irish Family History Federation need to be offering considerably better value for money and that Ancestry releasing some Irish Catholic registers has been a brilliant personal revelation.
So, I had to have a good chortle along with Chris Paton on reading his newsletter report on the latest hissy fit brewing in the Republic on the potential consequences of the Ancestry initiative. Apparently, nothing short of monopolisitic domination of the market is predicted ... so, tell me what have the IFHF had for years?! And will someone please enlighten me as to why the excellent Dept. of the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Irish Genealogy site cannot be expanded to cover more counties? BTW, have you tried to order a BMD certificate from Roscommon recently? Have your groats handy and the carrier pigeon to get them there! The Irish Government I'm sure will claim that improvements all cost money they don't have, but what about developing their own strategy for reaching out to the huge Irish diaspora in conjunction with different commerical partners?
I agree with Chris Paton - if Ancestry can deliver a large "toe in the hole" to Irish genealogy market, then as a frustrated consumer, I am all for the competition delivering me better choice and value for money.
So, I had to have a good chortle along with Chris Paton on reading his newsletter report on the latest hissy fit brewing in the Republic on the potential consequences of the Ancestry initiative. Apparently, nothing short of monopolisitic domination of the market is predicted ... so, tell me what have the IFHF had for years?! And will someone please enlighten me as to why the excellent Dept. of the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Irish Genealogy site cannot be expanded to cover more counties? BTW, have you tried to order a BMD certificate from Roscommon recently? Have your groats handy and the carrier pigeon to get them there! The Irish Government I'm sure will claim that improvements all cost money they don't have, but what about developing their own strategy for reaching out to the huge Irish diaspora in conjunction with different commerical partners?
I agree with Chris Paton - if Ancestry can deliver a large "toe in the hole" to Irish genealogy market, then as a frustrated consumer, I am all for the competition delivering me better choice and value for money.