National Library of Ireland Digitisation Project

Something I missed in the previous post is that National Library of Ireland is undertaking a massive digitisation of Irish Records. The NLI is in the process of digitising more than 400,000 images of Catholic parish registers which it will make available on-line free of charge. This project is already being described as “the most significant ever digitisation project for Irish genealogy” and the NLI is expecting records to be available as early as the middle of 2015. The digital images due to be published by the NLI will be searchable by parish location only. They will not be transcribed or indexed by the NLI, and the images will be of the microfilms of the original registers, which – in some cases – were in poor condition when the microfilming took place. The images will be in black and white. The information in the registers varies from parish to parish but, typically, includes the dates of the baptisms or marriages, and the names of the key people involved, including godparents or witnesses.

Irish Resources on-line

Irish On-line resources just keep expanding. One of the latest: -

Irish Archives Resource web portal http://www.iar.ie/index.shtml

This portal will link you to archival collections throughout Ireland. Archives are the documents and records that relate to people, places, organisations, and events. You can use this portal to locate archives relating to your area of interest or research topic. The site provides links to 34 archive collections. Essentially the Irish Archives Resource is an “… online database which contains searchable archival descriptions. It does not hold any archives or records but provides a means to search archival descriptions from various contributing institutions”.

But don’t forget: -

National Archives, Ireland http://www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie/

From the National Archives Genealogy Website you can access the Census Records for 1901 and 1911, Census survivals for 1821-51, Census Search forms for 1841-51, the Tithe Applotment Books from 1823 to 1837, the Soldiers’ Wills from 1914 to 1917, and the Calendars of Wills and Administrations from 1858 to 1922.

This site will have large numbers of other genealogical records added to it over the coming years, including Valuation Office House and Field Books, 1848 – 60

All of these records are free to access, through searchable databases and linked images of relevant pages. Eventually, the site will contain all of the important and easily accessible genealogical material in the custody of the National Archives

National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

Contains some excellent suggestions, methodology, descriptions and explanations of sources as well as links to tracing your Irish Family History.

Irish Genealogy http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/

This website is operated by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht & provides users with the opportunity to search a wide range of record sources in their search of their Irish Ancestry. It is home to the on-line Indexes of the Civil Registers (GRO) of Births, Marriages, Civil Partnerships and Deaths and to Church Records of Baptism, Marriage and Burial from a number of counties. The website also operates as a search portal that allows users to search the following record sources as well:

• 1901/1911 Census records and pre-1901 survivals
• Census Search forms from 1841/1851
• Tithe Applotments
• Soldiers' Wills
• Griffith's Valuations
• Ireland - Australia Transportation database
• Military Archives
• Ellis Island
• National Photographic Archive from the National Library of Ireland

Family Search https://familysearch.org/search

The Family Search database provides free access to 19 collections of Irish records covering the years 1619 -2013. They are made up of 38,696,281 indexed records and 19,553,476 record images. 

Irish Census Records

Thousands of Irish census documents, many dating back to the early 19th Century, have been made available to the public online for the first time. The vast majority of pre-1922 records were destroyed in the Irish Civil War by a fire at the Public Record Office, but some of the documents that survived the fire, and others held elsewhere, have now been collated and put online. They include partial census records from 1821 to 1851, a substantial amount from counties now in Northern Ireland. Surviving documents from the 1821 census include household returns from large parts of County Fermanagh. Many of the 1831 census records for County Londonderry have survived, and a substantial amount of 1851 census documents from County Antrim also remain intact. Most of them are not the original documents, but are contemporaneous copies of census forms archived in offices in what later became Northern Ireland. The surviving documents had previously been available to order from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) but they have now been published online, to access free of charge, by the National Archives of Ireland, which undertook the project in partnership with genealogical companies, FindMyPast and FamilySearch. In total, the newly available documentation relates to more than 600,000 individuals on the island of Ireland. Many of the records are from the years leading up to the Irish famine, which is reckoned to have killed nearly one-eighth of the entire population.

For people of Irish descent, tracing their family roots is notoriously difficult because of a series of documentation disasters. Full government censuses for the whole island of Ireland began in 1821 and continued at ten-year intervals until 1911. No census was taken in 1921, because of the Irish War of Independence. However, many of the records were completely destroyed prior to 1922, by order of the British government, on grounds of confidentiality. The original census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed shortly after they were taken. Documents from the 1881 and 1891 censuses were pulped during the First World War. The majority of the returns for the four censuses carried out between 1821 and 1851 were destroyed by a major fire at the Public Record Office of Ireland. When the Irish Civil War began in June 1922, the government-owned building based at Dublin's Four Courts was among the first casualties. Almost all of the records it held, some dating back to medieval times, were destroyed in bomb explosions that set fire to the office on 30 June of that year.

As a result, the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses are the only pre-partition censuses to survive in comprehensive form. Census records are normally kept confidential and only released 100 years after the original surveys were completed. However, because so many Irish census documents have been destroyed, the 100-year rule was suspended and the public were given early access to the 1901 and 1911 censuses. Further information and other related stories can be found at http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27205043

Irish Ancestry

Irish ancestry is often hard to trace reliably, but there has been a real push to get Irish genealogy resources online.
Irish Newspaper archive 1820-1926
FindMyPast Ireland has added over 100 years of old Irish newspapers to its online collection. The overall coverage is:
The Belfast Morning News (1857-1882)
The Belfast Newsletter (1828-1900)
The Cork Examiner (1841-1926)
The Dublin Evening Mail (1849-1871)
The Freeman’s Journal (1820-1900)
The Sligo Champion (1836-1926)
This collection is accessible on all Findmypast international sites (UK, Aus, or US) available at Manly Library. You can read the full announcement of it here.

The Irish Genealogical Research Society has launched an online index to its annual journal The Irish Genealogist. The journal was first published in 1937 and contains hundreds of thousands of family names with reference to a variety of different sources.

Censuses and Guiness Employee Records
Ancestry.com has added to their Irish records with three new databases:
Ireland Guinness Archive Index, 1824-2002
Ireland Census 1901 Census
Ireland Census 1911 Census
The census records are an index only but they link to the National Archive of Ireland, which then allows you to view the images.
The Guinness Archive is employee records and include details such as name, date of birth, date of death, date they joined the company, spouse name etc.

Tithe Applotment Books 1814-1855

These are available on FamilySearch and determine the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings over one acre should pay in tithes to the Church of Ireland. Urban areas are not included.  FamilySearch has all of these Tithe Applotment Books indexed, as well as links to the original images.

Irish Marriage Finder

The Irish Genealogical Research Society's Marriage Finder has now reached 50,000 names. It features information gathered from an array of sources, including Chancery bills, diaries, deeds, marriage settlements, memorial inscriptions, wills, family letters and newspaper cuttings. The database is online and free to use on the website of the IGRS at http://www.irishancestors.ie/?page_id=1926 and a "how to use it" introduction is available at http://www.irishancestors.ie/?page_id=1921.

 

Irish Wills 1858 - 1920

The National Archives of Ireland have made available on-line tools to search for Irish wills from 1858 to 1920. Wills and testamentary records are of assistance to genealogists as evidence of the date of a person’s death and for other information which they may contain concerning the dead person’s family, place of residence and property.

In Ireland, before a will can take effect, a grant of probate must be made by a court. If someone dies without having made a will, the court can grant letters of administration for the disposal of the estate. Since 1858, grants of probate and administration have been made in the Principal and District Registries of the Probate Court (before 1877) or the High Court (after 1877). They are indexed in the Calendars of Wills and Administrations, which up to now, have only been available in the Reading Room of the National Archives of Ireland.

Up to 1917, the Calendars cover the whole of Ireland, but since 1918 they cover only the 26 counties in the Republic; those indexes covering the six counties of Northern Ireland since 1918 are in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). The Calendars of Wills and Administrations for Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry are searchable online at http://applications.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_WillsCalendar/WillsSearch.aspx

You can search the Calendars (alphabetical indexes) of Wills and Administrations for the years 1858 – 1920 and pdfs for those from 1922 to 1982 on the main National Archives website. Further information on how to search these is available at www.nationalarchives.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Will-calendar-search-guide.pdf. The records for 1921 have not been microfilmed, and therefore not digitised, but it is hoped to digitise them in the future.

New Expert Irish Genealogy Service Now Available

There is now help for anyone researching Irish ancestry.

The joint consortium of Eneclann and Ancestor Network have announced that they will provide genealogy services in the National Archives of Ireland and the National Library of Ireland in the coming year, following a competitive tendering process. The consortium has increased the number of genealogy experts delivering the service, to provide a wide and comprehensive range of expertise to anyone looking for help and advice in tracing their family history.

Approximately half of the project team in the consortium are members of the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland (A.P.G.I.). The remainder of the team are graduates of the U.C.D. certificate/diploma in genealogy and/or graduates of the University of Limerick’s M.A. in the History of the Family. They offer an enhanced family history service at a significantly reduced cost to the taxpayer.

The new genealogy service will be available to all visitors to the National Archives of Ireland and the National Library of Ireland. Everyone is welcome to avail of this free service commencing Monday June 11.

National Archives of Ireland

The National Archives of Ireland have digitised the household returns and ancillary records for the censuses of Ireland of 1901 and 1911, which are in the custody of the National Archives of Ireland and represent an extremely valuable part of the Irish national heritage.
All thirty-two counties for 1901 and 1911, are now available. Corrections and improvements will be ongoing. A small amount of material is still missing, and will be placed online as soon as possible.

National Archives of Ireland

Researching your Irish Ancestry can be notoriously difficult, but the National Archives of Ireland holds a wealth of information, searchable on-line.
Unfortunately almost all the records acquired by the Public Record Office of Ireland before 1922 were destroyed by fire and explosion at the beginning of the Civil War in June 1922 and as a result, the material now held by the National Archives dates mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries, although there are a few surviving court and exchequer rolls dating to the early 14th century.
However they are still well worth visiting, as they also provide excellent guides to searching the archives and researching Irish family history
Some of the most frequently consulted archives:
Archives acquired from private sources
Census 1901
Census 1911
Chancery pleadings
Chief Secretary's Office Registered Papers
Church of Ireland parish registers
Convict Reference Files
Coroners' inquests
Dáil Éireann records
Departmental records
Famine Relief Commission records relating to the Famine
Ferguson manuscripts
Genealogical abstracts (Betham, Crosslé, Tenison Groves, Grove-White and Thrift)
General Prisons Board
Incumbered and Landed Estates Court rentals
Irish Record Commission calendars
Lodge's manuscripts
National School applications, registers and files (pre-1922)
Office of Public Works
Official Papers
Ordnance Survey
Outrage Reports
Probate records
Quit Rent Office
Rebellion Papers
Society of Friends Famine Papers
State of the Country Papers
Trade Union archives
Valuation Office and Boundary Survey records
Will books and grant books