IRISH CHURCH RECORDS

• Welcome and What This Class Is All About
• Brief History
• Helps and Websites
• Types of Records
• Using Maps and Searching Parishes
• Conclusions
• Assignment

• Instructors are Elder and Sister Donald R. and Diane M. Snow of the England London Mission, London Family History Centre (snowd@math.byu.edu, dms34@juno.com)
• These notes with active Internet links are posted on the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group websitehttp://uvtagg.org under Class Outlines, Don's Listings, and are linked on the London Family History Centre website http://www.hydeparkfhc.org under Events. Many other class notes for family history are linked on both sites also.
• This class will discuss Irish genealogy records with an emphasis on using Irish church records.

• 1494 English Crown claimed Ireland
• 1641-1652 Irish Rebellion - crushed by Oliver Cromwell
• 1560 Church of Ireland became state church  Anglican Church (Church of England)
• 1619 Earliest known Church of Ireland parish register (St. John, Dublin) begun
• 1634 Law requiring Church of Ireland parish register
• 1674 Oldest known Presbyterian register (Antrim) started
• 1675-1728 Laws against Catholics - no parish registers, no property, no votes
• 1747 Methodist movement began
• 1750s Some Catholic registers begun; many Church of Ireland registers begun
• 1772-1795 Catholic Relief Acts to restore Catholic rights
• 1800 Ireland, England, Scotland formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
• 1819 Presbyterian church began requiring church records
• 1829 Irish Catholics free to practice Catholicism; many Catholic records started
• 1845 Civil registration of marriages for non-Catholics began
• 1845-1849 Potatoe Famine - many emigrants
• 1858 Principle Probate Registry began proving Irish wills
• 1864 Civil registration of births and deaths and civil registration of Catholic marriages began
• 1869 Church of Ireland no longer recognized as state church
• 1876 Church of Ireland registers to be stored in Public Record Office, Dublin
• 1919-1922 Civil strife split Ireland into Republic of Ireland (Eire - Catholic) and Northern Ireland (Protestant)
• 1922 Civil strife caused PRO in Dublin to be burned with many Church of Ireland and civil records -- see articles in (Digital) London Times -- http://timesonline.co.uk/archive , 1-3 Jul 1922
• 1922 Separate record repository established for Northern Ireland  

• Irish Church records at London Family History Centre -- do a Google search for "site:www.hydeparkfhc.org Ireland Church records" without the quotes
  • Google searches are already set up on http://www.hydeparkfhc.org under Catalogue -- just enter the search terms "Ireland Church records" without the quotes 
• FamilySearch Wiki -- https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Portal:Ireland
• FamilySearch Helps - Ireland Research Outline
• Ireland links on Family History Library Favorites -- See FHL Favorites on Links page on London FHC website   
• Ireland batches in IGI -- find them through link to Hugh Wallis' website on Links page on London FHC website -- check Special Batches, as well as County and Parish batches
• Public Record Office of Northern Ireland -- http://www.proni.gov.uk/ 
• National Library of Ireland (Dublin) -- http://www.nli.ie/en/homepage.aspx -- has parish registers from Republic of Ireland
• Irish Family History Foundation -- http://www.irish-roots.ie/
• FamilySearch -- http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/RG/frameset_rhelps.asp?Page=./research/Placei/Placei.asp&ActiveTab=Place
• Article in Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter about the National Library of Ireland reopening Catholic parish registers for two dioceses -- http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/05/church-records.html
• See Barbara Lewis Gillon's manual on Irish Reserach with Internet links   http://orfhc.org/desktop -- click on Start Researching/All World & Regional Research Sites - click on Irish link by her picture
• Do Google searches for "Irish Church records" (without the quotes)

• See Research Stategies in the FamilySearch Wiki and the Records Selection Table in Ireland Research Outline (page 7 of printed version and in FHLC section online) 
• Civil Registration -- https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Ireland_Civil_Registration-_Vital_Records
• Censuses - 1901 and 1911 being indexed -- http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie -- Dublin 1911 is online now
• Church Records -- https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Ireland_Church_Records
• Land Records -- https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Ireland_Land_and_Property
• Probates -- https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Ireland_Probate_Records

• Lewis' Topographical Atlas of Ireland -- http://www.libraryireland.com/topog/index.php
• Maps of each Irish county -- https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Atlas_to_the_Topographical_Dictionary_of_Ireland
• Townlands, parish, county information, see The IreAtlas Townland Database --  http://www.seanruad.com/
• Irish Family History Foundation website -- http://www.irish-roots.ie/  
  • Collection and information on eccesiastical districts and links to parish registers
  • 40 million Irish ancestral records, primarily Church baptisms, marriages, and deaths from parish registers - index search is free 

• Since so many Irish records were destroyed, "work-arounds" must be used for much family history research in Ireland, but there is still much information available and church records are a big help.

1. Log onto http://www.hydeparkfhc.org and do a Google search for items the London Family History Centre has for Antrim.  (Answer: About 65)
2. Log onto the FamilySearch Wiki and browse through the Irish section.
3. Do a Google search for terms like "Ireland Dublin genealogy" (without the quote marks) and see what comes up.  Explain how to find genealogy records for some location that interests you in Ireland.