Ireland

GENERAL

In 1922 the Republic of Ireland was created and six of the nine counties forming the province of Ulster (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone) voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. Separate National Archives were formed for the Republic of Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland (NAI), and Northern Ireland, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). Similarly civil registration became, for the Republic of Ireland, The General Register Office (GRO) and, for Northern Ireland, General Register Office (Northern Ireland) known as GRONI.

Copies of many national records up to 1922 are available in both the NAI and PRONI and, similarly, registration records kept at both the GRO and GRONI. Records after 1922 are held in their respective offices. It is also important to note that several church dioceses of all denominations have parishes on both sides of the border  and some "Ulster" collections include records from Monaghan, Donegal and Cavan, which were in the Province of Ulster prior to 1922.

Local records are held in County Archives, Libraries and Heritage Centres

• Addresses of Archives and Libraries (Formerly the Irish Times site).
• Major Repositories
• Heritage Centres 
• Local Libraries (Republic of Ireland) 
• Local Libraries (Northern Ireland) 

The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is a national digital repository for Ireland’s humanities, social sciences, and cultural heritage data.

As part of the United Kingdom, Irish records have historically been created and archived in Britain.   The UK National Archives have produced some guides to their archives and the Discovery catalogue can be used to search possible other holdings in England or Wales. 

PUBLICATIONS

• O’Neill Robert K, Irish Libraries, Archives Museums & Genealogical Centres, Ulster Historical Foundation
• Helferty Seamus and Refausse Raymond (Ed), Directory of Irish Archives, Irish Academic Press

Online Resources

• Books, Publications, and Libraries - a very useful listing from TIARA

Publications

• Flyleaf Press: "Tracing Your Ancerstry in..." series of E-books
• Begley, Donal F., ed. Irish Genealogy: A record Finder. Dublin: Heraldic Artists (1981).
• Falley, Margaret Dickson. Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research. 2 vols. Evanston, Illinois:
• Grehnam, John. Tracing Your Irish Ancestors: The Complete Guide. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan (1992).
• McCarthy, Tony. The Irish Roots Guide. Dublin: Lilliput Press (1991).
• Quinn, Sean E. Trace Your Irish Ancestors. Bray.Ireland: Magh Itha Teoranta (1989).
• Ryan, James G. Irish Records; Sources for Family & Local History, Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Publishing (1997).

Publications

• Grenham, John "Family Histories". In Tracing Your Irish Ancestors: The complete Guide.
• MacLysaght, Edward. Bibliography of Irish Family History 2d ed. Blackrock, Ireland: Irish Academic Press (1982).

The following collections are important sources for biographies of prominent businessmen, political leaders, and religious and historical figures:

• British and Irish Biographies. London: Chadwyck-Healt (1986).
• Crone, John S. A Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography.
• Lee, Sir Sidney, Leslie Stephen, H.W.C. Davis, Et. al., eds. Dictionary of National Biography. 63 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Sieveking, Paul, ed. The British Biographical Archive New York, New York, K.G. Sauer (1986). (FHL fiche 602709-35, 6066966)

Cemetery Records

Typically municipal cemeteries are owned & managed by the local authority and are multi-denominational, although may have areas reserved for the various denominations. Records may include age, parent’s names and place of birth and plots may contain several members of the same family.

• Belfast
• Cork and surroundings
• County Clare Graveyard Inscriptions Maps and transcriptions for graveyards in County Clare
• Dublin Cemetery Trust (££/€€/$$), containing about 1.5 million records dating from 1828.
• Limerick city burial records (for Mount St. Lawrence) (free)
• Cemetery records, transcribed by volunteers and searchable by county, are to be found on the IGP website

Headstones (Monumental Inscriptions)

• A guide to Dublin city and county transcripts.
• An almost complete set, without images, for the 6 counties of Northern Ireland (pay-per-view).

Online Resources

• From-Ireland.Net
• FindAGrave
• Historicgraves
• Interment.Net
• IrishGraveyards
• RootsIreland

Publications

• Mitchell, Brian A Guide to IRISH Churches and Graveyards, Genealogical Publishing Co Inc.

Census Substitutes

The Old Age Pensions Act 1908 introduced a non-contributory pension for eligible people aged 70 and over. Proof of age was an essential part of the process of application for a pension. Because civil registration of births did not begin in Ireland until 1864, applicants had no official documentation to prove their age. It was decided that searches of the 1841 and 1851 census returns could produce acceptable documentary evidence of a claimant's age, so information was extracted from the then surviving 1841 & 1851 census records to support pension applications.

• The original images are held in the National Archives of Ireland and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. Index and images are available on the National Archives of Ireland website (free) and Findmypast (subscription).
• The indexes with a link to images on the National Archives of Ireland website are available on Familysearch (free).
• Index with images of transcriptions on Ancestry (££/€€)
• Various local indices and transcriptions have been produced by volunteers. Many of these are to be found in the Irish Genealogy Project website.

An ongoing project is collating & listing information about individual places of worship and/or burial in Ireland. In general, churches & burial grounds are listed on the page for the civil parish (or town) in which they are/were located, from where there is a link to pages showing greater detail for each church & burial ground. The total number of places of worship and/or burial on-file for each county was as follows, as at October 9th 2024:

General Guidance:

Prior to the commencement of the civil registration of births, deaths and marriages in 1864, parish registers may contain the only surviving record of a particular individual or family. They can supply evidence of direct links between one generation & the next (via baptismal registers) and between families (via marriage registers). Familysearch recommend the following strategy:

1. Search any available surname indexes first. 
2. Search all parish registers (and any other available church records) for the appropriate locality & time period. Include the available Church of Ireland records, even if your family was not Church of Ireland.  Widen your search area if you cannot find records in the expected locality.
3. Note all entries, including burials, for the surname you are searching (unless the name is very common) and note gaps or missing pages in the records, as you may want to search alternative records for the missing time periods.
4. If you find little or no mention of your family in parish records, search other records.
5. Use the additional information (residence, occupation, etc.) given in parish registers to find other records to search.

Parish names and boundaries may differ between Roman Catholic Parishes, Church of Ireland Parishes and the name of the city/town. Reference should be made to an online sources such as the GENUKI Gazetteer, the IreAtlas Townland Database, or Irish Ancestors; or reference books (such as A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland by Mitchell Brian),

Research Guides:

• Publication: North of Ireland Family History Society: Researching Your Ancestors in the North of Ireland: Locating Church Records (£2.50).
• Downloadable Booklet: PRONI Guide to Church Records in Northern Ireland (free).
• Website: Familysearch: Irish Church Records General Information
• Website: Ireland Genealogy Project Volunteer County & Parish indexes
• Publication: A Guide to Irish Parish Registers, by Mitchell Brian (Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc.)

Online Records:

• The General Register Office (GRO) in Dublin gives free access to screenshots of their original civil registration records (fully surname-indexed) at www.irishgenealogy.ie.  These records include marriages that took place in churches for the period 1845-1947. Note that marriages in Roman Catholic churches were only recorded from 1864, and records for churches in the north of Ireland will cover only up to 1922.
• The website www.irishgenealogy.ie (free) also gives access to digitised images of church baptism, marriage & burial records as follows:
  • Church of Ireland parishes in Dublin City, County Kerry and County Carlow
  • Roman Catholic parishes of Dublin City and County Cork (Cork and Ross except most of Cork City)
  • Roman Catholic Diocese of Kerry, includes parishes in western & north-western areas of County Cork.
  • A small number of Presbyterian records relating to a congregation in Lucan.

Specific Denominations:

Baptist:

• Online Guide: Baptist Church - See page 3 in the PRONI's Your Family Tree Series - 3
• Website: The Baptist Union of Ireland, 117 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9, Northern Ireland

Church of Ireland:

• Online Records: Church of Ireland Anglican Record Project.
• Online Guide: Church of Ireland records - availability, and range of years covered; information from Fianna.
• Downloadable: Guide to PRONI holdings Your Family Tree Series - 3
• Online Guide: Genealogy - Church of Ireland web site
• Publication: Refaussé, Raymond, Dr., Church of Ireland Records, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 2000

Congregationalist:

• Downloadable Guide: PRONI The Congregational Union of Ireland Archive.

Evangelical:

• Downloadable Guide: PRONI The Irish Evangelical Society Archive.

Huguenot:

• Online Guide: The Irish Huguenot Archive.

Jewish:

• Online Guide: List & history of Jewish congregations in Ireland
• Genealogical Society: Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain (some member-only content)
• Online Guide: Researching Jewish Genealogies in Ireland - by Aaron Roetenberg, 22 July 2001
• Website: The Irish Jewish Museum (Dublin).

Methodist:

• Online Information: Methodist Historical Society of Ireland
• Downloadable Guide: PRONI Methodist Church Records - See page 3 of Your Family Tree Series - 3
• Publication: ffeary-Smyrl, Steven C., Exploring Irish Genealogy, No. 1. Irish Methodists - Where do I start?, Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations, Dublin, 2000

Presbyterian:

• Online Guide: Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland
• Online Information: Presbyterian History Society County Guides to Presbyterian Church Records (££ Membership).
• Online Information: Guide to Presbyterian Church Records held at the PRONI

Roman Catholic:

• Downloadable Guide: Roman Catholic Church Records held at PRONI (Belfast).
• Online Guide: NLI Dublin Catholic Parish Registers.
• Online Records: Catholic Parish Registers at the National Library of Ireland (Dublin).
• Online Records: Ancestry: Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915 with images from NLI. (Free)
• Roman Catholic Church records - from Fianna.

Society of Friends (Quaker):

• Online Archive Guide: Historical Library, Quakers in Ireland, Dublin
• Online Records: births, marriages, deaths, congregational records, and school records on FindMyPast (££/€€/$$).
• Publication: Eustace, P. B. and Goodbody, O. C., Quaker Records Dublin Abstracts of Wills, Stationery Office for the Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1957.
• Publication: Goodbody, O. C. and Hutton, B. G., Guide to Irish Quaker records, 1654-1860, Genealogical Pub. Co. Baltimore, MD, 1999
• Publication: Library of the Ulster Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 2000 CD-ROM, Craigavon Museum Services, Craigavon, (2000)
• Publication: The Quaker Corner - from Joanne Todd Rabun of Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A.

MISCELLANEOUS:

These Websites offer national and multi-county indexes, transcriptions or images of parish registers

• Irish Family History Foundation Parish Registers and Civil Registration with links to NLI images. (££/€€/$$)
• Irish Genealogy Church Records Cork, Kerry and Dublin, Civil Records for Ireland Some images. (Free)
• Emerald Ancestor  Births, deaths and marriages from historic Ulster (££/€€/$$)
• Ulster Historical Foundation  Baptism and Marriage records Co. Antrim and Co. Down. (££/€€/$$)
• Findmypast Ireland  Parish records from across Ireland and across all religions. Some images. (££/€€/$$)
• Ancestry Parish records from across Ireland and across all religions. Some images. (££/€€/$$)
• Familysearch: Parish records  indexes from across Ireland and across all religions. (Free)

The following libraries have collections that include indexes and transcriptions of parish registers:

• Irish Genealogical Research Society
• Society of Genealogists

General Information

Civil registration of all births, marriages, and deaths in Ireland began in 1864, except for non-Catholic marriages, for which registration started in 1845.  Some guidance can be found in PRONI's downloadable guidance note: "General Register Office" (free).

Available Records

Registration produced two sets of records: the registers for births, marriages & deaths, plus the published indexes to those registers. In 1922 the repository was split onto two:

• Records for Northern Ireland kept by the General Register Office Northern Ireland (GRONI) in Belfast. Online search is available for the indices of records of births over 100 years old, marriages over 75 years old and deaths (including World War II death records) over 50 years old. More recent records can only be viewed in-person at GRONI's Search Room in Belfast.  For events prior to 1922, see also the next item.
• Records for the Republic of Ireland are held at the General Register Office (GRO) in Dublin. Free access to screenshots of their original records (fully surname-indexed) is available at www.irishgenealogy.ie.  These records cover Births 1862-1922, Marriages 1845-1947 and Deaths 1871-1972; with earlier deaths (1864-1871) to be added in due course.. Note that Roman Catholic Marriages were only recorded from 1864.

Copies of Certificates can be ordered online and by post from GRO or GRONI as appropriate.

Adoption

For the Republic of Ireland, the Birth Information and Tracing Act now gives right of access to available birth certificates, birth & early life information, to anyone who was adopted, boarded out, the subject of an illegal birth registration, or who otherwise have questions in relation to their origins. This access is also available to the children of those individuals.  See www.birthinfo.ie

General Information

“The Irish court system was based on the English system of law. The Four Courts of Equity were the Exchequer, Chancery, Common Pleas, and King’s/Queen’s Bench. The destruction of the Public Record Office in 1922 significantly impacted the record availability for these courts. Of the four courts, only a small collection of original records for the court of Chancery survive. There are however, a number of indexes, abstracts, and transcripts that are available. “ Read the full article from Familysearch

Individual Court proceedings were widely reported in local and national newspapers

Online Resources

• Calendar of the justiciary rolls  on Familysearch (Free)
• Deserted Children Dublin on Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Irish Prison Registers 1790-1924 on Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland Dog Licence Registers on Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Petty Sessions Court Registers on Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Catholic Qualification & Convert Rolls 1701-1845 on Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Royal Irish Constabulary History & Directories on Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Royal Irish Constabulary Pensions 1826-1925 on Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Royal Irish Constabulary Service Records 1816-1922 on Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Intelligence Profiles, 1914-1922 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Police Gazettes, 1861-1893 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Courts Martial Files, 1916-1922 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Convict Transportation Registers 1787-1870 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)

Publications

• Margaret Falley, Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research provides a good description of court records and lists repositories and published inventories of court records. Many of the published inventories she notes are available at the Family History Library.

General Information

• Ancestral Heritage - listing of heritage sites, from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board
• Irish National Tourist Board - Official site
• The Northern Ireland Tourist Board's Official Home Page
• Heritage of Ireland

Travel Information

• Bus & train travel in Northern Ireland on the Translink website.
• Bus & train travel in the Republic of Ireland on the Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) website.

• Geograph
• Flickr

Directories for Dublin first appeared in the early eighteenth century and continue today. Provincial (town) directories began somewhat later and have continued only sporadically. See the research guide on Irish Ancestors.

The following websites hold online collections of national, regional and local directories

• PRONI (Free)
• Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Ulster Historical Foundation (££/€€/$$)

Hard copies of national, regional and local directories are held in local studies libraries throughout Ireland and some facsimile copies have been published. These are mostly out of print but may be available second hand or on CD.

Newspaper advertising is also a useful source for commercial life.

Other Directories available:

• Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland Membership Registers, 1733-1923

GENERAL INFORMATION

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since early Medieval times,[ but it is only possible to quantify it from around 1700: since then between 9 and 10 million people born in Ireland have emigrated. This is more than the population of Ireland at its historical peak in the 1840s of 8.5 million. The poorest of them went to Great Britain, especially Liverpool; those who could afford it, almost 5 million, went to the United States.  In 1890 40% of Irish-born people were living abroad. By the 21st century, an estimated 80 million people worldwide claimed some Irish descent, which includes more than 36 million Americans who claim Irish as their primary ethnicity.”

In the 19c emigration from the island of Ireland was mostly from Derry/Londonderry in the North West and Cobh (Cork) in the South West. Journeys to the ports were either overland or via coastal shipping. Many travelled via mainland ports, including Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow.   It should be noted that until 1922 travel between the UK mainland and Ireland was a domestic journey and no records were kept.

PUBLICATIONS

•  NIFHS booklet: "Researching Your Ancestors in the North of Ireland: Emigration to Australia & New Zealand" (£4.00)

WEBSITES

General

• Irish Ancestors The Irish Abroad
• British and Irish Roots Collection (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Immigration and Travel (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Migration Records (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Irish Famine Immigrants, 1846-1851 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Irish Passenger Lists, 1847-1871 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• Passengers from Ireland (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• Glasgow, Scotland, Crew Lists, 1863-1901 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• UK, Aliens Entry Books, 1794-1921 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• Dorset, England, Crew Lists, 1863-1914 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• Irish Passenger Lists - a useful listing
• TheShipsList-L-request[at]rootsweb[dot]com To subscribe, put the word 'subscribe' in the message text.

Immigration

• Transatlantic Migration From North America To Britain & Ireland 1858-1870 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• UK and Ireland, Masters and Mates Certificates, 1850-1927 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• UK, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870-1912 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• England, Alien Arrivals, 1810-1811, 1826-1869 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)

Australia

• Passenger arrivals index, 1898-1966:
• Search the register of British ships
• Victoria Inward Passenger Lists 1839-1923
• Emigrants Seeking Free Passage To South Australia 1836-1841 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Queensland Assisted Immigration 1848-1912 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Queensland Immigrants Nominated For Passage 1884-1907 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Queensland Immigration Registers 1922-1940 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Queensland Nominated Immigrants 1908-1922 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Queensland Register Of Immigrants 1864-1878 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Queensland, Brisbane Register Of Immigrants 1885-1917 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Queensland, Maryborough Registers Of Rations Issued To Immigrants 1875-1884 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• South Australia, Immigrant Agricultural Workers 1913-14 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Maryborough, Queensland Australia Immigrants from the British Isles & Germany 1861-91 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)

Canada

• Immigration
• Canada, Home Children Immigration Records Index, 1869-1930 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Canada, Immigrants To Canada Index, 1750-1854 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• New Brunswick, Canada, Irish Immigrants In The New Brunswick Census Of 1851 and 1861 Index, 1851, 1861 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Ontario, Canada- The Migration Of Voyageurs From Drummond Island To Penetanguishene In 1828. (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• Parliamentary Papers, Emigration (Canada)Canadian Emigration: 1826 Parliamentary Papers (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)

USA

• Ellis Island Passenger Search and Ship Search
• New York, New York, Castle Garden Immigration Index, 1820-1913 (FindmyPast ££/€€/$$)
• A List of Emigrants from England to America, 1682-1692, 1718-1759 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• Emigrants from England to the American Colonies, 1773-1776 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• Scotch-Irish Migration to South Carolina, 1772 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• More Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)
• UK, RMS Titanic, Crew Records, 1912 (Ancestry ££/€€/$$)

• The Ordnance Survey Archives provide an extensive set of search facilities, including what is in effect a Gazetteer of Irish Parishes.
• The Irish Ancestors site also provides an online facility as does the SeanRuad Townland Database Townland Database.
• Findmypast includes Ireland, Alphabetical Indexes To The Townlands and Parishes 1851-1911.

One of the best printed gazetteers, providing detailed information on all towns, parishes etc, is S. Lewis. A topographical dictionary of Ireland, comprising the several counties, cities and villages : with historical and statistical descriptions, S. Lewis (1837, 1846). 

• Transcriptions of the complete 1837 edition have been provided by Mel Lockie, © 2011.
• Volumes I and II of the 1837 edition, and the associated atlas in Volume 3, are available at Ask About Ireland. (PDF)
• The full text of the 1837 edition can also be searched at LibraryIreland.

Online Resources

• Irish Ancestors (formerly the Irish Times) has produced an online genealogy guide based on Grenham's 1992 book "Tracing Your Irish Ancestors".
• RootsTech 2017 guide to which records have been digitised in "The Digital Revolution in Irish Genealogy"
• The Irish Genealogical Society site.
• Each county now has a local Heritage Centre (part of the Irish Family History Foundation) and are listed on Irish Ancestors.  Many offer a fee-paid search service.
• The IrelandGenWeb project (part of WorldGenWeb).
• Familysearch website information about Ireland
• National Archives of Ireland
• Fianna's Irish Genealogy Resource - a major online resource for Irish Family History - tutorials and information pages.
• Genealogical Society of Ireland
• The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA) - useful information and links
• Firstmom's Genealogy Resources
• Cyndi's List - for Ireland and Northern Ireland

Publications

• Going to Ireland: A Genealogical Researcher's Guide. Irvine, Sherry and Nora M Hickey. Trafford Publishing, Victoria, Canada.
• The Plantation of Ulster  Jonathon Bardon, Gill Books.

The North of Ireland Family History Society have these research guides for sale

•     Researching Your Ancestors in the North of Ireland: A Beginners Guide.
•     Researching Your Ancestors in the North of Ireland: A Research Guide.
•     Researching Your Ancestors in the North of Ireland: Websites.
•     Researching Your Ancestors in the North of Ireland: Locating Church Records.
•     Researching Your Ancestors in the North of Ireland: Census Records.
•     Researching Your Ancestors in the North of Ireland: Emigration to Australia & New Zealand.

Family History Societies

• North of Ireland Family History Society
• Irish Family History Society

News Groups & Mailing Lists

• Ireland Genealogy Forum

The records of the Genealogical Office (2 Kildare Street, Dublin 2, Ireland) deal mainly with heraldry (mostly relating to English Lords who were transplanted to Ireland as landowners). The office's holdings include information extracted from records that were destroyed when the Public Records Office burned.

See also:

• Eddie Geoghegan's Coats of Arms in Ireland - a large collection of representations of coats of arms of Irish families/clans.

An overview of the relationships between counties, baronies, civil parishes and townlands can be found on this page.

Timeline

• A Timeline of Irish History - from Fianna
• Ulster History Timeline

See:

• Views of the Famine - a superb collection of transcriptions and images from contemporary sources, by Steve Taylor
• Great Irish Famine Commemoration Website http://www.irishfamine.ie/ 
• Ulster History Timeline

Further reading:

• Sources for the History of Irish Civilization: Articles in Irish Periodicals. 9 Vols. Boston: G.K. Hall and Co. (1970).

Records of places can provide useful information about where your ancestors lived. The main sources for records of places are Griffith's Valuation, the Tithe Applotment Books, Estate Papers and maps.

GRIFFITHS VALUATION:

The primary valuation of Ireland or Griffith's Valuation - carried out between 1848 and 1864 to determine liability to pay the Poor rate (for the support of the poor and destitute within each Poor Law Union) and provides detailed information on where people lived in mid-nineteenth century Ireland and the property they possessed.  PRONI have produced a free explanatory guidance booklet available here.

Griffith's Valuation (free) is fully searchable online and includes images and maps.

Websites that include Griffiths and/or other land records include:

• Ask About Ireland website (free)
• Valuation Office (££/€€/$$)
• Property Registration Authority (££/€€/$$)
• Ancestry Index and images (££/€€/$$)
• Findmypast Griffith's Survey Maps & Plans, 1847-1864 and Griffith's Valuation 1847-1864  (££/€€/$$)
• Rootsireland (££/€€/$$)

Index and images to valuations between 1824 and 1856 are available on:

• National Archives of Ireland
• Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Familysearch holds 355 microfilms  of Valuation  books available to view as images or microfilm viewable in a Familysearch Family History Library. (Note that the LDS microfilm service was terminated in September 2017, records are now digitized and online.)
• Family Search  Transcripts of memorials of deeds, conveyances and wills, 1708-1929    (2686 microfilm reels)
• PRONI Valuation Revision Books covering counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone between the years 1864 to 1933.(Subscription)

TITHE APPLOTMENT BOOKS:

The Tithe Applotment Books were compiled between 1823 and 1838 as a survey of land in each civil parish to determine the payment of tithes (a religious tax). Unlike Griffith's Valuation they do not cover cities or towns. PRONI have produced a free guidance booklet, available here.

Tithe Applotment records can also be found on the following websites:

• Tithe Applotment Books on the NLI website (free)
• The Tithe Applotment Books, Ireland, 1814-1855 on Familysearch (free)
• The Tithe Applotment Books, Ireland, 1823-1837 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Tithe Defaulters, 1831 on Find My Past (££/€€/$$)

ESTATE PAPERS:

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the vast majority of the Irish population lived as tenant farmers on estates. The administration of these estates produced large quantities of records such as leases and deeds, rentals and account books, maps and correspondence.

The Landed Estates Project is a searchable database of Estates (and their associated Houses & Families) for the period c1700 up until 1914.  The data currently covers the provinces of Connacht & Munster, and also the counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan. (See the "Counties of Ireland" section near the top of this page to see which counties fall within those two provinces).

Archives and Libraries with Estate Paper Collections:

• Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
• National Archives of Ireland
• The National Library of Ireland
• Trinity College Library Dublin: Manuscripts and Archives Research Library (Family and Estate Papers)
• Boole Library, University College Cork (Special Collections)
• James Hardiman Library, National University of Ireland, Galway
• Cork City and County Archives (Solicitors' & Landed Estate Papers) Boole Library, University College Cork

Estate Papers can also be found in County Archives and Local Studies Libraries and  a number of Irish Estate Papers are to be found in U.K. National Archives and County Archives. These can be searched using Discovery on the National Archives website.

A selection of other websites which include indexes and images relating to Estate Papers:

• PRONI Freeholders records (free)
• Findmypast Landed Estate Court Rentals (££/€€/$$)
• Findmypast  Estate commissioners offices applications from evicted tenants 1907 (££/€€/$$)
• Findmypast Burkes Landed Gentry of Ireland 1899 (££/€€/$$)
• Findmypast Thoms Irish Who’s Who 1923 (££/€€/$$)
• Ancestry Lord Viscount Morpeth's Testimonial Roll, 1841 (££/€€/$$)
• Ancestry Burke's Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland (££/€€/$$)
• Ancestry Return of Owners of Land in Ireland 1876 (££/€€/$$)

REGISTRY OF DEEDS:

• Description of the documents held at the PRONI.
• Registry of Deeds Index Project, Ireland - hosted by Nick Reddan
• Transcripts of memorials of deeds, conveyances and wills, 1708-1929 online at Familysearch (Free)

ULSTER & ULSTER-SCOTS:

• Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Omagh
  • Ulster Dialect & Linguistic Diversity Archive.
  • Brendan Adams (linguist & dialect archivist) Collection
  • Sir John Byers Collection of Ulster dialect items c1880-c1910; also, the Slip Archive of Dialect Items c1900
• Linenhall Library, Belfast:
  • Kennedy Collection of Ulster Poets - rare collection of Ulster's "rhyming weavers", in English and in Ulster Scots.
  • Ulster Scots Language & Dialects of Ulster, and Ulster Scots Holdings
• Kelly, Dermot, The development of the English language in Ulster, from Review - Journal of the Craigavon Historical Society, Vol. 7 No. 3
• Robert Shipboy MacAdam Manuscript: manuscript of 23 folios, dated c1842-56, for an English-Irish Dictionary of Ulster Irish - held in Special Collections at Queen's University, Belfast.

IRISH:

• Irish Language Collection at the Linenhall Library, Belfast
• Joyce, P.W., The Irish Language - hosted by Library Ireland
• McCoy, Gordon with Maolcholaim Scott, Gaelic Identities: Aithne na nGael, Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, 2000, ISBN 085389766
• Primate Beresford papers: letters and papers 1830-51, concerning the propagation of the Protestant religion through the Irish language - held at the PRONI, Belfast (ref. D/3279)
• St Mary's University College, Belfast - Ghaeilge Collection
• T.F. O'Rahilly Papers: collection of Irish manuscripts and printed books by the distinguished Celtic scholar - held in the Special Collections at Queen's University, Belfast [citation from RASCAL]

MISC:

• Bryson and MacAdam Manuscripts Collection of 18th & 19th century Irish language manuscripts, Belfast Central Library
• Hibernica Collection in the Special Collections at Queen's University, Belfast
• Joyce, P.W., A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland (1906)- hosted by Library Ireland
• University of Ulster at Coleraine - Henry Morris Collection and the Irish Collection of 19th & 20th century titles in Irish and English

Historical Ordnance Survey Maps:

The two main mapping websites showing historical Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland are:

• PRONI Historical Maps:  Covering the six counties of Northern Ireland.
• GEOHIVE maps: Covering the whole of the island of Ireland

Other Mapping Resources:

• Archives of the Ordnance Survey at the National Archives - searchable
• Map of Ireland in 1808 - from Univ. of Texas at Austin
• Map showing major towns
• Down Survey maps. Images of 17c maps used as part of William Petty's Down survey
• FindMyPast Griffith's Survey Maps & Plans, 1847-1864  (££/€€/$$)
• FindMyPast Ireland, Maps and Surveys 1558-1610 Image Browse (££/€€/$$)
• Map of Ireland showing counties and their Chapman Codes - based on a map obtained from Paddy Waldron.

 Publicatons:

• Mitchell, B. A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland. Genealogical Publishing Co. [Shows counties, dioceses, baronies and civil parishes.]

• Information on the medical records held by the National Library of Ireland can be found here.

General:

Until the creation of the Republic of Ireland, military service was as part of the British Army & Navy and, as such, most remaining records are held by the UK National Archives at Kew. Northern Ireland continues to be part of the United Kingdom. Before searching these archives some knowledge of the recruiting, organisation and structure of the Army and Navy and their records is recommended, and the National Archives publish a series of free Research Guides for the Army and Navy.

Personnel Records:

Personnel records are mostly classified by regiment (army) or ship (navy) and are open to the public up to 1923, although requests may be made for WW2 service records, under the Freedom of Information Act. 

Many of the service records have been indexed but regimental/ship’s muster and pay records can only be searched in person at the National Archives.  However, service record Indexes can be searched using the National Archives' catalogue, and the following websites hold extensive indexes and images:

• Military Service and Conflict on Find My Past (££/€€/$$)
• Military Records on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Courts Martial Files, 1916-1922 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• United Kingdom, World War I Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Records, 1917-1920 on FamilySearch (Free)
• United Kingdom, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920 on FamilySearch (Free)
• United Kingdom, Militia Service Records, 1806-1915 on FamilySearch (Free)
• United Kingdom, Merchant Navy Seamen Records, 1835-1941 on FamilySearch (Free)
• United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933 on FamilySearch (Free)
• United Kingdom, Chelsea Pensioners' Service Records, 1760-1913 on FamilySearch (Free)
• Great Britain, War Office Registers, 1772-1935 on FamilySearch (Free)

Regiments:

Regimental Museums mostly record only the history of the regiment, and hold few (if any) records of personnel.

• The National Army Museum (London) offers guidance on researching a former soldier in the British Army.
• The Royal Irish Regiment website.
• The Inniskillings Museum (within Enniskillen Castle Barracks) for the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.
• The Royal Ulster Rifles Museum, Bedford Street, Belfast.
• The Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum, Armagh.
• Irish Defence Forces museums.
• London Irish Rifles Museum.

The Connaught Rangers, the Leinster Regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Regiment and the Royal Munster Fusiliers were units of the British Army, which were disbanded following the establishment of the independent Irish Free State in 1922. The Enlistment Bookds contain records of soldiers serving in these regiments in the period 1920-22.

Most military records for the Republic of Ireland are covered by Data Protection legislation, some information is available on Defence Forces Ireland , Military Archives website (free), and Findmypast have published the Irish Army Census 1922 (££/€€/$$).

• Ulster Place Names Society
• Use the search box at the top of this page to search the GENUKI pages for a place name.

The pool of Irish surnames is relatively small compared to the rest of Europe and the use and re-use of family forenames can make it difficult for Family Historians to be sure which member of the community is the right ancestor.

Publications:

• "The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names of Ireland" Edited by Kay Muhr and Liam Ó hAisibéil, Oxford University Press (2021). ISBN: 9780198803263
• MacLysaght, E.The Surnames of Ireland (6th. ed.). Irish Academic Press (1985).

Online Resources:

• www.dochara.com Irish First Names & Irish Surnames
• www.johngrenham.com Family History websites & Surnames and distribution (££/€€/$$)
• Ulster surname distribution database - from the Ulster Historical Foundation (££/€€/$$)
• Barry Griffin's Maps of the distribution of Surnames in the 1901 & 1911 Census of Ireland

Local newspapers in Ireland have been published since the early 18^th century and cover all aspects of national, regional and local life. Copies of most newspapers were sent to the British Library and have since been scanned and indexed (note the indexing has been by OCR and is subject to error). The British Library collection has also been released by Findmypast.

Online Resources:

• British Newspaper Archive (££/€€/$$)
• Irish Newspapers (££/€€/$$)
• British Newspapers - Findmypast (££/€€/$$)
• Irish Ancestors - Browse (££/€€/$$)
• Irish News Archive (££/€€/$$)
• Current newspapers:  a guide to online holdings.

General:

• Many Irish people were agricultural labourers or small farmers, for which few records exist. However, for other occupations the situation is much better. A detailed description of the various types of Records concerning Occupations is given at the Irish Ancestors site.

Education:

• Alphabetical List of Teachers Employed by the Commissioners of National Education on 31 March 1905

Railways:

• A project collating information about workplace accidents on the railways of the British Isles, listing the names of the people involved, their ages, companies they worked for and what
  help they received: https://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/

• Archaeological and Historical Journals

General Information

The Workhouse website gives an overview of Poor Law & Workhouses in Ireland, together with information about some individual workhouses includes history, maps & photographs.

PRONI (Belfast) has produced an online downloadable leaflet outlining the Poor House records that they hold covering Northern Ireland.

A number of workhouses have re-opened as Heritage Centres and Museums giving an insight into life in the Workhouse,

Records

• Scanned images of the Index to those who applied for admission into the Belfast Workhouse between 1892 & 1921 are available online from PRONI (Belfast).  To view/download these images, search the PRONI Catalogue for PRONI Ref: "BG/7/GK/1".   This index shows names & ages, together with a reference number. 
• Manuscript: Poor Rate Collection books for the Celbridge Poor Law Union,1855  at NLI Dublin.

Other Online Resources

• Ireland, Famine Relief Commission Papers, 1844-1847  on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, Poor Law Union Removals From England, 1859-1860 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Dublin Workhouses Admission & Discharge Registers 1840-1919 on Find My Past (££/€€/$$)
• Sligo Workhouse Admission and Discharge Registers 1848-1859 on Find My Past (££/€€/$$)
• Sustainability Loan Fund, 1821-1874 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Sustainability Loan Fund, 1812-1868 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Poverty Relief Loans 1821-1874 on Find My Past (££/€€/$$)

Publications

• The Workhouses of Ireland by John O’Connor Anvil 1995
• The Poor Law and the workhouse in Belfast, 1838-1948 by Michael Farrell, PRONI, 1978.
• The Establishment of poor-law unions in Ireland 1838-43  by Gerard O'Brien.
• The poor law in Ireland 1838-1948 by Virginia Crossman. 2006.
• Derry and the Irish Poor Law by Patrick Durnin, Waterside Community Local History Group ,1991

General Information

Irish probates were handled by ecclesiastical courts up to 1858 and twenty-eight diocesan courts (known as consistory courts) existed. The highest court, with authority over all the ecclesiastical courts, was the Prerogative Court of Armagh (which operated from Dublin). If a person was wealthy, or had an estate that included property in more than one diocese (and was worth more than £5) then that person's Will would have been proved in the Prerogative Court.  If the Estate included property in England or Wales the Will may have been proven in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury or the Prerogative Court of York.

In 1858, the civil authorities & courts, took on the work of proving wills and administrations. The ecclesiastical courts were replaced by eleven District Will Registries and a Principal Probate Registry in Dublin. Each registry made copies of wills and administrations that it proved in 'Will and Admon books' and, after 20 years, sent the originals to the Public Record Office in Dublin. The originals and copies, of almost all records of the Principal Probate Registry (which also had jurisdiction as a district court over the counties of Dublin and Kildare) were destroyed in the fire that consumed the Public Record Office in 1922.  Copies of wills and administrations kept by other district registries have been gathered into the National Archives  of Ireland (Dublin) and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Belfast), where they remain grouped by district.

There is an exhaustive description of Ireland Probate Records on Familysearch.

Online Resources

• Will calendar entries for the District Probate Registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry covering the period 1858-1965. View digital images of copy wills for Armagh, (1858-1918), Belfast (1858-1909) and Londonderry (1858-1899).
• PRONI Belfast E-Catalogue Pre 1858 Wills
• Calendars of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1922
• Irish Wills 1922-1982
• Ireland Calendar of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1920
• Wills & Probate in Birth, Marriage & Death (Parish Registers) 1484-1820 and WW1 Soldiers Wills
• Index to the prerogative wills of Ireland, 1536-1810
• Wills & Probates, Estates & Guardian Records
• Irish Tontines Annuitants 1766-1789. Discover your ancestor in Irish and English tontine records from 1766 to 1789. This collection comprises annuity statements, accounts of deaths, death certificates, and marriage certificates relating to the subscribers and nominees of the English tontine of 1789; the Irish tontines of 1773, 1775, and 1777; and the life annuities of 1766 to 1779.

Family Search  have digitised indexes & images of probate documents, memorials of deeds, conveyances and Wills 1708-1929.

The Commissioners for National Education, which was subsequently known as the National Education Board was established in 1831 with the aim of providing a non-denominational education for the poor of Ireland.

• Ireland National Schools List on Find My Past (££/€€/$$). Note that children born after 1915 have been redacted for legal reasons.
• Ireland National School Registers on Find My Past (££/€€/$$)
• Ireland, School Masters and Mistresses, 1826 on Ancestry (££/€€/$$)
• Alphabetical List of Teachers Employed by the Commissioners of National Education on 31 March 1905.

Goodridge, John. A Catalogue of British and Irish Labouring-class and Self-taught poets c 1700 - 1900    Version dated 1/8/2020    This is the latest version of this descriptive listing of labouring-class poets and poetry, giving brief bibliographical and biographical information on 2,255 named poets.

• Gluckman's Ireland House - NYU's center for Irish Studies and Culture
• Howsitgoing - An Irish Meeting Place

Irish Ancestors includes links to the following societies.

• Ballingeary and Inchigeela Historical Society, Co. Cork
• Clogher Historical Society
• Co. Roscommon Family History Society
• Co. Tipperary Historical Society
• Cork Genealogical Society
• Cork Historical & Archaeological Society
• Dungarvan Museum Society
• Genealogical Society of Ireland
• Grand Orange Lodge
• Irish Family History Society
• Mallow Archaeological and Historical Society
• North of Ireland Family History Society
• Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society
• Ratoo Heritage Society
• Skibbereen Heritage Centre
• Termonfeckin Historical Society
• The Glens of Antrim Historical Society
• The Irish Genealogical Research Society
• The Irish Railway Record Society
• The Methodist Historical Society of Ireland
• The Wicklow Heritage Project
• Western Family History Association
• American-Irish Historical Society
• British Isles Family History Society - U.S.A.
• Irish Genealogical Society International
• Irish Genealogical Society of Wisconsin
• New Zealand Society of Genealogists
• Society of Australian Genealogists
• The American Irish Historical Society
• The Bahrain Irish Society
• The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa
• The Federation of Family History Societies (U.K.)
• The Irish Ancestral Research Association
• The Ulster-Scots Society of America

Other Societies include

• Irish Family History Foundation
• North of Ireland FHS
• Ulster Historical Foundation

• Many Irish tax records were lost in 1922 when the Public Records Office burned. Surviving archives are mostly land valuation records, including the Tithe Applotment books and Griffith's Primary Valuation. These sources are included in the Land and Property Section.
• During the 18th and 19th Centuries, flax was an important cash crop a list of known flax growers on the island in 1796. It provides the name of grower and county of residence and the number of spinning wheels/looms that were awarded. The index can be searched on Ancestry and transcription is available to members of the Ulster Historical Foundation.