During a recent search for a Maher family I once again stumbled into the mire of difficulty created by the spelling of Irish surnames in 19th century records. This is an obstacle that many Irish family history researchers will encounter during the course of their research. Mass digitization of Irish records has made the issue of the spelling of
Read MoreBryan Cranston – Who Do You Think You Are?
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 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indexes, which were released with great fanfare on the government website www.irishgenealogy.ie last year and quickly withdrawn for security reasons, have been released again.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 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
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 MoreBetham’s Genealogical Abstracts
Sir William Betham (1779-1853) was appointed deputy Ulster King of Arms in 1807 and Ulster King of Arms in 1820. Betham spent a lifetime collating indexes and abstracts of the manuscripts held in the Record Tower of Dublin Castle. Although Betham was a polymath, it is his work in the Records Tower for which Irish genealogists and family historians
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