Irish Family Tree Resources

When you start an Irish family tree, tracing your ancestors can be a little difficult.

Especially if you have no idea about the exact place of origin in Ireland.

So to start your search is recommended to begin in the country where you know your family settled.

You might think just knowing you are of Irish heritage would be enough for a start.

Ireland is full of small towns and parishes. What is the best source of information?

There was a fire in Dublin that destroyed many records in the 18 century. There was another fire in 1920 destroyed the many public records.

If you had Irish relatives who lived in a country with large Irish communities, such as USA, Canada, Britain and Australia, you can find a list of sources below to help to trace your family tree.

naturalization records

gravestone inscriptions

military records

insurance and banking records

passenger arrival lists

deeds

Newspaper obituaries

Bible records

Wills and probate records

These records will all vary and some can be helpful. It is usually dependent on the place and time that you seek.

When searching for these records and you still have no luck finding a hometown, I suggest you to expand your search.

By that, I do tests to look for siblings, nephews, friends or others you know who may be in the area at same time as your immediate family member.

If you have hit a roadblock and can only narrow your family tree search to a county so you can try searching these sources.

Naturally, now you know the parishes hold many records, but also try baronies, poor law unions, dioceses, probate districts in different counties of interest.

These sources are very popular in Ireland once, and they are usually kept very good performance of the residents in the district.

There is a myth that many of the Irish records have been lost or destroyed. But it's really just a myth.

There are many items that are intact and very useful for genealogy research. There was a large loss of items when the fire in 1922 destroyed the National Archives. Most of the items that were lost were from the 19th century census and Church of Ireland church records.

While it was a great loss of information, there are still many items that were not housed in public records office, which is still available today. Among the items that you can search the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths. Also all the non church of Ireland church records, property records and later censuses.

I hope these tips can help you narrow your search for your Irish ancestors and help you with your family tree.