Irish Research on the Internet

History Information

A good place to begin your Irish search is to acquaint yourself with Irish History.

http://www.ireland.org/irl_hist/default.htm

Old Ireland-A History of the Irish Race and links to the many groups that have made Ireland what it is today

Methodology

Sources & Strategies for Determining an Irish Place of Origin

 

http://globalgazette.net/gazkb/gazkb41.htm

Excellent tutorial on researching your Irish ancestor

http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson21.htm

Rootsweb Guide to tracing Irish family trees. Highlights what areas of research to focus on in Irish family research, and why.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson21.htm#SCOT-IRISH

Rootsweb Guide to tracing Scots-Irish family trees. Same thing with a Scots-Irish flavor

Names

http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/surname/nam02.html

Links to Irish Surnames pages. This site takes you to an Irish surname study page

http://www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/SurnamesLists.html

This page gives links to the sites where people are putting together surnames being researched by county, with email addresses of the researchers

Mailing List Services

These services are free. By subscribing to a list you receive emails from people who share a common interest in Irish family research. Lists give you a chance to get answers to your many research questions without leaving home. Good learning tool.

http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/IRL/
Rootsweb’s Page of Irish Lists

American based genealogical societies that

Focus on Irish family research

http://www.rootsweb.com/~irish/
Irish Genealogical Society International. Organized to assist members with their Irish and Scots-Irish genealogical research. Publishes the Septs periodical. Links to surnames, townlands, counties, resources includes links.

British Isles Family History Society, USA. Good site for methodology and Irish sources research page. Publishes a newsletter, lends instructional audiotapes.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~sisusa/
Scotch Irish Historical Society of the United States of America. Dedicated to collecting and preserving historical material relating to the Scotch-Irish in general. They have a published newsletter.

Irish Repositories on Line

http://www.nli.ie/
National Library of Ireland. You can search their catalogs to see what their holdings are. They will not do research for you. You can get a list of researchers from the site under frequently asked questions.

http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy.html
National Archives of Ireland. Some of the major collections held by the Archives are the 1901 and 1911 Census, and both the Tithe Applotment and Griffith’s Primary Valuation, and wills. These are considered census substitutes due to the destruction, for the most part, of Irelands census records from 1821 until 1901. A list of researchers is available.

http://www.groireland.ie/apply_for_a_cert.htm
General Registry Office of the Republic of Ireland. Office to write to in the Republic for copies from 1864 of births, all marriages, and deaths; and of non-Catholic marriages from 1845 to 1864.

http://proni.nics.gov.uk/records/records.htm

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Major record sources include estate records and church records. There is an alphabetical list of the collections described on the web site. A must site for research in Northern Ireland counties

http://www.groni.gov.uk/index.htm
General Registry Office of Northern Ireland. Office to write to in Northern Ireland for copies from 1864 of births, all marriages, and deaths; and of non-Catholic marriages from 1845 to 1864

http://www.valoff.ie/
Valuation Office (Dublin). Maps of particular ancestral holdings may be obtained here.

Some American Repositories with Irish Holdings

http://www.familysearch.org

Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon/LDS). This is the major library for Irish resources in the U.S. The catalog can be searched on line. Some examples of their resources include the International Genealogical Index, Family History Library Catalog, and Ancestral File.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/bib_guid/ireland.html
Library of Congress. Irish holdings are detailed on this page

Web sites that contain resources/databases to be used in Irish Research

Some on-line databases. You may search these sites for your family names.

http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/2067.htm
Scotch-Irish. History of the Irish and the Scotch-Irish

http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/3856.htm
Irish Gazetteer and Surname Guide

http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/3732.htm
Irish Flax Growers List

http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/4077.htm
Irish Records Index, 1500-1920

http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/3876.htm
Irish Records Extraction Database

http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/1008.htm
New England Irish Pioneers

http://www.leitrim-roscommon.com/
Assorted databases if you have Leitrim/Roscommon folks

http://seanruad.com/
IreAtlas-1851 Townland Search. You can search for townlands/towns and counties here, not totally complete, in process

http://proni.nics.gov.uk/geogindx/geoghelp.htm

Explanation of Civil Divisions of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Important in research because the terms appear in all kinds of Irish records. Birth, marriage, and death records fall under the general registration districts. The LDS organizes their church records in many cases by the Civil Parish.

Maps of Ireland

http://history.wisc.edu/archdeacon/famine/map.html

Different maps for different applications. I particularly like Christine Kinealy’s Great Calamity Map.

Irish Newspapers on the Internet

http://www.cyndislist.com/ireland.htm#Newspapers

From Cyndi’s List with some searchable sites. Handy also if you want to contact a local Irish newspaper as part of your research.

Ireland World Gen Web Project

http://www.irelandgenweb.com/#index

You can query here by county.

Irish Family History Foundation

http://www.mayo-ireland.ie/roots.html

Government sponsored “pay for research centers” are in each of the counties. This page will link you to each of them

Irish Tourist Board

http://www.ireland.travel.ie/home/
When you are ready to visit here is a good place to start.