IrelandXO Insights - Top FREE Irish Genealogy Resources

How to find your Irish Ancestors online and discover your roots in Ireland

Ireland Reaching Out is a unique programme that connects Irish diaspora all over the world with volunteers who are knowledgeable about Irish genealogy and who can help them connect with their roots, giving local family history guidance. But of course, the more that you can discover about your Irish ancestry the more our volunteers can help you out, when you eventually post a message. There is a vast amount of Irish genealogical information to be found for free on the internet, and here, we list the best FREE Irish ancestry websites for the most relevant archives along with the latest free tools and indexes to help you navigate them. Remember, to make sense of the records you discover, ask our volunteers by way of our  IrelandXO Message Board. (New to IrelandXO? A free membership awaits you HERE). 

1. Irish Civil Records

Free General Register: Civil Births, Marriages and Deaths 

Birth, Marriage and Death (BMD) Records as far as compulsory registration was concerned, began much later in Ireland than it did in England. Civil BMD Records for all residents on the island of Ireland began in 1864*. The records held by the General Registry Office (GRO) include Births, Marriages and Deaths registered in the island of Ireland between 1st January 1864 and 31 December 1921 inclusive, and in Ireland (excluding the six north-eastern counties of Derry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Fermanagh and Tyrone known as Northern Ireland) from 1922 onwards. 

*Non-Roman Catholic Marriages registered in the island of Ireland between 1st April 1845 and 31st December 1863 inclusive. 

• IrishGenealogy.ie gives FREE access to the BMD indexes (of interest to the family historian) along with full images of the original registers. 

Civil Births: 1864 to 1921 |  Civil Marriages: 1845* to 1946 [*non-Roman Catholic] 1864 to 1946 [Roman Catholic Marriages] | Civil Deaths: 1871* to 1971

• GRONI online (pay per view) facilitates FREE name searches for Northern Ireland from January 1, 1922. Note: some pre-1922 Northern Irish registration offices fall south of the border.

Handy Navigation Tools

FamilySearch.org for a primary search of the Civil Records Index

JohnGrenham.com/places for Registration District (aka Superintendent Registrar's District) identification

IrelandXO Top Tips: District Registered: Deaths that occurred in a hospital or the district workhouse were recorded in the Registration District of the institution and not the expected GRO district of residence of the deceased. However, the individual's home townland address was always recorded (if known).  For best results, be sure to take full advantage of the Advanced Search Options on IrishGenalogy.ie. Mother’s maiden names are included in this index from approx 1900 onwards.  Search by Year: Use the early 20th-Century Irish Census Records as a cross-reference for narrowing down a BMD year, or a placename. The Irish Census of  1911 is indispensable for identifying the year of marriage (as it records the number of years a couple had been married and, how many children were born/ survived).  [See also: Guide to Irish Civil Records Online].  

2. Irish Church Records

Free Church Registers: Baptism, Marriage and Burial

A large part of our search for Irish Ancestors depends on church records as BMD substitutes. Most registers survived in Ireland albeit with omissions. However, the dates vary greatly (from the 1740s to the 1880s) and only begin in the 1840s for the poorer western counties.  See the RootsIreland: Help with Church Records and the PRONI Guide to Church Records. This type of research is tricky to navigate so be sure to take full advantage of: 

• IrelandXO Message Board for help and guidance along the way.

Not all records are online and the following listing only covers online resources that are FREE: 

Catholic Parish Registers (pre-1881)

Roman Catholic registers are generally later than Protestant registers, mostly dating from the 1820s (when Penal Laws restricting record-keeping and the erection of chapels were lifted). Searching under several parishes is necessary to find all the records of an RC parish because (a) RC parishes are often made up of parts of more than one civil parish, (b) an RC parish can be known by several names, (c) most RC parishes contained more than one church, and (d) some parishes kept only one register for the entire parish, and in others, each church had its own registers.

These key FREE websites can work very well together when used in tandem. 

• FamilySearch.org to search by name and to narrow down possible parish registers and baptism dates you wish to inspect
• Registers.NLI.ie to view a digital image of the microfilmed parish register (searchable parish location, event and year but not surname) 
• IrishGenealogy.ie holds a database of indexed RC parish register entries for Cork, Kerry & Dublin city. (Note, the Diocese of Cloyne is excluded from Cork)

LEARN MORE A Beginners Guide to RC Parish Registers

Protestant Parish Registers

The Church of Ireland registers suffered heavy losses in the Public Records Office fire of 1922 however, a third (held locally) did survive and much of that has since been microfilmed.

• PRONI eCatalogue indexes can be searched FREE online

• Anglican Church Registers Index (of records that survived) is a search tool that links easily to online parish register sources. In addition, the Anglican Record Project holds some coverage online.

• IrishGenealogy.ie holds some coverage of Church of Ireland (COI) and Presbyterian parish register entries in a limited number of counties.

• Presbyterian Records while tricky to track down, are Indexed here.

• The British Newspaper Archive database can (pay to view) be searched for FREE and is a goldmine for 19th-century BMD announcements.

IrelandXO Top Tips: The registers consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records. Where a burial record exists, the cemetery of internment can point to the ancestral family burial ground and parish of origin. RootsIreland.ie (subscription) has additional transcriptions to include parish registers that have never been microfilmed.

3. Irish Headstones & Obituaries

Want to tramp around a cemetery inspecting headstones, at the click of a mouse? Or fine-tune a newspaper search for deaths and obituaries? 

• The IGP Headstones Project search for leads by surname or browse through an entire cemetery. 

• The Historic Graves website is an invaluable resource for anyone researching family headstones. 

• The British Newspaper Archive (pay to view) database can be searched for free and is a treasure trove of obituaries and untimely death reports of individuals who would not have been able to afford a headstone let alone an obit (e.g. a small farmer killed by a bull). 

• Irish Graveyards, here you can serach a number of Irish graveyards to locate a specific grave or simply brose througha graveyard. It also has much more records for counties Donegal, Mayo and Sligo compared with Historic Graves

4. Irish Census Records 

The Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911 are available to search FREE online.  The Public Records Office fire of 1922 was a catastrophic event in terms of 19th-century Irish genealogy research. While not all records went up in flames, most of the Irish Census returns for 1821, 1831, 1841, and 1851 were lost (save for a few fragments and the Census Search Forms 1841-51) held at the National Archives of Ireland. The only search forms that have survived are from 1917 on. All the pension applications that were filed immediately after the 1908 Act through 1916 are gone from what we have been able to ascertain.  No census was taken in 1921 (because of the War of Independence). The Census of 1926 is not due for official release until 2027 (to join the campaign for early release, see the petition here).

• Census.NationalArchives.ie

IrelandXO Top Tips: The Irish Census will help narrow down the BMD dates you need to research in the civil records.  Children often lived with aunts, uncles and extended family members. Consider neighbouring households of similar surname (or maiden name) to see if any nephews or nieces were present.  Can't wait for the 1926 Census to be released? Check out the Duchas Folklore Collection for interviews with the elderly collected by local schoolchildren in the 1930s.  

5. Irish Census Substitutes

For want of a census, tax surveys serve as the next best alternative in Ireland, bearing in mind that only the head of household will be recorded.  This may be enough to give you the name of a parent to go on so that you can get stuck into parish registers and move back further on your timeline. Land records also have a way of connecting the dots between the famine and the 1901 Census and many of these free sites can give you the basis upon which you can discover, at the Valuation Office, to whom the family plot of land passed on to, year of death/emigration and more.  

• Griffiths Valuation (1847-64) can narrow down occurrences of a surname by civil parish – which serves as a lead as to which parishes to search first.   

• Census Search Forms 1841-51 can identify a missing census attached as proof-of-age to a 1908 Pensions Act application.

• Valuation Office Books 1824-56 contain notes and more information about households and landholding leading up to Griffith's Valuation.

• Tithe Applotment Books 1821-51 can narrow down occurrences of a surname by civil parish before and during the Great Famine.

• PRONI Pre-1840 Freeholders Record Search records those entitled to vote

• The Fáilte Romhat Flaxgrower's Database  lists some 60,000 flax growers across the island in 1796 

• The Down Survey of Ireland search for 17th-century landowners before and after Cromwell's confiscation

Irish Family History freebies and discounts 

Waiting for paid online resources to offer a free-access period as part of a special offer or promotion? For Irish ancestry records, the discounts and deals are especially plentiful during the months of January and March (in and around St. Patrick's Day). For updates...

• Follow facebook.com/IrelandXO for a heads-up on free offers and special discounts.

• Claire Santry's Irish-Genealogy News covers all news of discount offers, freebie weekends, and new record releases and publications as they happen.  

Honour your ancestors and #BringTheirMemoryHome by adding them to our Ancestors roll-call here:

Any Ancestor you share on IrelandXO becomes a FREE discoverable resource for anyone researching the same names. Q&As on our volunteer Message Board are also search-engine discoverable.