Irish Genealogy

Many Irish records were lost in a fire at the Irish Public Record Office in 1922 and, sooner or later, this will affect most researchers into Irish genealogy. Of population censuses taken every ten years between 1821 and 1911, those from 1861 to 1891 were destroyed by the government and most of the others were lost in the fire. The general rule is to make a preliminary approach to the Irish Genealogical Research Society for help, and perhaps to consult some of the bibliography on the subject (amazon.co.uk) before you start. Unlike English censuses, the early Irish ones included names, so it's swings and roundabouts. A census for the Republic was taken in 1926 and this is open to public inspection. Returns for 1901 and 1911 are also complete and open for inspection.

Civil registration of marriages other than Roman Catholic started in 1845 and the civil registration of births, deaths and all marriages started in 1864. Records for the whole of Ireland up to 1921, and the Republic since that date, are held in the General Register Office of Ireland in Dublin. The records for Northern Ireland are held in the General Register Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast. There are separate register offices for births, deaths and marriages occurring outside Ireland, the equivalent of the 'English and Welsh abroad' PRO records.

Irish parish registers are also very incomplete, and the IGI includes about 2 million names. Many of the Anglican Church of Ireland parish registers were lost in the 1922 fire, and were in any case used only by a minority of the population. Roman Catholic parish registers mostly date back no further than 1830. You can check with the Society of Genealogists for the registers they have and GENUKI for locating Irish records generally. Nearly all probate records before 1904 were destroyed in 1922, although surviving 'vicar's indices' give a clue as to what they contained. Calendars of wills proved and administrations granted since 1858 can be seen at the National Archives and PRONI, which has extracts of many Ulster wills. The Ulster Historical Foundation will conduct searches.

Some archive 'calendars' had been published before the fire of 1922 and these can be seen in the PRO library at Kew. Also, a wealth of historical data is covered in the State Papers, Ireland, and at the General Register Office in Belfast. This data is well indexed and in précis form - you can check out their catalogue for details. Fortunately a lot of Irish genealogy can be done from the PRO and other records outside Ireland. As well as the PRO, GENUKI and Cindi's List websites have prolific Irish genealogy links.