Making a Research Trip to Ireland
By Kyle J. Betit <kjbetit@progenealogists.com>, ã2004 

If you plan a visit to Ireland in the near future, I could hardly encourage you enough to make a genealogical odyssey part of your experience. Walking the lands of your Irish ancestors, as many people will testify, increases the meaning of a visit to Ireland by an order of magnitude. Rather than simply seeing the most well-known tourist spots in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, you can make a very personal and powerful connection to the history, land, and people of Ireland through your own genealogy. And fortunately for those of us of Irish descent, often the records exist to allow you to visit the exact place were your ancestors lived in Ireland in the nineteenth century and to walk the same land they did.

However, it is important to be prepared as best you can before you go to Ireland so that you can have a better chance of success in your genealogy research. Irish research is difficult, particularly because certain important records have been lost or were never kept in Ireland as compared to other countries. On the other hand, the surviving valuation records and maps dating from 1830 forwards can allow you to set foot on the exact plot of ground on which your ancestors lived and worked in the nineteenth century. While you are in Ireland, you can visit archives in Dublin or Belfast to look at old records of your ancestors dating back several centuries in some cases. Then, you can visit the town or rural area they lived in, see the churches they attended and the graveyards they were buried in, and meet local people who just might be your distant cousins!

Prepare in Advance

You will need to have some fairly specific information about your Irish family before going to Ireland to do research. Usually knowing at least the county of origin (such as County Antrim or County Mayo) is necessary. The more common the surname, the more specific information you need to have about the place of origin before trying to use Irish records. Once you have determined something specific about the family's Irish origins you may be able to use records in archives in Ireland fruitfully, but first you should be well prepared. Familiarize yourself with the available resources, and conserve your time in Ireland by utilizing those Irish records that are available in North America before you leave for Ireland. In particular, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, operated by the LDS Church, makes many Irish records available on microfilm around the world at its branch Family History Centers (see their web site at http://www.familysearch.org ). There are several other repositories in North America with significant Irish record collections, including:

Family History Library (FHL), 35 North West Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84150, USA  http://www.familysearch.org

Irish Emigration Library, Irish Cultural and Heritage Center 2133 West Wisconsin Ave. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233 http://my.execpc.com/~igsw/wisconsi.htm

Irish Genealogical Society International Library
5768 Olson Memorial Highway, Golden Valley, MN 55422 , USA; Tel: (763) 595-9347 
http://www.irishgenealogical.org

New England Historic Genealogical Society, 101 Newbury Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116-3007, USA  http://www.newenglandancestors.org

Learn About Irish Sources

Familiarize yourself with Irish record sources, administrative divisions, and record repositories before you go. Learn what records survive, where they are kept, and how to use them. The best way to do this is to visit your local bookstore and pick up one of the several excellent guides to Irish research that have been published. You could also order one over the Internet. A number of free sites on the Internet give genealogy information as well. You can access them by visiting this web page for links: http://ireland.progenealogists.com/irishsleuth.htm . Some books I recommend include:

Grenham, John. Tracing Your Irish Ancestors: The Complete Guide (Rev. ed. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1999).

Mac Conghail, Máire and Paul Gorry. Tracing Irish Ancestors (Glasgow: Harper Collins, 1997).

Maxwell, Ian. Tracing Your Ancestors in Northern Ireland: A Guide to Ancestry Research in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Edinburgh: The Stationery Office, 1997).

Radford, Dwight A. and Kyle J. Betit. A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors (Cincinnati, OH: Betterway, 2001).

Ryan, James G. Irish Records: Sources for Family & Local (Rev. ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry, 1997).

Look For Records in Belfast or Dublin?

Remember that Ireland was politically divided in 1921. Of Ireland's 32 counties, 26 are in the Republic of Ireland. Six counties (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone) are in Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Most records relating to the Republic of Ireland counties are centralized in Dublin, and those for the Northern Ireland counties are largely centralized in Belfast. There are exceptions to this rule, however. For example, the 1901 and 1911 census for all of the island are held only available at the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin. Also, some very large collections of estate papers at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast refer to tenants and land in the southern part of Ireland.

I would encourage you not to hesitate to visit Northern Ireland, even though there are still some tensions between Protestant and Catholic communities in the North. It is quite safe and easy to visit Northern Ireland, and some of the most beautiful sites on the whole island are in the six counties. If you have ancestors from there, I particularly encourage you to go!

Heritage Centres in Ireland

Most of the counties of Ireland (both in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland) are now covered by operating heritage centres that have indexed at least some church records. Exceptions currently include County Kerry, County Limerick, Dublin City, and parts of County Cork and County Tipperary. These areas are expected to have operating heritage centres soon. These centres can really help you to pinpoint just where your ancestors lived in a particular county. Some centres are well advanced in their indexing and have a variety of sources in their databases. Many have e-mail addresses and Internet sites, and some take credit cards. You should make contact with the heritage centres by mail, fax, telephone or e-mail well before going to Ireland.

You should also read up on how to effectively ask questions of the staff and get the best value for your money. Don’t assume that the Irish heritage centres understand what you need or what you can afford. Be explicit, and ask about prices for different services. You can read much more about how to effectively use Irish heritage centres in my online article “Irish Heritage Centres,” published in the Global Gazette (GlobalGenealogy.com Inc., 13 Charles Street, Suite 102, Milton, Ontario, Canada L9T 2G5) on 16 November 2000, http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazkb/gazkb62.htm .

Most of the heritage centres in Ireland belong to the Irish Family History Foundation. Current information about them may be accessed through the IFHF's Internet web site http://www.irishroots.net .  The information includes background history regarding the county and what records have been indexed by the centre.

The Central Signposting Index consolidates some information from the indexes of the local heritage centres, to help you discover at which centre information about your ancestor may be held. The Central Signposting Index is available on-line at http://www.irishgenealogy.ie  (the web pages of Irish Genealogy Limited). Presently, some information from nine counties (Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Limerick, Sligo, Tyrone and Wexford) is available. The types of records indexed vary according to the county.

Archives in Dublin

The National Library of Ireland (NLI) is located on Kildare Street near Saint Stephen’s Green in Dublin, and the National Archives of Ireland (NAI) is located on Bishop Street just off Great Saint George’s Street. These are the two major repositories of genealogical records in the Republic of Ireland. The NLI and the NAI have a Genealogy Service staffed by the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland (APGI). Paying a visit to the Genealogy Service, and speaking with one of the professionals from APGI, is one of the best ways of starting to investigate your ancestors in Ireland. Again, make sure that you are bringing with you enough details to allow the professionals to guide you to relevant records and to your ancestral home site. That is, make sure you have done your American or Canadian research first! The Genealogy Service is designed to be a starting point and place to obtain help for people in Ireland seeking to trace ancestors.

Other repositories in Dublin that may interest you include the General Register Office on Lombard Street, where civil registration is kept, and the Valuation Office on Abbey Street Lower, where the original valuation (tax) lists and maps are kept.

General Register Office Sources: Civil registration of birth, death and marriage, all Ireland, to 1922
Joyce House, 8-11 Lombard Street East, Dublin 2, Ireland Tel: (01) 6711000; Fax: (01) 6711243

National Archives of Ireland Sources: Census, tax records, many manuscript materials, Estate papers
Bishop Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; Tel: (01) 4783711; Fax: (01) 4783650 Internet: http://www.nationalarchives.ie

National Library of Ireland Sources: Catholic registers, newspapers, Manuscript reading room: estate papers
Kildare Street, Dublin 2, Ireland; Tel: (01) 6618811; Fax: (01) 6766690 Internet: http://www.nli.ie

Representative Church Body Library Sources: Church of Ireland registers, clerical succession lists
Braemor Park, Churchtown, Dublin 14, Ireland; Tel: (01) 4923979; Fax: (01) 4924770 Internet: http://www.ireland.anglican.org/library/

Registry of Deeds Sources: Registered land transactions Henrietta Street, Dublin 1, Ireland; Tel: (01) 6707500; Fax: (01) 8048408

Valuation Office of Ireland Sources: Griffith's Valuation manuscript tax records & revisions; valuation maps
Irish Life Center, Abbey St. Lower, Dublin 1, Ireland; Tel: (01) 817 1000; Fax: (01) 817 1180 Internet: http://www.valoff.ie

Archives in Belfast

Most of the genealogical records that you would want to find for Northern Ireland counties are kept at one repository – the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) on Balmoral Avenue. Make sure you take a look at their excellent web site before you visit, for descriptions of records available: http://www.proni.gov.uk/. Other repositories of interest in Belfast include the Linen Hall Library, the Belfast Central Library, and the Presbyterian Historical Society.

Linen Hall Library Sources: Newspapers, family histories
17 Donegall Square, Belfast BT1 5GD, Northern Ireland; Tel: (028 90) 321707; Fax: (028 90) 438586

Presbyterian Historical Society Sources: Presbyterian church registers
Church House, Fisherwick Place, Belfast BT1 6DW, Northern Ireland; Tel: (028 90) 322284

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) Sources: Church, tax, estate, land, freeholders records
66 Balmoral Avenue, Belfast BT9 6NY, Northern Ireland; Tel: (028 90) 255905; Fax: (028 90) 255999 Internet: http://proni.nics.gov.uk/index.htm

Going On-Site to the Ancestral Home

Your ancestors may have lived in a town or city, but most likely they lived in a rural “townland.” The townland is the smallest official geographical unit in Ireland. A townland is a surveyed piece of ground consisting of between a few acres and several thousand acres. Usually, but not always, townlands have Gaelic names. Townlands have specific boundaries, often defined by geographical features such as river valleys, mountains and hills. The boundaries of townlands were officially surveyed in the 1830s/1840s. Because they are so small, townlands do not usually appear on standard road maps. However, the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland have published modern road maps of Ireland, called the "Discovery Series," that show the townland names but not the exact townland boundaries. You can get copies of these maps in bookstores in Dublin, Belfast, and other cities and town in Ireland. You may also get copies of these maps from the Irish Genealogical Society International in Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

You will need to determine exactly where within the county your townland was located (including the civil parish and religious parish of its location). The General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland, which was published three times in conjunction with the 1851, 1871, and 1901 census of Ireland, may be used to find the official spelling and the location of each townland in Ireland. The 1871 [Family History Library (FHL) Microfilm 476999 item 2] and 1901 (FHL Microfilm 865092) indexes are available on microfilm. The 1851 edition has been reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, Maryland.

Using the records of Griffith's Primary Valuation and the accompanying maps, you can visit the exact home site where your ancestors lived in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century. You can set foot on the exact farm and see what may remain of the house where your ancestors lived. Griffith’s Primary Valuation is a very important tax record of the inhabitants of Ireland, published between 1847 and 1864, depending on which county your ancestors lived in. It’s so important to Irish research because the Irish censuses of 1821-1891 were destroyed. Griffith's Primary Valuation was a valuation of land and building holdings arranged by poor law union, barony, civil parish, and townland. It includes landowners, landlords, tenants with leases, and renters. Collections of Griffith's Primary Valuation are available on microfilm, microfiche, CD-ROM, and the Internet. The two Internet versions of this source are available at http://www.otherdays.com  and http://www.irishorigins.com .

Each property listed in Griffith's was assigned a number. This number is called the "map reference number" and is found in the left hand column of the record. The numbers correspond to a set of Valuation Maps where the ancestral lands or home may be located. The original 6" to the Mile Ordnance Survey maps compiled in the 1830s and 1840s were used by the tax valuators to mark where each holding listed in Griffith's Primary Valuation was located.

So you find your ancestor in his or her townland in Griffith’s Primary Valuation, note the number corresponding to the ancestral property, and find the number on the corresponding Valuation Map. The Valuation Maps for Republic of Ireland counties are held at the National Archives with electronically scanned copies at the Valuation Office in Dublin. The maps for Northern Ireland are held at the PRONI. With a copy of an old Valuation Map and one of the new Discovery Series maps, you can drive your way, in many cases, right to the location in the townland where your ancestors lived.

The Griffith's Valuation revision books (sometimes also called "canceled" books) continue what Griffith's Primary Valuation began, detailing changes in the occupiers of property over the years. Some properties were combined, and many of the old farm houses torn down or used for other purposes. Using these records you can trace who occupied your ancestor’s property from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. There might just be distant relatives living there today! The original books for the Republic of Ireland are at the Valuation Office in Dublin. With very few exceptions, microfilm copies for areas in the Republic of Ireland are available at the FHL up to about the 1930s. The revision books for Northern Ireland are available only at the PRONI and cover the years through 1975. There are also maps corresponding to the valuation revision books.

Once you get to the townland, local landmarks will help you find the plot of land your ancestors lived on. But also don’t be shy about “asking the locals.” Starting asking around about where their land and house may have been and who may live there now. You may even run into some distant cousins this way.

If your ancestors weren’t in Ireland in 1847-1864, don’t despair. There are earlier records, such as manuscript valuation material and estate papers, and later records, such as the valuation revision books, that can help you to locate an ancestral home site.

Visiting Churches and Cemeteries

An unfortunate fact is that many people in Ireland never had tombstones erected in their memory. In addition, not a few tombstones have also been worn by the weather to the point of being unreadable. However, you may well find a tombstone for your ancestor, and valuable information may be recorded in the inscription. You can start the search with the appropriate Catholic or Protestant church graveyard. Many graveyards are attached to the churches themselves. Persons of all faiths could be buried in Church of Ireland (Anglican) cemeteries because the Church of Ireland was the official state religion until 1871. The Church of Ireland is different than the Roman Catholic Church. Other cemeteries in Ireland are not associated with a particular church or congregation's building. In many parishes, the ruins of the old medieval parish church have long served and continue to serve as a graveyard for both Catholics and Protestants.

Before you go to Ireland to tromp through cemeteries, find out if the cemeteries in which you are interested have been transcribed, published and/or placed on the Internet. Some of the heritage centres have indexed cemeteries in their localities. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has a large collection of tombstone transcripts that have been published in books and articles. To find out what has been published, excellent resources are the Irish genealogy guides published by John Grenham and James Ryan:

Grenham, John. Tracing Your Irish Ancestors: The Complete Guide. 2nd Ed. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan Ltd., 1999.

Ryan, James G. Irish Records: Sources for Family and Local History. Rev. ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry, 1997.

The following two web sites have significant collections of Irish tombstone transcripts available online:

Ireland’s Gravestone Index, hosted by Irish Genealogy Ltd., http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/gravestones/index.cfm

Interment.net’s Cemeteries of Ireland, http://www.interment.net/ireland/index.htm

For determining the locations of cemeteries themselves, you can use Brian Mitchell's A Guide to Irish Churches and Graveyards (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1990), which locates cemeteries by county, civil parish, and townland. It is based on the churches and graveyards listed in Griffith's Primary Valuation.

For the most part, Roman Catholic parishes in Ireland are unlikely to have records in local custody that are not microfilmed and available in archives. There are some exceptions, however. Church of Ireland parishes may well have parish registers and vestry minutes that were never microfilmed. It is important to call ahead and make an appointment with the appropriate minister, priest, or church worker, before you show up to view records at a church in Ireland. It can be quite rewarding to visit your ancestors’ church even if you’re not looking for records, to get a sense of the place where they worshipped and to take photographs.

Visiting County and Local Libraries and Archives

Local libraries in the nearest town to the place in which your ancestors lived may have locally compiled cemetery transcripts, local histories, family histories and other relevant material. It’s advisable to check what sources the local libraries in your area may have. Many of these are listed in:

Seamus Helferty & Raymond Refaussé, eds. Directory of Irish Archives (Rev. ed. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1999).

Robert K. O’Neill. Ulster Libraries, Archives, Museums & Ancestral Heritage Centres (Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1997).

Each county in the Republic of Ireland has a “county library” which is also useful to visit in many cases. Some of these libraries also have Internet sites with online resources. You can find the current addresses and contact information for county libraries at http://www.library.ie/public/ . Details about the local public libraries in Northern Ireland are to be found at http://www.ni-libraries.net/ .

Visiting Relatives in Ireland

Depending on how long ago your ancestors left Ireland, and how common their surname was, you may well be able to find living relatives still in the same townland or parish today. By using the 1901 and 1911 censuses; valuation revision books; and Irish civil registration, among other sources, you may find documentary evidence of cousins in Ireland. You can check the Irish telephone directories ahead of time to see if people of the same surname are there today. One site you can try is http://mmm.eircom.ie/phonebook/. Beware your expectations about how much your Irish cousins might know about their ancestors! Often their memories won’t go back further than their grandparents. They are likely to know well the local landscape, townland boundaries, and cemetery locations where family was buried. In terms of information from the nineteenth century, you may be more successful finding out if anyone in the townland or vicinity is a local historian who has preserved oral history or written down information about the families in the area.

Bon Voyage!

I hope you have a sense of the exciting possibilities for making a research trip to Ireland. I can tell you that those who say that setting foot on your ancestral townlands is a very meaningful, even spiritual, experience are quite right. The same is true for finding the streets in towns and cities where your ancestors lived. You can become connected to the history, people, and culture of Ireland, and your particular part of Ireland, in a unique way. I wish you happy and fruitful travels!

Kyle J. Betit, "Making a Research Trip to Ireland," ProGenealogists's Irish Genealogy (Online: ProGenealogists, Inc., 2004), <http://www.ireland.progenealogists.com/visitireland.htm>.

Article Last Updated 10 Aug 2008