Important news for anyone interested in researching their Irish ancestors. From today millions of historic personal records will be available on-line, free of charge. The records of births, marriages and deaths are being released by the General Register Office on irishgenealogy.ie. The expanded database includes the Birth Records Indexes from 1864 to 1914, the Marriage Records Indexes from 1845 (1864 for Roman Catholic Marriages) to 1939 and the Death Records Indexes from 1864 to 1964.
The relevant website is Irish Genealogy and the new records can be found under the ‘Civil Records‘ menu heading.
O Sullivan
Tried a 1913 birth date, all details correct, and returned absolutely NIL!
Oonagh the spellings are only as good as the enumerator or clergy that initially recorded them. So you sometimes need to use a definite Christian name and narrow search to the civil districts that your ancestors may have lived in. Then search the results for your surname. This worked with Kenneally name for which I’ve found 7 or 8 spelling variations. Hope this helps.
Mike Kenneally, would one of the variations of your surname be Kenney? Yours Aye, Mike Kenney
My family is also Kenneally…coneally, kenealy, ect, ect, ect….Knocknagragra Ennistymon, Co Clare
It seems to just cover Kerry and Dublin initially. I hope it expands, I need Donegal and Derry as well as Meath/Louth for my lot!
Hi John, that’s the church records, you will find all the new information under the Civil Records section (I’ve amended the blog post to make this clearer.
Are these just the indexes or the actual record?
A mix up both, you can search the indexes and then there is normally an image of the ordinal documented attached.
Every time I clicked on anything, I had to go through the rigamarole of “applying” to view the records under some civil act from 2004. Also, the website was very slow.
Wish records went back earlier as my family was already in Canada by 1831 and earlier.
My dad ,Micheal McEvoy,was born in Ballindine in Co. Mayo on 14 May 1898 his father was also Michael Mc Evoy and Mother Rose Fey Father listed as being a member of the R I C.as these are closed records how do we proceed.
Waiting to find something!!
Wow I am here in Sligo doing my family tree, what great timing as I fly home Sunday
100% nothing is working! Everything I click on yields the “Page cannot be displayed” result 🙁
Looks like the site may have crashed 🙁 you’d think a government fund website would have enough bandwidth. Check back later, I’m sure they will resolve it.
Yes, indeed, looks like it has completely crashed.
I was on early today and it was working perfectly, however this afternoon, not so. I hope they fix the issue soon.
Something, I just foound out…..My Da was born on November 6th……I was too!!!!!
thanks heaps for that, as a descendent of an irish immigrant this is going to be very handy 🙂
This may be a ridiculous question but would the name “Mahoney” come from a particular part of Ireland, or is it much more common like the name “Smith” in the U.S.? I don’t know how far people moved from their birth places in those days, but I kinda thought it wouldn’t be far. I have a John Mahoney 1839-1932 that I cannot find because I have no idea where he came from in Ireland. He was my G Grandmother’s father, Lauretta Jane Mahoney 1860-1932. I trace my ancestors through my Mother’s Percy/Pierce family in England. I know I have Irish ancestors; half my Mother’s siblings had red hair and freckles……including me. My Grandfather used to tell me we had Irish Pirates in the family, a legend passed down……..but I think it probably went back to the Viking marauders, another part of the Percy family. I would appreciate any suggestions on Mahoney. Thanks.
I thought the records was available free. Tried my hand at some of the records and were told to go to a link to PURCHASE the record.
How can one purchase something if you are not 100% sure that it is the correct person?