Irish Genealogy is notoriously difficult.  Or is it?

I have faced my fair share of brickwalls when it comes to tracing my ancestors from Ireland but, if you’re in the same position, this episode may help you to chip away at those barriers – if not smash them down completely!

I’m joined by the marvellous Valerie Prince, a highly experienced family historian who works at Ancestry ProGenealogists in Dublin – and, in this first episode, she talks me through some of the vital record sets that can help add detail and colour to the Irish branches of your tree.

It’s the first of three episodes on the subject – the first published on St. Patrick’s Day 2020, we talk about the following subjects:

• what’s available and for what dates


• BMDs -equivalent of GRO


• Non catholic records


• Church records -dependent on religious denomination


• What to do when you have common names


• What websites to use


• Census coverage


• Property valuation records


• Tracing cemeteries


• Maps of surname distribution


• Religion: Catholic, Church of Ireland and Presbyterian

Subjects covered in the next two episodes can be found here.

Links and notes for this episode

We cover many sources and resources in this episode, and – for convenience – they are listed below

www.irishgenealogy.ie is similar to the GRO, free and you can see images (search by Superintendent Registrars District

www.census.nationalarchives.ie for censuses

www.johngrenham.com for Griffiths Primary Valuation (1845 and 1864) covering all Ireland

This page at the National Archives for Tithe Applotment books 1820s-1840s

This page (subscriptions apply) at Ancestry (indexed and searchable) and this page (non indexed) at the NLI for Roman Catholic Sacramental registers

Church of Ireland website for church of Ireland registers

http://www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com for Presbyterian congregation records

Recommended drinks to accompany this episode: Without wishing to stereotype, there’s an obvious choice.

Recommended biscuits to accompany this episode: According to a recent-ish ‘survey’, Ireland’s favourite biscuit is the chocolate hob-nob.  Let’s face it, they go with anything.

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