Ireland Genealogy

Ireland has been known by many names throughout time. The first name given to the land was Island of Woods, a name given by a warrior of the people of "Nin, son of Bel.” Other names were Eire, Isle of Mists, and Irlanda.

Ireland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, and separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea on the east. It is divided into Northern Ireland, a constituent part of Great Britain, and the Republic of Ireland, also known as Eire. It has four provinces - Connaught, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster - and 32 counties.

Where did my ancestors come from?

Many people have information that one or more of their ancestors come from Ireland but they don't know where. Start with these steps.

Step 1: Search records in the country where your ancestors settled

Why start there?

There are 32 counties and thousands of parishes in Ireland. There may be dozens of people by the same name as your ancestor.
Ireland didn't keep general records of the population before protestant marriages began in 1845.

Records in the country where your ancestors moved to can give you clues about where they lived in Ireland. To learn about these records, click on a country where they settled.

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Canada	Scotland	Wales
South America	West Indies	England

Step 2: Search the records in Ireland

Few records in Ireland before 1864 index part or all of the population. Here are some you can search.

Griffiths Valuation

Featured content

Browse by topic: Pages for Ireland
Gravestone inscriptions can be a useful source of family history information. Gravestones may give birth, marriage, and death information. They may also give clues about military service, occupation, or family members buried in the same area. Sometimes they give more information than the parish burial register or civil certificate of death.
Topographical maps
Here's access to The Family History Library's Patron Desktop Irish " Favorites". Please note that currently there are significant county 'collections' for just about every single one of the following genealogical subjects--including Probate, Census, Land & Property, Genealogy and Church/Civil Registration with only a few county exceptions.

Counties

Click on a county to go to that county's page:

News & events

The National Archives in England have added early Irish maps c.1558 - c.1610 to their website. Mainly for the province of Ulster, the maps can be searched for by place, and new or old catalog reference.

Irish census records, 1901 and 1911, are now being digitized by the National Archives of Ireland.

Useful websites

More Ireland Websites ....