Before you go near any records, talk to your family. For the descendants of Catholic tenant-farmers, the limit is generally the starting date of the local Catholic parish records. It would be unusual for records of such a family to go back much earlier than the s, and for most people the early s is the more likely limit. In Gaelic culture genealogy was of crucial importance, but the collapse of that culture in the 17th century, and its subsequent impoverishment and oppression in the 18th century, left a gulf that is almost unbridgeable.
That said, exceptions immediately spring to mind. One Australian family, starting with only the name of their great-grandfather, his occupation and the date of his departure from Ireland, uncovered enough information through parish registers and State records of births, marriages and deaths to link him incontestably to the Garveys of Mayo, for whom an established pedigree is registered in the Genealogical Office stretching back to the 12th century.
An American family, knowing only a general location in Ireland and a marriage that took place before emigration, discovered that marriage in the pedigree of the McDermotts of Coolavin, which is factually verified as far back as the 11th century. Discoveries like this are rare, however, and are much likelier for those of Anglo-Irish extraction than those of Gaelic or Scots Presbyterian extraction.
For Irish online research, the glass is both half-empty and half-full. A huge quantity of irreplaceable records was blown up in - almost all 19th century censuses, to name just one - and nothing will ever bring them back. On the other hand, there are only four universally relevant sources, civil records, church registers, censuses and tax surveys, and nearly all of them that survived is online and free.
The easiest win for most people starting out is the free National Archives of Ireland census website census. The next step will usually be to search the civil records of births, marriages and deaths. Registration began for everyone in , with non-Catholic marriages starting in The indexes are free to search up to at the Mormon site FamilySearch familysearch.
The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht runs an excellent free site at irishgenealogy. One of its glories, however, is the huge collection of accompanying valuation maps, overlaid on contemporary Google maps, making it possible to match the precise locations of houses and field boundaries in the s with what survives today.
The last of the universally relevant sources is the most important and the most tricky. For the years before civil registration in , church registers of baptisms, marriages and burials are virtually the only direct sources of family information. Roman Catholic registers generally start in the late s or early s in the more prosperous East and South-East, but only in the s or later in poorer western counties.
Almost all pre Catholic registers have been microfilmed by the National Library and digital images of the microfilms are freely available at registers. They can be hard going. Another commercial site, rootsireland. One significant difference is that the rootsireland transcripts were made from the originals, not microfilm, and the difference in the quality of the transcripts can be striking. The Church of Ireland was the state church until and after disestablishment parish records before that date were regarded as public records.
As a result, a large number were in the Public Record Office in and were destroyed. The largest collection of original registers is in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin, which also maintains an online listing of what was destroyed and what survived goo.
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has an excellent collection of microfilm of records of all denominations in the nine counties of Ulster goo. Presbyterian records can be hard to track down. Detailed guides to which records are where can be found at www. The site is free for light users, with a soft paywall for more persistent souls. Unlike any other country in the Anglophone world, a large majority of the most important Irish records are free online.
There are more than ten times more people claiming Irish descent in the US alone than there are in Ireland, a disproportion found in no other country.
In the s, as that began to dawn on official Ireland, it became government policy to make as many records as possible freely available online. So why would anyone doing Irish research need to subscribe to commercial record-transcriptions sites such as rootsireland or ancestry. Because they give levels of access not found in the free records.
Rootsireland , for example, is purely Irish and uses the transcripts produced by the network of heritage centres set up in the s. It makes possible all sorts of weird and wonderful searches. Want to see everyone who died in Ardnurcher, Co Offaly between and ?
Or every marriage involving a woman called Matilda in Co Derry between and ? Rootsisreland is your only man. Even the global genealogy sites have their uses.
Many of the records free to search elsewhere are set up much more conveniently on Ancestry and FindMyPast. And finally, some will want to leave a legacy to their children and their grandchildren, what could be nicer than to give them their past as well as their future. This hobby of ancestor-hunting, shared by millions of people, has become extremely popular.
Just about every society has kept records, but keep in mind that up until recently it was only the nobility and rulers that had the ability to pursue an interest in their lineage.
Greek and Roman rulers used their lineage to prove that their ancestors were gods. I read that Julius Caesar ordered his genealogists to link him to an illustrious heritage.
Not everyone within your family will applaud you for your new project, some may oppose your research, afraid you may open a closet door on some family skeletons. Tracing your ancestors should not be considered a tedious task. You may want to consider involving other members of your family.
It could be a worthwhile hobby that you, as well as your spouse and children, will find interesting and fulfilling. There are many reasons why you may want to research your roots, but whatever your reasons are you will find that, as time moves on, what started out as an interesting little hobby will become a passion and you will enjoy every minute of it.
There are just so many factors involved. For example, if your ancestors were from India, you may be able to go back years, but if your ancestors were from Indo-China you may only be able to go back years. People of European roots can sometimes go beyond the 3rd and 4th centuries, but usually this applies to royal lines.
How far back can you go? In addition to staving off boredom and ennui, researching genealogy encourages the development of new skills such as working with computers and provides valuable opportunities to improve cognition and self esteem. Reminiscing and exploring the unknown past can have deep psychological benefits for older people, giving them a chance to reconnect with their own memories while also learning new things about family members they never knew.
Researching genealogy can make a great family activity, involving siblings, children, and grandchildren. It can bring family members together around a shared interest and also inspire intergenerational storytelling and sharing. Learning about common ancestors has a way of opening up doors of communication.
Sometimes, research will even end up reconnecting long-lost relatives in surprising ways. This information can be helpful in identifying potential risk factors for surviving family members. Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city Caracals have learned to hunt around the urban edges of Cape Town, though the predator faces many threats, such as getting hit by cars.
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