Irish Civil records are intact and these include Births, Marriages and
Deaths from 1864. In addition, non-Catholic and Registry Office marriages
were included in the records from 1845.(Note some births, particularly during the
first years of registration missed being recorded)
An index to Civil BMD records is available on the IrishGenealogy website
and also online on FamilySearch - see list of links at
the end of this page. Research Certs can be ordered from GRO by Post using
the references details provided on the index. Notes on the details
included on civil certs (including sample images), plus information on how to order
research certs from the GRO are included on this page.
The online version of the BMD Index on the IrishGenealogy website is from
GRO Ireland and covers births up to 100 years ago, marriages up to 75 years ago, and deaths up to 50 years ago.
More recent index books are available to search in person in the GRO reading room (currently at Werburg St., Dublin).
The online version of the BMD Index on FamilySearch covers all of Ireland
up to the end of 1921, and records for the Republic of Ireland between 1922 and 1958.
Many Irish civil birth, marriage and death records and some church records
(mostly Catholic and Church of Ireland) have been extracted from registers
and are included in the FamilySearch website. The civil records included cover
between the start of civil registration (1864 for births, marriages & deaths,
1845 non for non-catholic marriages) up to about 1881, but do not cover all areas.
The 1911 and 1901 Irish census returns are available online (free) on the
National Archives website. No earlier complete Irish census returns have survived
and only fragments of earlier census returns for a few places survive. The National Archives
website includes transcripts and images for the surviving earlier census returns along with the
details from the search results of the 1841 and 1851 cenus used for pension appications.
For research prior to the start of civil registration church records will be
required, and to start researching this you usually need
to know at least two vital details : religious denomination and location i.e. the
name of the parish, town or townland. Church records for parts of Ireland are
available on several free, subscription and pay-per-view websites.
Location of Church records for research depends mainly on the denomination
involved. Microfilms of most historic records for Catholic parishes are available
in the National Library in Kildare St, in Dublin, and most historic Church of
Ireland records are available in the Representative Church Body Library in
Rathfarnham in Co. Dublin.
