Irish Record Sets – What’s Available and Where to find them

Introduction to Researching Your Irish Ancestors. Irish Record Sets – What’s Available and Where to find them

Table of Contents for this module:

Introduction.

Irish Church Records: An Overview of the Religions in Ireland.

A useful tool to discover which Irish Church Records are available and where to find them.

Irish Civil Records: What’s available and where to find them.

Irish Land Records: What’s available and where to find them.

Irish Census Records: What’s available and where to find them.

Let’s pull the Record information together in an “Irish Records Research Worksheet”.

Case-Study: Our Irish record search strategy based on our discovery questions.

Conclusion.

Try for Yourself.

What’s Next.

Introduction.

In the last module we looked at different types of Land Divisions in Ireland – and highlighted the types you will come across frequently in the Irish record sets.

In this module:

We look at the Irish record sets available and where to find them. We will pay special attention to the record sets that are easily available online.
We spend extra time on Irish church record availability and location. These records are the most distributed and fragmented so we will introduce a tool to make it easier for you to figure out which Irish church records are available and where you can search them.
We summarise the Irish Record information in an “Irish Records Research Worksheet” – a worksheet used for note-taking and analysis as we progress our research.

We share a strategy for searching the Irish record sets for our case-study individual – Patrick Dolphin. This will prime us for later course modules when we start to search each Irish record set in turn and record our findings.

As I mentioned in the Introduction module, we will stay away from the major ancestry sites (Myheritage, FamilySearch, Ancestry etc) to access and search the Irish record sets directly.

Irish Church Records: An Overview of the Religions in Ireland.

In the absence of substantial vital Irish civil records from before 1864, you will find that church records are an essential substitute to fill in details about your Irish ancestors from before that time. However, church records are not as easily accessible as the civil records. For a start, there were many different religions – often with different means of recording personal details from parish to parish. In addition, not all church records survived and some church records are only available off-line in the parish office.

In summary, there is a lot of fragmentation among Irish church records that you need to navigate as you search for details of your Irish ancestor. Don’t let the likes of ancestry.com fool you into thinking that they have access to all Irish church records at the push of a search button.

Shortly, I will share a useful tool that will give you a snapshot of what church records are available and where to access them.

What were the main churches in Ireland?

First, let’s briefly review each of the major religions present in Ireland through the 18th and 19th century. Here is the number of the population belonging to each church as recorded in the 1901 Irish census:

Roman Catholic Church: 3,251,423 members.

Church of Ireland: 499,074 member

Presbyterian Church: 401,308 members.

Methodists: 57,781 members.

Church of England and Church of Scotland: 48,751 members.

Baptist – 6,183 members.

Jewish – 3,632 members.

Society of Friends/Quaker – 2,431 members.

Independent (follow a non-specified religion) – 1,377 members.

Plymouth Brethren – 421 members.

As you can see from above, the roman catholic church was the largest church in Ireland – but not the only one! Some churches were numerous in some areas e.g. presbyterian in county Antrim while that same presbyterian church was almost non-existent in county Clare. It is also worth bearing in mind that people did marry between faiths from time to time.

What will you typically find in most church records?

Baptism Records: In general, baptism records record the date of the baptism, the names of the child, the parents and the child’s sponsors (godparents). The family address was occasionally recorded as was the the name of the clergyman.

Marriage Records: Marriage records record the date of marriage, the names of the spouses, witnesses and clergyman. Sometimes, information such as the names of a spouse’s parents, residences of the spouses, ages and occupations were also recorded – but that would be unusual.

Burial records: Burial records usually contain limited information, often no more than the date of burial, age and the name and address of the deceased. Burial records are generally few and far between for the RC church.

Each church had different ways of recording and storing records. As well as that, recording of church records was usually a local affair. One clergyman may have recorded the names in latin while another used English. One clergyman may have been scrupulous in recording all events whereas another may have an easier attitude. One clergyman’s handwriting may have been unreadable whereas another may have written in perfect block text. Finally, different churches (to this day) may have different attitudes on what they wish to share with people who want access to their records for genealogical reasons.

In summary, it is essential to discover the religion(s) practiced by your ancestor as that fact will decide which Irish church record sets you should be examining.

Let’s now look at each of the main churches in turn:

1. Roman Catholic Church Records.

This church represented the vast majority of the population in Ireland. However, the imposition of the Penal laws from the late 1600s made it difficult for RC churches to maintain any sort of record system through the 1700s and into the early 1800s.

There are exceptions to this, the records of a small number of churches go back to the 1700s. However, many of the areas that supplied the immigrants into your country came from the poorer counties of Ireland – and some of those church records were not available until the late 1800s.

Finally, many church records have been gathered, microfiched and made available online to browse for free. However, there are often gaps in those records for some parishes and it is important to know these gaps as you browse for a particular ancestor.

2. Church of Ireland Records.

The Anglican Church of Ireland was established in the mid-1500s and was considered the “established church” of the country. Record keeping (baptisms and burials) was required from the mid-1600s – however, this was mostly only followed in established urban parishes. Rural parishes were still being established into the late 1700s.

In 1871, all Church of Ireland parishes were ordered to send their registers to the Public Record Office in Dublin where they would be centralised and treated as state records. However, those centralised records were lost in a fire in 1922 – and where records survived it was only because they were transcribed by a local parish priest before being sent to Dublin or they were not sent to Dublin in the first place.

Note: In the USA the Anglican Church was called the Episcopal Church.

3. Presbyterian Church Records.

The Irish Presbyterian Church was established in the early 1600s by Scots settlers – the majority of whom were found across the counties of Ulster.

As a result of the Penal laws I mentioned earlier, Presbyterian church members faced similar restrictions to Roman Catholics and their rites had to be performed within the structure of the Church of Ireland in order to be officially recognised. Until 1782 it was illegal for Presbyterian ministers to conduct marriages.

Presbyterian ministers started to maintain their own records from about 1820 onwards. The contents of Presbyterian church records varies substantially from parish to parish and the availability of records both online and offline is quite fragmented.

4. Methodist Records.

The Methodists were established in Ireland in the late 1700s. There were initially restricted on where and how they carried out church ceremonies as well as how they kept records. For the first few decades of their existence, their records were maintained by the local Church of Ireland parish. From 1845, Methodist ministers were only permitted to perform marriages when in the presence of a District Registrar. It was not until 1863 that Methodists were permitted to register their buildings for marriages by their own ministers. While most Methodist-only church registers are available from about the 1840s onwards, Methodist baptisms began in Belfast from 1818.

In the next section we will look at a useful tool to help you discover which Irish church records are available to research and where to find them.

A useful tool to discover which Irish Church Records are available and where to find them.

Hopefully you now see that Irish Church records:

Are located in many different repositories – both offline and online. Some have been transcribed by services such as Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org – while others are only available offline in a local parish office and/or archive facility. Many original Methodist & some Presbyterian registers are not held locally, but by various archives – they cannot be accessed locally.

Have been transcribed by research groups and individuals from single registers . These are not linked to from JohnGrenham.com and can be found scattered around the internet or in Archives.

Available records for a given parish may have gaps between certain years.

Certain parish records indexed through a service like Ancestry.com may be different to what is indexed for that same parish using a different service. So, when you are searching for Irish records in a particular parish – it is important to know which service to use to get the best results.

If Irish church record sets are so fragmented, is there any hope of seeing which church record sets are actually available and where to find them?

The answer is yes! There is a remarkable tool – johngrenham.com – and access is available for free to Green Room members. It will help you see which Irish church record sets are available and how to get at them.

Introducing JohnGrenham.com.

John Grenham is one of Ireland’s leading genealogists and has literally written the book on Tracing your Irish Ancestors. Just as importantly, he has gradually built up an “Irish Ancestors” website starting in the late 1990s. As a result, his site is stable, well-maintained and kept up to date.

On his site – located at Johngrenham.com – John provides maps, quicklinks and search tools to help us track down information related to a particular Irish ancestor.

We will now use johngrenham.com to explore which church records are available – and where to find them – on a county-by-county basis.

Note: While many of the pages on johngrenham.com are available for free – you will come across a number of pages that require you to join John’s site as a member. You can do this if you so wish, but remember that all of our Green Room members get free access to Johngrenham.com when they join the Green Room.

STEP 1: Go to the “Church Record by County Page” on johngrenham.com

Use this Link: https://johngrenham.com/browse/county_church.php?

You will see the following screen (click the graphic to enlarge if you wish):

STEP 2: Choose the county of your choice in the drop-down menu.

We chose County Galway as an example. In the next step we will see the available church records for that county.

STEP 3: Choose the Church denomination of your choice.

For the purpose of demonstration, we will select the Roman Catholic records for Galway. On the following screen we will see the available Roman Catholic church records for County Galway (you can click on the graphic to enlarge it):

This page gives us a LOT of information – only part of which you can see above. Next, let’s break down the information on this page and how to read it.

Reading the columns from left to right:

Denomination: We know these are Roman Catholic records already.

Church: This is the RC parish name. Back to this in a few moments.

Baptisms, Marriages, Burials: These columns contain the years for which these records are available. This is very important information. There is no point in searching record set for an 1820 record if the set contains records only from 1830 onwards.

Location, Ref(erence) and Status: Assuming a record is available for range of years you want – this tells you where to find it (Location) with supporting information contained in the Ref and Status columns.

Next, lets dive in a little deeper and focus on just one parish. Lets take the example at the top of the page – the Roman Catholic Parish of “Abbeyknockmoy”.

STEP 4: Interpret the various locations listed to access County Galway Records.

OK – say we are looking for RC records in the RC parish of “Abbeyknockmoy” (conveniently located at the top of our page!).

First, click on the “Filter by Repository” drop down menu at the left of the page. This is a useful way to quickly figure out the full list of record locations/repositories for a county e.g. in the table you will see “NLI” in the location column – the “filter by repository” menu tells you that this is the “National Library of Ireland” (OK as John does not explicitly show that NLI=National Library of Ireland, you will have to make a sensible guess):

It seems that I have chosen a county with a lot of repository possibilities! You can see a lot of genealogy centres that appear to belong to other counties e.g. “Roscommon Heritage and Genealogy Company”. The reason is that County Galway borders quite a few other counties and the church records for these border parts of Galway were often kept by a church parish that may have straddled a county boundary. Watch out for that fact is your ancestor came from the border area of a county.

STEP 5: Interpret WHICH records can be access at the record locations listed.

Next, let’s say that we are only interested in Abbeyknockmoy parish. You will see that the parish of Abbeyknockmoy is listed across four separate rows. Why?

Take a look at the “Baptisms”, “Marriages” and “Burials” columns and you will see that each row for the parish often contains different dates – or no dates at all! This is because different baptism, marriage and burial records are available DEPENDING on which record repository/location you are looking at (see the “Location” column).

This is key information you need know before starting your Irish Church record search – which years are covered in the record set you are searching through? Are there any gaps in the record set you are searching through?

Let’s look at the four rows for Abbeyknockmoy parish – concentrating on the “Location” column to guide us:

ROW 1. This tells you that if you look for records in Location = NLI (National Library of Ireland – remember the “filter by repository” drop down menu we looked at for acronyms?) – then you will not find any Roman Catholic records for this parish as they were never microfilmed. As a side note, ancestry.com uses NLI as the source of many transcriptions – so you will not find any RC church records for Abbeyknockmoy parish transcribed on ancestry.com. Of course, this could change as time goes on.

ROW 2. This tells you that if you look for records in Location = “GFHSW” (Galway Family History Society West) then you will find baptism, marriages and burial records for Abbeyknockmoy RC parish records without any gaps over time (however, there are some early marriage records unavailable). So, where is “GFHSW” located? This is one of many genealogical companies and societies spread around Ireland united online under one banner at rootsireland.ie.

More on Rootsireland.ie:
- This is a paid site (but quite reasonable to access). Any time you see a “$” symbol in the right hand column of a johngrenham table you know that the link is sending you to rootsireland.ie
- The Roman Catholic church records available to search within Rootsireland.ie have been transcribed from local parish sources (rather than the National Library microfiches in Dublin). As a result, you may find more RC records available from within rootsireland compared with other sources.
- Although Johngrenham.com shows record availability on rootsireland.ie (e.g. 1840-1899), these do not always accurately show the gaps in the records. It is advisable to head to https://www.rootsireland.ie/ifhf/online-sources.php to check for any further record gap information on rootsireland for a particular county.
- Rootsireland has more patchy coverage for the 6 counties of Northern Ireland compared to the other 26 counties on the island. However, their coverage of those 6 counties is improving all the time.

ROW 3. This tells you that if you look for records in Location = “FHL (LDS)” then you will find baptism, marriages and burial records for Abbeyknockmoy RC parish records with lots of gaps over time. FHL (LDS) is Family History Library (Latter Day Saints) i.e. familysearch.org – which is built and maintained by the Church of the Latter Day Saints. While some early marriage records are available there – most record sets are more fragmented than those you will find on rootsireland.ie (see Row 2 above). It is important to understand that these gaps exist before jumping over to famililyhistory.org to search further.

ROW 4. This tells us that if you look for records in Location = “LC” then you will find the earliest recorded baptisms and marriages for the parish. However, “LC” – means “Local Custody” which is an offline location and can mean a number of things. I would contact the local parish office for clarification if I wanted access to a very early marriage record for this parish.

In summary, this section of johngrenham.com (which is contained on the site outside the paywall so is free for all to use) is invaluable as it will show you which church record sets are available (or unavailable) and where to find them.

Granted, you will need to know the county and parish of origin but using this tool will save you quite a lot of time (and frustration) before you decide on a strategy for searching the Irish record sets. What do you think?

I encourage you to play around with these county church record pages on johngrenham.com – become familiar with how they work and how to read them. Gain some practice and you will find this tool an essential part of your future Irish ancestor search strategy.

That’s it for Church records for now – we will revisit them later as we search for Patrick Dolphin as part of our case-study. Now, lets move on to the Irish Civil Records.

Irish Civil Records: What’s available and where to find them.

A centralised Civil registration system for marriages was established in Ireland in 1845. At first, it excluded all Roman Catholic marriages, but it became mandatory for all across Ireland by 1864. Full compliance with this new system took a number of years, but it eventually became one of the most complete sources of family research information available.

Since early 2019 – the full original images for the following records are available both on-line and accessible for free:

Civil Birth Records: 1864-1922 (post 1921 the 6 counties of Northern Ireland are not included on irishgenealogy.ie) Note: Birth records from less than 100 years ago NOT available online*

Civil Marriage Records: 1864 (1845 for non-RC marriages)-1947 (post 1921 the 6 counties of Northern Ireland are not included on irishgenealogy.ie) Note: Marriage records from less than 50 years ago NOT available online*

Civil Death Records: 1871-1972 (post 1921 the 6 counties of Northern Ireland are not included on irishgenealogy.ie) Note: Death records from less than 50 years ago are NOT available online*

*You can see an up to date list of just which civil records are available for which year on irishgenealogy.ie at https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/civil-records/help/what-civil-records-are-on-line

The above Civil Records can be accessed and searched at:

www.irishgenealogy.ie which is paid for and run by the an Irish government department. It contains ALL indexes AND record images for the island of Ireland up to 1921 – and available for free. Post 1921, it ONLY contains the indexes and images for the 26 counties of Ireland.

https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk/ is the General Register Office Northern Ireland (GRONI) which contains all indexes for births, marriages and deaths for the 6 counties of Northern Ireland (indexes can be viewed for free but images can be accessed for a fee).

Note: If you are using Ancestry.com (or familysearch.org) to access Irish Civil records you will only get a record summary as a result for an Irish birth, marriage or death. It is VERY worthwhile examining the detail in the above site to get the full original image of the record which will yield a lot of extra information.

That’s it for Civil records for now – we will revisit them later as we search for Patrick Dolphin as part of our case-study. Now, lets move on to the Irish Land Records.

Irish Land Records: What’s Available and Where to find them.

There are two main Irish land record sets available for family history research:

The Tithe Applotments of the 1820s and 1830s.
Griffith’s Valuation of the 1850s and 1860s.

Successfully navigating the above requires that you have a rudimentary knowledge of Irish land divisions (Townlands, Parishes, Counties etc.) – see previous module on “Irish Land Divisions – Need to know before you Search the Irish records”.

Tithe Applotment Books.

These books recorded a land-based tax that was levied on all land-holders (tenants and owners) on behalf of the Church of Ireland. They started in 1823 and were halted in 1838. They don’t cover all the tenants owners across Ireland – many lower value properties, urban dwellers as well as many townlands in Ulster are all excluded from the transcriptions (also, some entries have been mis-transcribed).

However, you may find neighbouring dwellers listed in one of your ancestral townlands – who you can cross-reference as sponsors or witnesses for a church record you already possess.

You can search and browse the Tithe Applotment Books here: titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie and the Northern Ireland Tithe Applotment Books are available through PRONI here: www.nidirect.gov.uk/

Griffith’s Primary Valuation of Ireland (Griffith’s Valuation for short).

Griffith’s Valuation was a property tax survey carried out between 1847 and 1864. The survey gave a detailed valuation of all Irish agricultural land and buildings and was published on a county-by-county basis.

The head of the family that occupied a property was listed in the valuation.

You can search and browse Griffith’s Valuation here: www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

The Valuation Revision Books (also known as “Canceled Land Books”).

Following the completion of Griffith’s valuation in 1864, properties were revised annually noting the changes in the value of a piece of land, its boundaries and any new tenant name. This valuation continued:

Until the early-1930s in the six counties of Northern Ireland (Londonderry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh). These are available online here. They can be browsed for free.

Until the mid-1960s in the other 26 counties of the island. These are available for free, but not on-line, at the Irish Valuation office in Dublin here. The VRB records for the 26 counties can be viewed in-person for free or ordered remotely for a fee.

That’s it for Land records for now – we will revisit them later as we search for Patrick Dolphin as part of our case-study. Now, lets move on to the Irish Census Records.

Irish Census Records: What’s Available and Where to Find Them.

The first full government census of the island of Ireland was taken in 1821 with further censuses every ten years until 1911. No census was taken in 1921 due to the War of Independence. The Irish census returns from 1926 onwards are not available for viewing yet – so, what is available from before that time?

Unavailable census returns:

1861 and 1871. They were destroyed shortly after they were taken.

1881 and 1891. They were pulped during the first world war, probably because of the paper shortage.

1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 – mostly unavailable. They were, apart from a few surviving fragments, destroyed in 1922 in the fire at the Public Record Office at the beginning of the Irish Civil War.

Census records that ARE available:

1901 and 1911.

HOWEVER, the information contained in these two years of census results is very comprehensive. A lot of information can be extracted from these two years to help you verify the details, relationships and locations of individuals who lived through the 19th century in Ireland.

Where to access available Irish Census records:

You can access all available Irish census returns online and for free at the Irish National Archives here: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Let’s pull the Record information together in an “Irish Records Research Worksheet.

In order to help research the appropriate Irish record sets for our case-study – and take notes as we go along, we will summarise the Irish record set information covered in this module into an “Irish Records Research Worksheet” as follows:

IRISH RECORD SET	FURTHER INFO	LOCATION
IRISH CHURCH RECORDS	Important to know the religion of your ancestor to select the correct church record sets.	Overall information on Irish Church record location and availability at johngrenham.com here
IRISH CIVIL RECORDS	Civil Birth Records: 1864-1921 Civil Marriage Records: 1864 (1845 for non-RC marriages)-1921 Civil Death Records: 1871-1921	Available to search at: irishgenealogy.ie
IRISH LAND RECORDS:
*Tithe Applotment Books*	Land-based tax 1823- 1838. Excluded from transcriptions: Urban dwellers, very small holdings, many townlands in Ulster.	Available to search at titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie
*Griffith’s Valuation*	Taken between 1847 – 1864. Detailed valuation, locations of all Irish properties. Search by location or listed head of family occupying property.	Available to search at askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/
*Cancelled Land Books*	Griffiths’s valuation properties revised annually and changes in the value, boundaries new tenant names noted. This valuation continued:	Mid 1800s to 1930s: Derry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh) are available at nidirect.gov.uk. Mid 1800s to 1960s: Other 26 counties of the island – only available offline at Irish Valuation Office.
IRISH CENSUS RECORDS	Unavailable: 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891. Mostly unavailable: 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851. Fully available: 1901, 1911.	Available to search at: census.nationalarchives.ie/

Irish Records Research Worksheet

This worksheet provides a quick reference and location reminder for relevant Irish record sets as we proceed with our research. I will share a completed version of this worksheet in the next section of the module below – where we devise an Irish record research strategy for our Case-study individual – Patrick Dolphin.

Case-Study: Our Irish record search strategy based on our discovery questions.

Right – Where do we go next? Which set of Irish records do we search to answer our discovery questions?

Let’s review the information we have on the Dolphins so far – here is the timeline and discovery questions we chose in Module 2:

Timeline Assembled for Patrick Dolphin and Family:

1855: Patrick Dolphin was born in County Galway, Ireland. Maybe in a place called “Ballydavid”? His parents were Michael Dolphin and Margaret Dolphin.

1881 (or before): Patrick married his first wife in Ireland. We don’t know her name.

1881: Michael Dolphin (son of Patrick and first wife) is born in Ireland.

1881: Patrick Dolphin arrives in Boston, USA.

1886: Patrick Dolphin is naturalised as a US citizen. He is living in Manchester, New Hampshire at this time.

1890: Michael Dolphin immigrates to join his father in the USA.

1894: Patrick Dolphin remarries – to Mary Cunniffe.

1896: Margaret (child) is born.

1926: Patrick dies in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA.

Discovery Questions chosen based on information gaps in the timeline:

Where was Patrick born in Galway?

Is Ballydavid in County Galway?

Was there a Dolphin family living there in 1855?

Are there still Dolphins in the area today?

What was his first wife’s name?

Where was she from?

When and where did they marry?

Where and when was Michael Dolphin junior born?

Who was his mother?

When did Patrick’s first wife die?

Here is a completed version of the “Irish Records Research Worksheet” I shared earlier in this module. I have added notes in the final column – reflecting on what sort of information I hope to uncover using the different Irish record sets:

IRISH RECORD SET	FURTHER INFO	LOCATION	NOTES FOR MY SEARCH
IRISH CHURCH RECORDS	Important to know the religion of your ancestor to select the correct church record sets.	Overall information on Irish Church record location and availability at johngrenham.com here	RC Church Records can run from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. May provide information such as marriage record of Patrick Dolphin’s parents in Galway as well as his baptism and baptisms of siblings.
IRISH CIVIL RECORDS	Civil Birth Records: 1864-1921 Civil Marriage Records: 1864 (1845 for non-RC marriages)-1921 Civil Death Records: 1871-1921	Available to search at: irishgenealogy.ie	Given Patrick Dolphin’s likely birth date, it is probable that the marriage to his first wife can be found in the Irish civil records (if they were married in Ireland). Also likely that the birth of their son, Michael, is in those civil records.
IRISH LAND RECORDS:
*Tithe Applotment Books*	Land-based tax 1823- 1838. Excluded from transcriptions: Urban dwellers, very small holdings, many townlands in Ulster.	Available to search at titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie	The 1830s may be too early to search for the location of his parents in County Galway.
*Griffith’s Valuation*	Taken between 1847 – 1864. Detailed valuation, locations of all Irish properties. Search by location or listed head of family occupying property.	Available to search at askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/	Given that Patrick Dolphin was probably born sometime in the 1850s, we may be able to use these records to cross reference with church records and pin down the location of his house in County Galway in the 1850s.
*Cancelled Land Books*	Griffiths’s valuation properties revised annually and changes in the value, boundaries new tenant names noted. This valuation continued:	Mid 1800s to 1930s: Derry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh) are available at nidirect.gov.uk. Mid 1800s to 1960s: Other 26 counties of the island – only available offline at Irish Valuation Office.	As Patrick Dolphin is from County Galway, I would have to access these records offline in Dublin.
IRISH CENSUS RECORDS	Unavailable: 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891. Mostly unavailable: 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851. Fully available: 1901, 1911.	Available to search at: census.nationalarchives.ie/	While the 1901/11 records are from a time after Patrick’s emigration – they are an incredibly rich set of records to locate an emigrated ancestor’s siblings, parents etc. I often start with these records to get a broad feel of an area and the families living in that area – many of which would have lived in the same immediate area for hundreds of years.

Irish Records Research Worksheet

Based on my Discovery Questions – What is the best approach to search available Irish records for answers?

You might think that the best place to start is with possible RC baptismal records for any Patrick Dolphin in County Galway (in a place called Ballydavid) about 1855-1860. While that makes rational sense, I often find that such a search is like looking for the proverbial “needle in a haystack”.

Given that we already have:

The names of Patrick’s parents.

A county and a possible townland of birth for Patrick Dolphin.

A possible date of birth for Patrick Dolphin.

in our ancestor identifiers – I prefer to build up more contextual information BEFORE targeting possible baptismal records. When possible, I like to take a counter-intuitive approach and start with some of the most recent record sets above – the census records of 1901.

Why? The 1901 and 1911 census records are rich in content – showing names, neighbours, places, occupations, places of birth etc all in the one record set for a particular location.

So, here is our initial record search strategy (which we may alter as we move forward):

We will start with the 1901 Irish census records. We will look for evidence of Dolphin families in a place called Ballydavid in County Galway – starting with the Ballydavid in the Civil Parish of Kilcooly.

If we find evidence that Patrick Dolphins family/relatives are in the 1901 census in the area, we will then figure out if there is a tie between those Dolphins and our Patrick Dolphin by working our way backwards in time through the Irish Civil, church and land record sets to help answer our discovery questions.

If we find no evidence, then we need to adopt a different record search strategy. However, the benefit of the approach I outline above is that it can be carried out fairly quickly and then either used or discarded.

In Conclusion

We looked at the different types of Irish Civil, Land and Church records – what is available and where do we find them?

We spent time using Johngrenham.com to help us with Irish church records – what is available, where they are located and the typical years covered by those records. All essential information to have before your search through a church record set. I shared a “Irish Records Research Worksheet” – a tool to carry forward with us as we carry out our research.

We then revisited our case-study individual – Patrick Dolphin – and outlined the record search strategy we would take based on the timeline we have assembled and the discovery questions we wish to answer.

Try For Yourself.

I suggest that you:

Replicate the Johngrenham.com Roman Catholic church record example I share above – navigate the same screens I share from johngrenham.com and see if you can find the same results.

Review the “Notes for my search” column in the completed “Irish Records Research Worksheet”. Do you agree/disagree with my comments?

Review the “Record search strategy” that we will use for Patrick Dolphin and the Irish record sets. Does it make sense to you? We will be using this search strategy over the next three modules of this course.

Optional: Visit the various Irish Church, Civil and Land record links I share above. Pay special attention to the “about” or “FAQ” page on each page visited.

What’s Next?

In the next module we start to execute our Irish record search strategy by examining the Irish census records and looking for evidence of the Dolphin family. If we find a Dolphin family in Ballydavid in 1901 we will jump back further in time for that family by searching through relevant Irish Civil, Land and Church records. If we do not find them in the census records – then we need to adopt a different search strategy.

However, given that this is a pre-written course, I think you know how this is going to go!

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