Church Registers

Church Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials

Prior to the commencement of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in Ireland family history researchers usually rely on baptismal, marriage and burial registers kept by churches to confirm birth, marriage and death details of ancestors.

A baptism entry can provide the name of the child; date of baptism; date of birth; parents’ names including maiden name of mother; parents’ address (by townland); occupation; and names of sponsors (particularly in Roman Catholic registers).

A marriage entry can provide the names of the bride and groom; their places of residence; date of marriage; parents’ names; and names of witnesses.

A burial entry can provide the name and residence of the deceased; burial date and place; age of the deceased. In the case of children, the names of parents may be included.

Church registers, like civil registers, can, in many instances, supply enough information to build and confirm family linkages. It must be emphasised that dates of commencement and quality of information in church registers vary from parish to parish and from denomination to denomination. This source, however, should always be checked if you know the parish location and religious denomination of your ancestor. A Guide to Irish Parish Registers (Brian Mitchell, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988) attempts, on a county basis, to locate churches of all denominations within their civil parish and provide the earliest commencement date of their registers.

The National Library of Ireland (www.nli.ie) holds microfilm copy of the registers of most Roman Catholic parishes in Ireland for years up to 1880. The National Archives of Ireland (www.nationalarchives.ie) holds originals, microfilm copy, transcripts and abstracts of many Church of Ireland registers. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (www.proni.gov.uk) holds microfilm copies of the majority of church registers of all denominations for the nine northern counties of Ulster.

There is no national index to church registers. To date, only the county-based genealogy centres have attempted any large scale, systematic indexing of church registers in their localities, and these can be examined online at www.rootsireland.ie for 27 of Ireland’s 32 counties. Church registers for Dublin city, south and west Cork and Counties Carlow and Kerry can be searched, for free, at www.irishgenealogy.ie.