Ireland Church Records

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Online Resources

• Ireland Birth, Marriage & Death
• RootsIreland, index ($).
• IrishGenealogy.ie County Kerry, western and northwestern County Cork (Cork City excepted), and most of the City of Dublin.
• 1623-1866 - Ireland, Diocesan and Prerogative Marriage License Bonds Indexes, 1623-1866 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images; Also at: MyHeritage ($) and FindMyPast ($).
• 1750-1849 - Index to Prerogative marriage license bonds, ca. 1750-1849
• 1771-1812 - Ireland, Marriages in Walker's Hibernian Magazine, 1771-1812, index & images ($). Also at: Internet Archive.
• 1591-1866 - Ireland, Indexes to Wills, Probate Administration, Marriage Bonds and Licences, 1591-1866 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• Betham Genealogical Abstracts - abstracts of genealogical records collected by Sir William Betham. Useful substitute to records lost in the 1922 Public Record Office fire in Dublin.
• Crossle Genealogical Abstracts - abstracts of genealogical records collected by Dr. Francis Crossle
• Thrift Genealogical Abstracts - abstracts of genealogical records collected by Gertrude Thrift. Records include wills, parish registers, freeman lists, and pedigree charts. Records date as far back as the 16th century.

Church of Ireland (Aglican, Episcopalian)

• Irish Parish Register Baptisms & Confirmations, Ffolliott Collection, at FindMyPast, index ($)
• Irish Parish Register Marriages, Ffolliott Collection, at FindMyPast, index ($)
• Irish Parish Register Burials, Ffolliott Collection, at FindMyPast, index ($)
• 1630-1845 - Index to Church of Ireland diocesan marriage licenses, 1630-1845, index only.

Catholics

• Catholic Records, National Library of Ireland
• 1655-1915 - Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915 at Ancestry ($), index and images
• 1701-1845 - Ireland, Catholic Qualification & Convert Rolls, 1701-1845 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images

Non-Conformists

• Ireland, Non-Conformist Births & Baptisms, index ($).
• Ireland, Non-Conformist Burials, index ($).
• Ireland, Non-Conformist Congregational Records, index ($).
• Ireland, Non-Conformist Marriages, index ($).

Quakers

• Irish Quaker Collection, index.
• Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Births, index ($).
• Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Deaths, index ($).
• Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Marriages, index ($).
• 1859-1949 - Transcripts of the national register of the Society of Friends, 1859-1949, births, marriages, deaths, monthly meetings.

Large Databases With Many Record Types

• 1500-1920 - Irish Records Index, 1500 - 1920 index ($)
• Ulster Historical Foundation

Catholic Church Records

Catholic dioceses of Ireland

Offices to Contact

Church of Ireland RCB Library

RCB Library
Braemor Park
Churchtown
Dublin 14
D14 N735

Tel: +353 (0)1 492 3979
Email: library@ireland.anglican.org

• Request a Search
  
• List of Parish Registers

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
2 Titanic Boulevard
Titanic Quarter
Belfast
BT3 9HQ Northern Ireland

Email: proni@communities-ni.gov.uk
Telephone: 028 9053 4800

• The PRONI Enquiry Service provides free advice and guidance about records held and also offers a fee-paying copy and search service.
• PRONI’s Guide to Church Records will help you identify what churches exist in each parish, what records exist for each church and whether the records are available in PRONI, either on microfilm or in original form. The majority of parishes covered in the Guide are located within the six counties of Northern Ireland, however PRONI holds some records from parishes in the Republic of Ireland, particularly the border counties of Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim and Louth.
• Digitised Church Records Available in PRONI

National Library of Ireland

National Archives (Republic of Ireland)
Bishop Street
Dublin D08 DF85
Ireland (Eire)
mail@nationalarchives.ie
Website

• Researching family history
• Records of birth, marriage & death
• Catholic Records, National Library of Ireland
• List of Parish Registers Details existing Church of England records and where they are held.

Historical Background

"In 1922, the Republic of Ireland was created and six of the nine counties forming the province of Ulster (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone) voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. Separate National Archives were formed for the Republic of Ireland: the National Archives of Ireland (NAI), and Northern Ireland, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). Similarly civil registration became, for the Republic of Ireland, The General Register Office (GRO) and, for Northern Ireland, General Register Office (Northern Ireland) known as GRONI.
"Copies of many national records up to 1922 are available in both the NAI and PRONI and similarly registration records in GRO and GRONI. Records after 1922 are held in their respective offices. It is also important to note that several church dioceses of all denominations have parishes on both sides of the border and some Ulster collections include records from Monaghan, Donegal and Cavan as Ulster counties pre 1922. Local records are held in County Archives, Libraries and Heritage Centres."

• Before civil registration was introduced in 1864, Church records provide the primary source for providing baptism, marriage and burial dates.
• The most common church records in Ireland are baptism, marriage and burial registers. Less common types of records are congregational censuses, lists of members, and emigration lists.
• Catholic and Presbyterian church registers frequently do not contain burial registers.

Identifying the religion of those individuals or families being researched will greatly increase the chance of success.

• What is now the Republic of Ireland was predominantly Catholic, but with many members of the Anglican Church of Ireland from wealthy Anglo-Irish families.
• In Northern Ireland, the Church of Ireland and various aspects of the Presbyterian Churches were the dominant religions, accounting for sixty-percent of the population in 1861. While Catholics were a minority, they accounted for forty-percent of the population. Since that time, the Catholic population percentage has continued to grow.
• Protestants and Catholics tend to live in clustered neighborhoods with most areas predominantly Catholic or Protestant.
• Huguenots, seeking religious freedom, also came in the 1600s. Huguenot church records have been published in: The Publications of the Huguenot Society of London. N.p.: Huguenot Society of London, 18--. (FS Library book 942.1/L1 B4h.) Most Huguenots affiliated themselves with the Church of Ireland or with the Presbyterian Church.
• In the mid-1600s Congregationalists and Baptists first came to Ireland as soldiers under Cromwell.
• Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints established branches in Ireland by 1850. Records are mainly in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Major Religions

Full Wiki articles are available on records for each of these churches.

• Church of Ireland Records began in 1536, but two-thirds were destroyed in 1922. This was the religion of many of the Northern Ireland London Company plantation settlers in the 17th century and the settlers of the Protestant Pale around Dublin.
• Ireland Catholic Church Records began from the mid 1700s. Most rural parishes did not start keeping records until Catholic Emancipation in 1828. Many of the city registers date from the 1750's.
• Ireland Presbyterian Church Records In 1605 Scottish estate owners resettled mostly Presbyterian tenants from their estates to newly established estates in Northern Ireland. Numerous registers date from the 1600's, but the average starting date for these registers is 1830.
• Ireland Methodist Church Records A Methodist society began in Dublin in 1746.
• Ireland Quaker Records In 1654, the Quaker faith (Religious Society of Friends) began in Ireland. By 1750, there were 150 Quaker meetings across Ireland within the provinces of Ulster, Leinster, and Munster. Many of its original records exist and are located in the repositories.

Research Tutorials at FamilySearch

• Ireland Beginning Research Series: Church Records
• Ireland Presbyterian Church Records
• Ireland Catholic Church Records
• Tracing Irish Roman Catholic Ancestry

Search Strategies

As you search church records, use the following strategies:

• Search all parish registers and other available church records of the appropriate locality for the time period you are researching.
• Search available Church of Ireland records even if your family was not of the Church of Ireland.
• Search surrounding localities if you cannot find records in the expected locality. Catholics had different parish boundaries to the Church of Ireland
• Note all entries, including burials, for the surname you are searching (unless the name is very common).
• Note gaps or missing pages in the record. You may want to search alternative records for the missing time periods.
• If you find little or no mention of your family in parish records, search other records.
• Use the additional information (residence, occupation, etc.) given in parish registers to find other records to search.