The Development of the Centre for Migration Studies Irish Emigration Da

The Development of the Centre for Migration Studies Irish out-migration DatabaseIn 1988 the Ulster American Folk Park (UAFP) near Omagh in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland began to situated up a computerised Irish Emigration Database (IED) in its depository library. This was a ground-breaking labour at that time and was immediately beset by problems of all kinds, the flesh out of which will be explained later. By 1997 the Folk Parks library had expanded to become the Centre for Emigration Studies and eventually the Centre for Migration Studies (CMS). The latter(prenominal) is now funded jointly by the Scotch-Irish Trust of Ulster in partnership with DCAL (Department of Culture, liberal arts & Leisure) and the five Education and Library Boards of Northern Ireland. In this paper I recount the experiences we had and the positive results that arose from them in the hope that this will help others who be planning to set up similar databases (1).EARLY HISTORYThe conception of a computerise d IED had been discussed in the early 1980s at the UAFP. In 1987, graham flour Kirkham, of the new University of Ulster in Coleraine, had completed a feasibility study in various archives which held material on Irish emigration. These were the Linenhall, Central & Queens University libraries in Belfast, the Public Record Office, N. Ireland (PRONI) and the Public Record Office (now the National Archives), in Kew in London. This feasibility study c overed only a dinky percentage of the material available as time allotted to do this research was limited to three months. Initially, the project was funded by a political party named Digital and organized by the Department of Education. Digital donated hardware and provided packet solutions for the project. John Gilmour, the Education Officer at the UA... ...Human error is always likely in the transcription of our documents. Therefore to have both copies available whether in PRONI or the Database is important. If quotes are to be use d it is always best to consider the original. However the numerous advantages of using a Historical Database far outgo any negative issues and this is what has kept the project moving forward over the past sixteen eld. In future there should be easier methods of collect information. We have always tried to be innovative over the years and will continue to be so in the future. Notes (1) Tennant, Lorraine, The Irish Emigration Database, Journal of Scotch-Irish Studies, Vol 1, No 1 (Spring 2000) pp120-124(2) Des McMorrow Former ICT Manager at the Centre for Migration Studies(3) Ibid(4) Patrick Morgan of Morgan Software. (5) Bryan A Follis, PRONI, June 1988