In the most recent episode of Who Do You Think You Are? US Bryan Cranston, star of the TV shows Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the Middle, traced his Cranston ancestry back through American and Canadian records to his great great grandparents, Joseph Cranston and Sarah McLeod. Bryan Cranston’s Irish OriginsDuring the course of his search, Bryan discovered
Read MoreCatholic Parish Registers Online
An historic resource has been made available to the genealogical community in Ireland and around the world with the publication of Ireland’s historic Roman Catholic parish registers, online. The collection covers all counties on the island of Ireland and can be found on National Library of Ireland Website.Origins of the CollectionThe collection
Read MoreBoard of Guardians Minute Books
Children who were orphaned or abandoned and found themselves in the Workhouse were often ‘boarded out’ by the Board of Guardians, and details of what happened to them were recorded in the Board of Guardians Minute Books. Many of those who were boarded out were infants, sent to women who could nurse them. The Board paid a fee to the nurse for their
Read MoreIrish Wills
I recently found a transcript of an Irish will in the District Registry Wills Books in the National Archives of Ireland. These are an often forgotten source for testamentary records because the assumption is that all Irish wills and letters of administration were destroyed in 1922, but this is not the case. District Registry Will Books Will books survive
Read MoreDublin Workhouse Records
The Admission and Discharge Registers for three of the four Dublin Workhouses have just appeared on www.findmypast.ie. The registers are for the North and South Dublin Union and Rathdown Union Workhouse, and date from 1840 to 1919. As many Dublin families are likely to have encountered the Workhouse during their lifetimes these registers are a huge
Read MoreIrish Birth Marriage and Death Indexes
The Irish birth marriage and death indexes, which were released with great fanfare on the government website www.irishgenealogy.ie last year and quickly withdrawn for security reasons, have been released again. However, this time the public can only view the index entries for births over 100 years, marriages over 75 years and deaths over 50 years.
Read MoreEndowed Schools and Estate Papers
While searching for records for Midleton School, an Endowed School in Cork in the National Library of Ireland, I stumbled across the papers of Dr. Michael Quane, which included potentially useful 19th century estate rentals, valuations and a mini census of the protestant families of Maryborough from 1891. Michael Quane was born on 7th April 1889 in
Read MoreIrish Newspapers Online
Before the arrival of Irish newspapers online, searching for evidence of ancestors in the press was often a tedious task. Unless the approximate date of an event was known, it could take hours or even days of trawling through every page of a newspaper to locate a report or announcement of the event you are searching for. Not that this type of research
Read MoreIrish Newspapers
Irish Newspapers began to be published from the late 17th century, however, for the purposes of using them as a genealogical research tool, it is not until the mid 18th century that Irish newspapers start to become useful. By the 1750s Irish newspapers were published more widely around the country and began to carry information of genealogical value.
Read MoreIrish Marriage Customs
While searching the Roman Catholic parish register for Kilmormoy in counties Sligo and Mayo (NLI Pos. 4231), I came across the following regulation, copied into the first page of the marraige register. This regulation, decided by the bishops of Killala and Achonry gives us some insight into Irish marriage customs from the early 19th century. Registry
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