As a result of the 1922 Four Courts Fire, the most famous and far-reaching loss of Irish genealogical record treasures occurred. The interior of the Four Courts (b.1802) was seriously damaged and the central dome collapsed.
What was lost /destroyed in this fire ?
- all of the Irish Census returns for 1821, 1831, 1841, and 1851 (except a few fragments);
- over half of the Anglican Church of Ireland parish registers for the years 1869-1922;
- the majority of the original wills and probate records (dating to the 16th century);
- all pre-1900 legal court records
- all local government records.
While this catastrophic event has made 19th-century ancestral research challenging, all was not lost...
National Archive Records that are searchable online can be found here.
