CIGO announces that the National Archives of Ireland is the third recipient of its Award for Excellence in Genealogy
At the 2009 AGM CIGO announced that the National Archives of Ireland would be the recipient of its 2009 Award for Excellence in Genealogy in recognition of the creation of its Internet database of scanned images and accompanying index of the entire Irish 1901 and 1911 census returns. By any measure this is a great achievement and all the more so because the results are available to all – world-wide – completely without charge.
The presentation of the certificate commemorating the Award took place on Wednesday, 7th July 2010 at the National Archives.
On being informed on the Award Dr. David Craig, Director of the National Archives, said:
“As Director of the National Archives, I wish to say that we greatly appreciate receiving this award from the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations. The 1911 and 1901 Census Digitisation Project is by far the largest digitisation project yet undertaken by the National Archives, and has benefited from major investment by the Irish Government. In undertaking the project we have benefited greatly from the work of professional genealogists in Ireland, and in publishing the 1911 Census online, we have made it available free of charge to the many millions of people in Ireland and worldwide who seek access to it to trace their Irish ancestors. The success of the project to date can be seen from the fact that, over the 30 months from December 2007 to May 2010, our 1911 Census Website received more than 7 million visits and more than 270 million hits. We are very pleased that this success has been formally recognised by this award from the body that brings together in one council such a wide range of organisations active in the field of Irish genealogy.“