Irish Church and Civil Registration

There are several ways of getting hold of Irish BMD records and many of them are completely free of charge. Civil Registration started for Non-Catholics in 1845 (8 years after England) and for Catholics in 1864. The index to these Civil Records is available for free via both FamilySearch.org and IrishGenealogy.ie. The actual certificates (for certain years only) can be obtained for free from your local LDS Centre. Others can be ordered from the GRO for a small fee. Church Records have much less coverage and only some parishes have records that go back into the 1700s. Rootsireland.ie has the largest database of family records in Ireland and a monthly subscription rate. IrishGenealogy.ie is completely free of charge and has church records for select locations only – Dublin, Carlow, Cork & Kerry only. The IGI (International Genealogical Index) also has some records that have been contributed by LDS members. Also, the recent digitisation of the Catholic Church Register Books by the NLI (National Library of Ireland) and their indexing by FindMyPast is another welcome addition to our genealogical toolkit. These and and other sources will be explored and there will be plenty of hints and tips for navigating the various websites.

This was presented as part of The Surname Society's inaugural virtual conference.