Irish Family History

Find your Irish ancestors, local history and details of their lives with these links to online family history and genealogy resources.

General Genealogy Websites

  • Find My Past Ireland
    Find My Past Ireland has many records for Irish family history research. Search Irish births, marriages, deaths, census, prison records, military records, migration and much more.
  • Celtic Cousins
    Celtic Cousins has lots of information for researching your Irish Family History, including parish records, probate records, emigration, directories and so much more.
  • Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
    Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives has Cemetery Records, Church Records, Census, Census Substitutes, Emigration Records, Headstones, Land Records, Local History, Military & Constabulary, Newspaper archives, Obituaries, Photos, Vital Records, Wills and much more relating to all Irish counties.
  • Ulster Historical Foundation
    Telling the story of the people of Ulster. Over 2 million records to help you trace your Irish ancestors including birth, marriage, death, census and street directories.
  • Roots Ireland
    Over 19 million Irish family history records online including births, marriages, deaths, census and migration. A great site for finding your Irish ancestors.
  • GENUKI Ireland
    GENUKI Ireland is an online directory and library of genealogy and family history resources and information for Ireland.

Archives

  • National Archives of Ireland
    The National Archives holds many of the records which are relevant to Irish genealogy and local history. Although it cannot undertake research on behalf of members of the public, everyone is welcome to visit and explore the sources we hold on family and local history. Members of the public can also avail of our in-house Genealogy Service which offers a free, short personal consultation service by professional genealogists to visitors to the National Archives who are researching their family tree.
  • PRONI
    Proni is the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland which has many records and archives of interest to family historians, genealogists and local historians.

Births, Marriages, Deaths and Parish Records

  • Catholic Parish Registers NLI
    The National Library of Ireland (NLI) in Dublin has uploaded 373,000 digital images of Catholic parish registers to registers.nli.ie, where they can be accessed completely free of charge. Mainly covering baptisms and marriages, the records – scanned from the NLI’s microfilm copies – reveal details of people across 1,086 parishes between the 1740s and 1880s.
  • Roman Catholic Baptisms
    More than 7 million records from 1000 parishes across Ireland.
  • Roman Catholic Marriages
  • Roman Catholic Burials
  • Early Irish Marriage Database
    The Early Irish Marriage Database seeks to provide pointers to the many alternative sources beyond parish registers and civil registration records. There are currently 56,330 marriages available to search and view online.
  • Irish Marriages 1771-1812
    An index to the marriages in Walker’s Hibernian magazine, 1771 to 1812.
  • Irish Death Notice Index
    Over 54,000 obituaries of those who died in Ireland, or deaths mentioned in Irish newspapers.
  • Dublin Marriage Licenses 1638-1858
    These records cover Dublin, but also a much wider area including Wicklow, Kildare and Carlow.

Blogs

  • Irish Genealogy News
    Get all the latest genealogy news from Ireland with the Irish Genealogy News blog.
  • Kevin’s Irish Research
    An Irish genealogy blog with many examples here of Irish records. A lot of Irish parish registers date back to the 1700’s.

Burials & Cemeteries

Census Records

  • Census of Ireland 1901 & 1911
    Search and view the census of Ireland for 1901 and 1911 completely free. All 32 counties for 1901 and 1911, searchable by all information categories, are now available on the site.

Criminals and Court Records

Electoral Registers

Forums

Irish Family history and genealogy forums are a great way to connect with others who are researching the same names as you, and you can get some help breaking down some brick walls.

History

  • Irish Place Names Database
    The Irish Place Names database is based on the Index to the Townlands, and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland published in 1861 after the Census of Ireland carried out in 1851. This database lists all of the villages, towns and townlands that were enumerated, as well as the Barony, Civil Parish and Poor Law Union that each was located in.

Maps

  • Irish Townlands
    Based on data in OpenStreetMap, it has a list of counties in Ireland.
  • Old Maps Online
    The broadest single collection of historical maps from around the world. It’s free to use and view the maps and the creators describe the project ‘like Google for old maps’.

Military Records

  • Military Archives Ireland
    Military Archives Ireland has lots of useful information for family historians & genealogists. There is the Irish army census collection 1922, maps, plans and drawings collection and guides to offline collections.
  • Great War Forum
    The Great War Forum is a very active place to discuss and find help about your military ancestors and their war experiences.

Newspaper Archives

  • Irish Newspaper Archive
    The Irish Newspaper Archive is the world’s biggest online datebase of Irish newspapers. The archive spans the 1700s to the present.
  • Irish Times Digital Archive
    The Irish Times Digital Archive is a searchable database of all the articles from 1859 onwards. It’s free to search but a subscription is needed to view the articles.

Occupations

  • Irish Mariners
    Irish Mariners contains an index of nearly 25,000 Irish born merchant seamen contained in the CR10 series of index cards in the Southampton Civic Archives. The CR10 Archive holds 300,000 cards covering the multinational workforce of the British Merchant Marine during the period from early September 1918 and the end of World War 1 to December 1921. All ranks and jobs at sea are covered from master to scullion. A unique feature of the CR 10 cards is that they usually contain a good photograph of the seaman. At this time RS2 Identity books, with matching photographs were issued to the seamen.

Surname Research

  • Guild of One-Name Studies
    The biggest organisation for surname research. There are thousands of surname studies available and the guild aims to bring together researchers who are interested in researching the same names.

War Memorials

  • Irish War Memorials
    The Irish War Memorials website has transcriptions, surnames and memorials from all over Ireland. The databases are searchable by name, regiment, place and war. As of now the inventory includes 380 places, 798 memorials and 23,043 names.

Presbyterian Church in Ireland Roll of Honour
Browse the rolls of honour from all over Ireland from both World Wars.

Wills and Probate

  • Irish Wills 1858-1922
    Search and view Irish wills and administrations for the years 1858 – 1922. Search options include name of deceased, name of beneficiary, county of death, date of death and document type. Access to the documents is free.
  • PRONI Will Calendars
    The Will Calendars is a fully searchable index to the will calendar entries for the three District Probate Registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry, with the facility to view the entire will calendar entry for each successful search. The database covers the period 1858-1919 and 1922-1943. Part of 1921 has been added, with remaining entries for 1920-1921 to follow in the near future.

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