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 MoreBetham’s Will Abstracts
A collection of the Genealogical Office volumes of Betham’s Will Abstracts have been published online by the National Library of Ireland. Betham’s Will Abstracts are abstracts of wills proved in the Prerogative Court, records which were largely destroyed in 1922. Prerogative Court Before the establishment of the Probate Court in 1857, the Church
Read MoreIrish Surnames
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 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 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
Read MoreJulie Walters Who Do You Think You Are?
For the latest episode of BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? our research into the family of Julie Walters found a most interesting character in her great grandfather, Anthony Clarke. According to his newspaper obituary, Anthony Clarke was present at the first meeting of the Land League at Irishtown in Co. Mayo. With this clue to follow, we investigated
Read MoreAssisted Emigration from Ireland
Two fascinating accounts of assisted emigration from Ireland have recently been inspected; State Aided Emigration Schemes from the Crown Estates in Ireland and Assistance to Emigrate from the Castlecomer Board of Guardians. The first of these, without provenance, relates to the Castlecomer Poor Law Union (Kilkenny) for the periods 1847-1853. This
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