Leitrim is a northern county of Ireland and is perhaps the most unspoilt. It is full of lakes and mountains and rugged scenery. After the Great Famine of the 1840s its population fell from 160,000 to 25,000 by 1996. Not surprisingly many exiles to the New World dreamt of returning to their home county.

 "Well I've travelled far through these great lands from the east onto the west

But of all the islands I have seen I love my own the best

And if ever I return again there is one place I will go

It will be to lovely Leitrim where the Shannon waters flow."

(Last verse taken from the song "Lovely Leitrim" composed by Phil Fitzpatrick, a Leitrim exile in New York).

On Saturday 11 May, 1.00 pm, members of the Irish Ancestry Group (IAG) of the GSV will be discussing this county as part of a series working their way around the Irish counties.

And at 2.00 pm Ray Watson will speak about 'Irish Orphan Girls in Today's World'.

CORRECTION: The 11 May topics were incorrect in the recent issue of Ancestor journal (March 2019), for which we apologise to the Group, and should have been as above.

The meeting is open to all GSV members and IAG newsletter subscribers, but you can always join by going to the GSV's website for more information HERE.

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Ref: Song and information from Leitrim Genealogy Centre website http://www.leitrimroots.com

An update on accessing the GSV Collection

Unfortunately our catalogue and databases are not available currently. Due to CoVID level 4 restrictions we may not be able to fix this, as it requires a permit to visit the GSV where the server is hosted. Please use our new catalogue and databases, though links to files in the databases are not available at this point. Our September issue of Ancestor will have a full description of our coming new system. If you do wish to obtain a file please use Quick Lookup request.

GSV Members can access this from the Members area and the link to
New Look Databases & Catalogue (Beta version)

... and GOOD NEWS about access to our webcasts

GSV Webcasts – Researching Irish Ancestors
The Society holds an extensive collection of webcasts on a wide range of topics. A webcast is a video of a talk that is available to stream from our website.
To promote our collection, we have selected six webcasts that relate to researching Irish ancestors. The talks range from examining the social conditions in Ireland in past centuries to emigration, especially to Australia, and to the lives built by Irish workers in Victoria. In all cases the presenters refer to resources you can find that will assist with your own research.
To find these webcasts you should go to the GSV Website, login as a Member, select the 'Members Area' and then look for 'Researching Irish Ancestors' under the Webcasts heading. Here you will find a link to the page that displays six selected webcasts. Click on an icon and the webcast will stream to your computer or portable device. Each file has controls that will enable you to adjust the volume and to pause and restart the webcast.
Over the next few months we will be highlighting other webcasts that fall into particular themes. In the interim you can find all our webcasts by searching our catalogue using the term ‘webcast’ in the format field and combining that with a subject in the topic field.
We hope that you enjoy listening to these talks and that they inspire you to further your research.
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