New To Irish Family Records - Help!
Hello! My name is Madison Johnson. I got married in 2019 and my husbands family comes from Northern Ireland. His grandma has done as much family history as she possibly can, but many of our ancestors from this area are not catholic and so I have been told many of their records have been lost in a fire? I would love to do more of the work for this portion of our family line. I have been told that records are not available online. I am willing to make a trip to Ireland if needs be to get names, but I am wondering if this is necessary? And if it is necessary what type of things I will need to do to prepare! Any tips or information you have would be so appreciated!
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@madisonmariethompson1 what County is your ancestors from? We have some excellent County pages at the top of the Ireland group that you might take a look at. Also, did you look at the PRONI? You should be able to find everything you need here on the Community without going to Ireland; although, an Ireland adventure might be fun.😊 We have two group leaders in this group from Ireland that might be able to point you in the direction you need to go to find your research. They are @Hayter David @anthonyphilipclarke1
With a bit of information about who and where you are researching, it will be helpful in sending you in the direction you need to search.
Kind Regards,
Shannon
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In Ireland, civil registration of non-Catholic marriages began in 1845. Births and deaths began in 1864. All these records are online at irishgenealogy.ie Some of these records are indexed at FamilySearch.
Pre-1845/1864 you need to look at Church Records. For Anglicans, unfortunately 2/3 of those records burned when the National Archives was bombarded during the 1922 Irish civil war, those that survived are often not online. Catholic records are online. Records of other denominations (e.g. Presbyterians) are usually not and have to viewed at PRONI or a local archive. There is a page on the FamilySearch Wiki with a lot more information about accessing church records.
In 1901 and 1911 censuses were taken that survive. Only a few fragments of the 1821-1851 censuses survive. All the other census records have been lost.
If you ancestors were well-off, you may find them in newspapers and the Registry of Deeds.
Please don't hesitate to ask if you would like to know more. You can also read the pages on the FamilySearch Wiki about each of these five resources.
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@madisonmariethompson1 as @A van Helsdingen has described, there is a wealth of Irish family records available online at no cost. You can view and download the images of the original record documents as you please.
Irish genealogy is very interesting. One of the most positive aspects is that the Irish Government have taken the attitude that making records freely available online is a positive driver to building Irish tourism. Thus we can all benefit from these wonderful digitized original documents.
Have you started building your family relationships in the FamilySearch tree? I was born in Northern Ireland and lived there for a proportion of my adult life. If you have questions, there are many here who would be delighted to help.
John.
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Here is a couple of links that might help you in you research
https://www.ireland.anglican.org/about/rcb-library/online-parish-records
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/public-record-office-northern-ireland-proni
This article will help you know what records are available and where to find them.
The 1922 Fire and the Irish Genealogy records lost
During the Irish Civil War, on 28th June 1922, there was an explosion in the Public Records Office followed by a fire. Many priceless Irish genealogy records were lost including Wills and Title Deeds, Church of Ireland parish registers, census returns and other records going back seven centuries.
Apart from some fragments, the census returns of 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851, were lost. The 1861 and 1871 returns had already been destroyed not long after they were taken. And to make matters worse, during World War One, the 1881 and 1891 returns were pulped for some reason. This means that almost no 19th century Irish census returns exist now.
Over 1000 Church of Ireland parish registers, containing birth, marriage and death records were also lost in the fire.
Records that survive
Many people are under the impression that hardly any records in Ireland survive. This is a misconception as many very useful record sets do survive. Here is an overview of some of the key ones:
Some fragments of the 1821-1851 censuses did survive as follows:
- 1821 – Cavan, Fermanagh, Galway, King’s County (Offaly) and Meath.
- 1831 – Londonderry
- 1841 – Cavan, Cork, Fermanagh and Waterford.
- 1851 – Antrim, Belfast City (one ward only), Dublin City (index to heads of household only) and Fermanagh.
These surviving records are available online and are searchable. They can be found at the National Archives of Ireland website here.
Nothing remains of the 1861-1891 censuses.
The really good news is that the 1901 and 1911 census returns remain virtually intact as they were held in a part of the Records Office that didn’t burn down. These are also available to access free online at the National Archive site here.
For more on this, see How to find Irish Censuses
All civil birth, marriage and death records survive. Civil registration began in Ireland in 1845 with non-Catholic marriages and for all births, marriages and deaths from 1864. Note that before 1922 Ireland meant the whole of the island. After partition in 1922, the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermamagh, Londonderry and Tyrone became Northern Ireland and remained part of the United Kingdom, while the rest of Ireland became the Republic.
The Irishgenealogy.ie website is owned by the Irish Ministry of Culture and is where you can access the historic records of births, marriages and deaths of the General Register Office for free. Records available online cover the following years:
- Births: 1864 – 1918
- Marriages: 1864 – 1943
- Deaths: 1878 – 1968
Note: The online records will eventually go back to 1845 for non-Catholic marriages and back to 1864 for deaths. Also, as Northern Ireland remained in the UK after partition, marriages and deaths from 1922 for these counties have to be purchased from GRONI (Government Record Office Northern Ireland).
For more on civil registration in Ireland, see: How to Find Free Irish Vital Records.
Although the majority of (the established) Church of Ireland parish registers were lost in the fire, most of the population of Ireland was, and is, Roman Catholic. Luckily, these records, along with other denominations were not held at the Records Office.
Until recently it was difficult to access Catholic records online, but now, the National Library of Ireland have put their collection of microfilmed registers online with free access. For more on these valuable records see Using Free Irish Catholic Parish Records.
Many other records survive that can be used as substitutes for missing records, especially the censuses. Findmypast probably has the largest and most diverse collection of online Irish records and I would recommend having a good look at their sets.
These include:
- Trade Directories
- Electoral Rolls
- Griffith’s Valuation
- Prison Records
- Dog Licence Records (most families had dogs in 19thcentury Ireland)
- Military Records
- Poor Law Relief Records
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That's a pretty comprehensive answer
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@Hayter David I don't like long answers, but I thought it might help her to understand a bit of the history about why there was a fire and what records were available since she was trying to know where and what to do. Yay, for online information to send to her as I don't take credit for that. I wish she would have given more information so we would know where to send her to get the help she needs. Perhaps, she will come back 🤞🏻
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