Finding contemporary records and accounts of the 1916 Rising can be challenging. Many of the sources used to reconstruct the 1916 Rising and identify the participants and victims were compiled in the aftermath or the years and decades that followed. However, the Dublin Fire Brigade Ambulance Log is a contemporary record of the calls that came into the
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 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indexes, which were released with great fanfare on the government website www.irishgenealogy.ie last year and quickly withdrawn for security reasons, have been released again.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 MoreTwo Unusual Irish Emigration Records
Irish Emigration Records represent a real challenge for those searching for evidence of the departure of their family from Ireland. Passenger lists were usually deposted a the port of arrival and many of the surviving records can now be found online at Ancestry. Arrivals in America can also be found at Ellis Island and Castlegarden. There are,
Read MoreDeceased Irish Seamen
Following on from our previous post on Deceased Irish Seamen, some interesting information has come to light regarding the monthly returns made during the war periods of 1914-18 and 1939-45, which include deceased Irish seamen. The Returns of Deaths of Seamen Reported to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen under the Provisions of the Merchant
Read MoreGeneral Register Office Ireland – GRO
The GRO or the General Register Office hold records of all births, deaths and marriages registered in Ireland. Civil registration in Ireland commenced in 1864, when it became compulsory to register these events. It should be noted that non-Catholic marriages were being registered from 1845. Civil registration in Ireland commenced quite late, when
Read MoreQuaker Records
Birth, marriage and death records for the Society of Friends or Quakers are amongst the most accessible and systematic for any religious denomination in Ireland. The Quakers arrived in Ireland in the seventeenth century and from their date of arrival clear and concise records were kept for the life events of members of the Society. Although the Quakers
Read MoreDeceased Seamen
Civil Registration of deaths began in Ireland in 1864. Unlike marriages, which were registered by the officiating priest or parish clerk, and births which could and were registered by anyone present at the event, deaths were often not registered. It has been estimated that between 1864 and 1900 some 15% of births went unregistered. The figure
Read MoreA Note on Burial Registers
Roman Catholic Burial Registers are relatively uncommon in Ireland prior to the 1830s and those that do exist seldom offer more detail than the name of the deceased. However, Burial Registers for Church of Ireland Parishes, where those records survived the fire at the Public Records in 1922, can be quite informative. Standardised forms were introduced
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