Getting Started
How to trace your family tree
Understanding ‘Place’
The key to unlocking Irish family history origins is the knowledge of place. In tracing your roots in Ireland the most important piece of information, to be gleaned from either family folklore or record sources, is any information as to a place of origin of your ancestors.
The most effective way to view Ireland is as a country that is subdivided into 32 counties, which in turn are subdivided into parishes (2,428 civil parishes), and which in turn are subdivided into townlands (60,462).
As many records of genealogical value were compiled on a parish basis it means that, in absence of indexes or databases, genealogical research generally requires knowledge of the county and parish in which your ancestor lived. The “Placenames” search facility at www.irishtimes.com/ancestor allows researchers to search more than 65,000 Irish placenames to pinpoint their county and parish locations.
Where to start!
The first step in tracing your roots is to gather as much information about your ancestors as you can from family members:
- Where he/she came from in Ireland; the county of origin, a townland or parish
- What was his/her religion
- What are his/her ‘vital statistics’, such as dates of birth, marriage and death
The major record sources
The major genealogical records in Ireland are:
- Civil Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths
- Church Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials
- 1901 and 1911 Census Returns
- Mid-19th century Griffith’s Valuation
- Early-19th century Tithe Books
- Gravestone Inscriptions
Two steps to success
There are two essential aspects to Irish family history research: the search for birth, marriage and death events; and an examination of census returns and census substitutes for the locality (i.e. townland and parish) in which your ancestor resided.
Step 1 – Search for births, marriages and deaths
Civil registration of births, deaths and Roman Catholic marriages in Ireland began on 1st January 1864 while Protestant marriages were subject to registration from 1st April 1845. The detail included in civil birth, marriage and death registers makes this source an ideal starting point in researching Irish ancestors.
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.
Online sources - Try www.rootsireland.ie to search, for free, the indexes to 18 million birth, marriage and death records. You can either search across all counties or search a particular county.
Step 2 – Search Census returns
Although census enumerations were carried out every decade from 1821, the earliest surviving complete return for all Ireland is that of 1901.
In Ireland the census enumerations of 1901 and 1911 are open to the public. These returns were arranged by townland in rural areas and by street in urban areas.
Online Sources – Try www.census.nationalarchives.ie to search, for free, the 1901 and 1911 census returns, which includes images of original documents, for all counties in Ireland.
Derry Archive and Genealogy Centre
T: 028 7137 7331
E: genealogy@derrycity.gov.uk
W: www.derry.rootsireland.ie
The service is operated by the Heritage and Museum Service of Derry City Council.
The online database contains over one million records, dating from 1642 to 1922, which were extracted from the major civil and church registers of the city and county of Derry including:
- Pre-1922 civil birth and marriage registers
- The baptismal, marriage and burial registers of 85 churches
- Gravestone inscriptions from 117 graveyards
You can now search, for free, the indexes to the database of Derry Genealogy Centre at www.derry.rootsireland.ie and then purchase, on a pay-per-view basis, any selected record.
As the search facility on this website is very flexible it means that you should be able to determine if any entries of interest to your family history are held in the database. For example, if you are searching for the birth/baptism of a child you can narrow the search down by year, range of years, names of parents, and by district of birth/parish of baptism.