Author Archives: Nicola Morris

New Civil Records available at Irishgenealogy.ie

The annual update to the available Irish births, marriages and deaths at www.irishgenealogy.ie occurred on Tuesday 13th February 2024.Images and indexed entries for Irish births for 1923, marriages for 1948 and deaths for 1973 have now been added to the online collection. Images of the registrations are currently available for the following periods:Births:

Read More

Transportation Records for Convicts sent to Australia

Transportation Records: The Ireland Australia Transportation Database In a joint project between the Irish and Australian governments, the Ireland Australia Transportation Database was compiled of surviving transportation records for individuals sent to Australia in the late 18th and early 19th century. Drawn from various sources, the database is the

Read More

Current Access to Irish Libraries and Archives

Between June and September 2020 a number of Irish archives, libraries and repositories were reopened to the public, but with limited access.  ** However, since the middle of September, these repositories have been closed again and no date has been set for them to reopen. The following is a list of the major repositories for Irish genealogical research

Read More

www.irishgenealogy.ie extend available records

The Irish website, www.irishgenealogy.ie has extended the civil registration records available on their free website.Non-Catholic marriages in Ireland were registered from April 1845, while these are largely Church of Ireland and Presbyterian marriages, marriages in registry offices and mixed marriages that took place outside of the Roman Catholic church

Read More

The Surname Christmas in Ireland

I was surprised to discover a reference to the surname Christmas in Ireland while searching the early Grantor Indexes in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin, and decided to do a little digging.Origins of the Surname ChristmasThe general consensus from various surname dictionaries is that the name originated as a birth forename for someone born at Christmas,

Read More

Who Do You Think You Are? Paul Merton

Tracing the Power family for the Paul Merton episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was quite a challenge, not least because Power is one of the most common surnames in Co. Waterford. Paul’s mother’s maiden name was Power.  At the time of Griffith’s Valuation), a land survey taken in the 1850s there were over 3000 Power households found in Ireland,

Read More

New Birth Death and Marriage records at www.irishgenealogy.ie

The birth, death and marriage registers and indexes available at www.irishgenealogy.ie have been extended to include the following date ranges:Births 1864-1918Marriages 1864-1843Deaths 1878-1968   Previously, it was only possible to search the birth index up to 1916, the marriage index up to 1941 and the death index up to 1966, two additional years

Read More

Tithe Applotment Books Online

The National Archives of Ireland, in partnership with the Genealogical Society of Utah, published a database of the Tithe Applotment Books online on their Genealogy Website.  The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) have also released images of the Tithe Applotment Books for Northern Ireland on their website.  Find out more about access

Read More

Who Was Christmas Weeks

Just before the Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 was published I was working with the editorial team. One of my tasks was to search through the original database for possible errors in the transcription of names. If you order all of the entries alphabetically it is easy to see where anomalous names turn up. In this instance, it was not anomalous, but

Read More

Bradshaw Murder at Philipstown

In the recent episode of Who Do You Think You Are? for Irish television, Pat Shortt discovered an ancestor accused of the murder of his landlord, Mr. Bradshaw of Philipstown House.  While some details of the murder were found in the local press, it was the police file of the investigation into the murder that revealed the complex story of the Bradshaws,

Read More