> I was trying to define some of that information and as it is new to me I
> am not 100% sure I got it all correct.
>
> I tried to create the database like this...
>
> Create database '\path\database.fdb' user 'SYSBDA' password 'masterkey'
> default character set ISO8859_1;
>
> And then the connection url ...
>
> jdbc:firebirdsql:localhost/3050:/path/database.fdb?LC_CTYPE=ISO8859_1
>
> Is there something more that I should have done to set the character
> set?

Nope, everything looks fine, except probably the "LC_CTYPE" should be
"lc_ctype" (I'm not sure that we have case-insensitive property names).
Alternatively you can try using "encoding" (also lowercase).

If that does not help, I would need some reproducable test case (if data in
the database and your Hibernate code are not secret, you can send me
database and code).

Roman