Irish Research

1 Are you looking for statutory records post 1864 for Catholic BMD and 1845 for Protestant marriages? These will all be easily accessible through Dublin/Belfast and Roscommon GRO. You can use Family History Centres (LDS) to access statutory records from 1864 for RC and 1845 for Protestant Marriages, otherewise pre these dates will be Parish Records.

2 All Catholic Parish Records pre mainly 1864 are still with the churches across the whole of Ireland, North and South. Copies available on microfilm have been deposited with the National Library in Dublin and in Belfast. To access these, you do need to understand what Baronies, Townlands, Catholic and Protestant Parishes are, as well as the Diocese that your ancestors are from. The Diocese is the most important at this first stage.There are exceptions to this. The ones that I know about are:

a The Diocese of Cashel and Emly which contains some of Limerick, all Tipperary are only available as per payment through the Heritage Centres for that diocese.

b Kerry County needs a letter from the Bishop

c Diocese of Cloyne( part of Cork County) needs a letter of application for research from the Mallow Heritage Centre.

There may be others so always check first before a trip to Dublin/Belfast.

This will have implications for research on the internet as Tipperary/parts of Limerick and parts of Cork will always be tricky regarding parish records, or at least until Bishops of these Diocese have a change of heart!

3 Catholic Parish records in Ireland will not go back much further than The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, however there are a FEW parish records that go back to about 1740 but that is the earliest, and as Ireland was mainly a Catholic country with approx 85% Catholic, that is going to mean that records for most of us seeking Irish ancestry is not going to get back beyond 1780 with just a very few exceptions. sadly most will not go much further back than 1820.

4 Protestant Parish Records do go back to the 1600's but as they were the records that had been deposited in the National Archives in Dublin, they were also mainly the records that were destroyed in the fires of 1922, along with many wills, but those that do remain are stilll with the National Archives in Dublin with copies in Belfast.

5 Griffiths Valuation (Full Valuation) is now accessed through Irish Origins but you will have to pay for this access. Many people may think they can access this for free via the various Griffiths Valuation Indexes online BUT this INDEX will not give you as much information as you will get through the FULL Griffiths. Until just over a year ago this FULL Griffiths was only available in Dublin and Belfast and this has been a major breakthrough for Irish tracing.

5 Sadly, Irish Census for the very early years were destroyed by successive Irish Governments but the 1901 and 1911 Census are available and may be pulled in from local LDS centres, although at present they are address only searchable, so you need to know the exact address to be able to access them at the moment. However the Irish Census for 1901 and 1911 are being digitised through a big project undertaken by National Archives Dublin and Canada. Dublin is to be announced October 2007 and the rest of Ireland to follow gradually over the next 3 years, another major breakthrough eagerly awaited, already one year adrift!! However it will be FREE when it does eventually become available.

In the main, though, your best bet for Irish Tracing is to visit Ireland and some luck.

Other possible ways to trace Irish ancestry within the Uk are:

Understand the Tithe Aplotments, though not everybody on Tithes but everybody on Griffiths. Tithes are approx 1820's and Griffiths approx 1840's/1850's. Google for help.

Join a Historical Society for county of interest, not all counties have them, but Tipperary and Cork do.

Try to discover when your folk emigrated, and this might give you hints as to why they emigrated.

Understand Irish History by reading about it ie Famines, Hedge Schools and Irish Education in general, to include the Christian Brothers, (founder Edmund Rice) and Presentation Nuns, as well as the Political History and Home Rule issues.

Irish newspapers are accessible through Colindale Library London google for holdings.

'Tracing Your Irish Ancestors' John Grenham. This book is still a "bible" for help in tracing your Irish ancestry and includes a series of maps covering all the Catholic Parishes of Ireland, Parish Maps and a County by County Source Guide. Book can be ordered from any book shop or online.

If anyone has Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) police in their Ancestry these records are at The National Archives (TNA) at Kew. The initial book of records needs to be asked for as it is kept behind the desk.

For those with County Cork and County Kerry Ancestors there is a 16 volume collection of books known as the Casey Collection, 'O'Kiefe, Coshe Mange, Slieve Lougher and Upper Blackwater'. This is another very good census substitute for these two counties only. These books are held in many libraries over the world and I suggest that you google 'Casey Bibliography' for the locations.

For those people who have ancestors who joined the Army in Ireland or who may have been in Ireland at the time they married and/or had children whilst in Ireland, then consider the possibility that that they may have married whilst in the army in Ireland. If this is the case then there is a special book in the FRC in London called: 'The Regimental Indexes of Births and Baptisms' These books date back to the late 1700's and are now online at Findmypast through the Overseas section. You can obtain details of these marriages and births and send for the certificates in the normal way except that they usually have the baptismal information as well. These certs are also very valuable as they usually contain the Rank and Regiment of the soldier concerned.

For those people who have Dublin Ancestors please be aware that there is a Dublin County as well as Dublin City and the county of Dublin is quite large stretching South to County Wicklow so if your Census just says Dublin do try to find out what this means.

The Genealogy Advisory Service has moved from the National Library Kildare Street to the Heraldic Museum at 2 Kildare Street, near to where Kildare Street meets Nassau Street as from April 2006.

A Census was taken in Ireland every 10 years from 1821 but only the census for 1901 and 1911 are available for the public to view. The returns are arranged by Townland or in urban areas by Street. No returns survive for 1861 1871 1881 and 1891 but there are some returns for 1821 1831 1841 and 1851 covering parts of counties Antrim, Cavan, Cork, Fermanagh, Galway, Kings County(Offaly) Derry (Londonderry) Meath and Waterford. There are lists of household names in the Census returns of 1851 for part of Belfast City and Dublin City (can consult the 1851 Dublin City Census) a CD compiled and edited by Sean Magee.

There are also census search forms for each county, giving the results of searches made in the returns of 1841 and 1851 for pension purposes, and some other copies made from the returns of 1821 to 1851. These are located at the Dublin National Archives. You can search these records when you are in Dublin, but be aware of the following if you do not find the information you require.

Not everybody who applied for a pension would be completing one of these green forms. These forms were only for those who could not prove their age. Baptismal dates were perfectly acceptable when applying for pension in Ireland and so only those who could not provide proof of where/when they were baptised were required to complete one. As most people in the South of Ireland were Catholics and baptised this would not have been difficult to prove. Equally most people in the North of the country would also have been baptised.

These forms would only have been completed up until 1922 when most of the census returns from 1821 to 1851 were lost, when the Public Record Office in Dublin was destroyed in the Four Courts Fire in Dublin during the Civil War of 1922, while most of those Census Returns between 1861 and 1891 were pulped by the government in the early part of the First World War for the War effort. (!914/1918) This is the reason that only fragments remain here and there for those Census Returns that were fortunate not to have been at the PRO at this time.

There are indexes available in the National Archives Dublin for the 1901 Census Returns available for various parts of the country. Complete Indexes to County Fermanagh and Tyrone are on microfiche edited by Linda K Meehan(Largy Books) 1994.

Online full Indexes to Counties Leitrim and Roscommon are available on a searchable database maintained by Roger Mc Donnell at: Leitrim-Roscommon Genealogy homepage.

Parts of Counties Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Westmeath and Wexford are also covered by this database. Heads of Household Returns according to District Electoral Division are available for County Clare at: www.Clarelibrary.i.e.

Also found at the National Archives Dublin are the following:

'County Longford and its People' by David Leahy (Dublin 1990) is an index to heads of household and strays in the 1901 Census Returns for that county.

A complete index to Castlecomer District Electoral Division is published by the Genealogical Society of Ireland. Indexes covering parts of Dublin have also been published by the GSI and the Raheny History Society. The 'Exploring Family Origins Series', relating to specific towns in various counties, includes extracts from the 1901 and 1911 census returns

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