Irish Family History Online

Over the past decade the Irish authorities have made many Irish family history resources freely available online. Ireland is now a world leader in the field. Most of the records are in English so lack of knowledge of the Irish language should not be a problem for the most part.

Getting started

1. How to trace your Irish family history: a step-by-stepguide

Excellent starter online article from the Irish Timeswith links to lots of useful resources.

2. Family History Research

A good, free pdf booklet is available from the National Library of Ireland (NLI).

3. Starting your family history

Useful quick tips but get the NLI guide download as well.

4. Getting started

Good questions for you to ask.

Useful FREE publicly funded websites:

Irish Genealogy

Home to the historic records of Births, Marriages and Deaths of the General Register Office since 1864. State registration of all non-Catholic marriages began in 1845. In 1864, civil registration of all births, marriages and deaths began.

The National Archives of Ireland–Genealogy page

• 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.

• Soldiers’ Wills from 1914 to 1917

• Calendars of Wills and Administrations from 1858 to 1922.

More is being added on an ongoing basis.

Ask about Ireland

AskAboutIreland.ie and the Cultural Heritage Project is an initiative of public libraries together with local museums and archives in the digitisation and online publication of the original, the unusual and the unique material from their local studies' collections to create a national Internet resource for culture.

Links to Griffiths Valuation. The Primary Valuation was the first full-scale valuation of property in Ireland. Overseen by Richard Griffith, it was published between 1847-1964. It is one of the most important surviving 19th century sources.

Try doing a keyword search in the Libraries search box to find a range of information on many topics.

Dublin City Council databases

The website brings together a number of databases produced by the Libraries and Archive Service. Most of the original records from which the databases are created are held by Dublin City Library & Archive. Includes Dublin Directories 1647-19708 , Dublin Electoral Registers (1908-1915) and more.

PRONI

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is the official archive for Northern Ireland. PRONI is the main archive for Northern Ireland and holds millions of documents, covering a period from 1600 to the present day. These include valuable genealogical sources such as church registers, landed estates records, court records and wills.

National Library of Ireland (NLI)

The National Library Ireland site contains Catholic Church Parish registers for the whole of Ireland. Religious denomination is important in determining which records are relevant to your research.

Catholic Parish Registers

Catholic Parish Registers are also available on Ancestry and Find My Past

Julie Robinson, Local Studies Librarian, February 2019

Local.studies@lewisham.gov.uk