Digital

Digitisation projects

A number of digitisation projects are currently underway in Wexford County Archive, and are being rolled out online from early September 2013. While the main benefit in digitising collections is to enhance access to a wider research audience, the process also ensures that collections, once digitised, are made available only in that format, thereby preserving the originals.

Coming online shortly:

  • Minute book of New Ross Committee of Distress, 1846-54

Digitisation is a costly undertaking and can only be done on a phased basis as budgetary resources permit. Due to the extensive nature of some collections, it would not be practical to digitise the entire contents. Some of the more important elements from these collections, particularly where tenants’ names are recorded, are in the process of being digitised. Examples include:

  •  Townland survey maps c. 1840 from the Lord Templemore archive
  •  Mapped survey of the Cliffe estate, Bellevue and floor plans of Bellevue demesne
  •  Maps of the estate of Henry Bruen – see Collections
Cliffe estate survey

Cliffe estate survey

 

Transcription projects

Some documents can be quite challenging to read – this may be due to faded text or the overall fragility of a document, especially where it has sustained water damage. However, it can also be the result of a person’s handwriting. A researcher’s anticipation on opening a handwritten diary of 1885 can quickly turn to despair if the hand employed is practically indecipherable. In an effort to eliminate the difficulty in accessing the information in such documents, the county archive is involved in transcribing the material and providing online access where a transcription of each page is presented alongside each original page. The typescript pages will be OCR-enabled which will allow researchers to enter a keyword that will bring up all references to that keyword in the document. Two transcription projects that will be coming online soon are:

  • Wexford Assembly book, 1708-43
  • Minute book of Trustees of Wexford Free Bridge, 1857-68