My top 10 free Irish genealogy databases and websites

Family history research can be a costly hobby so be sure to make full use of these free Irish genealogy websites and databases.

All of them provide fabulously useful information and some even provide free access to data that other sites charge for. Hard to believe, but true.

Not only do these sites provide free Irish genealogy info, you don't have to supply personal details or register with them. Enjoy!

This list is in alphabetical order:

• Ask about Ireland.

  One of a new generation of free Irish genealogy resources to have come online in the last year, Ask about ireland brings the indexes, full returns and maps of Richard Griffith's Primary Valuation to your computer screen. This is one of the most important surviving 19th-century genealogical sources and plays a part in nearly everyone's Irish ancestry research as it records the names of householders in each county at the time the Valuation was carried out.

  It is a prototype/test site and is still under development, so some features – especiallly access to some of the maps – may not work for some locations. Hopefully, these limitations will be removed over time. I feel sure this site is destined to become one of the most popular free Irish genealogy resources available.

• Cyndi's List

  Cyndi's List is a giant of a free genealogy website, no matter whether you are researching ancestors in Liverpool, Tucson or Wellington. Its Ireland section lists hundreds of Ireland genealogy databases and websites whose subjects range from individual surname studies to gravestone transcriptions and from indepth analysis of historical events to the names of Irish soldiers who died in foreign lands. Absolutely addictive. Some say that if it's not listed in Cyndi's List, it doesn't exist.

• Ellis Island

  From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. Many of them were from Ireland.

  If your ancestors left Ireland before, during or shortly after the Great Hunger (1846-1849), you won't find them on this site. But if they set sail in one of the subsequent waves of emigration, you may be lucky to find their details among the passenger manifestos displayed on this site. Those details show the address where the immigrant was headed and, sometimes even more importantly, they will usually record the traveller's place of origin in Ireland.

• Failte Romhat

  Although this is a personal site, containing family history information about the publisher's ancestors, it also carries quite a few searchable databases and other useful resources.

  Among these are Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland 1846, the Flax Growers' List 1796 (a.k.a. the Spinning Wheel Entitlement List), and the Landowners List of 1876 which contains the names of landowners in ireland with more than one acre of land. A searchable index to Griffith's Valuation is also available.

  This free Irish genealogy website also has many links to resources of particular interest to any family historian with links to co. Cork.

• Family Search

  Regularly voted the best genealogy website worldwide, Family Search is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and contains a huge and freely searchable archive.

  Among its data are 1880/1881 census records for the US, UK and Canada, which can be extremely useful for those seeking family who had left Ireland by that date, plus a database known as the International Genealogical Index, known as IGI. This contains details of Irish birth records (and some marrige and death records) transcribed from church registers. These records are not, unfortunately, complete, so there is no guarantee the IGi will hold information that you are seeking. However, it is a very worthy first port of call. The LDS has also just finished a transcription project of the another important resource from Ireland: civil registration indexes. These records are now starting to appear online, so the value of this site to Irish genealogists is continuing to grow.

• Genuki

  Genuki (an abreviation for Genealogy UK and Ireland) is an outstanding and free Irish genealogy resource, providing links to hundreds of sites that will be useful in your ancestry research. Its aim is to serve as a virtual genealogical reference library and most of the information is provides relates to primary historical material.

  On its pages you'll find all sorts of websites listed, most of them tightly targetted ie the sites of archives and local libraries, sites confirming the availability and location of church records, sites dedicated to specific surname interests, historical events, locations etc.

  The database can be entered from an All-Ireland page before proceeding to individual county pages.

• National Archives of Ireland

  A free Irish genealogy site that has had every family historian interested in Ireland hanging on with baited breath since 2006, the National Archives website is where you will find the 1901 and 1911 census returns. Or, to be more correct, you will find whatever has been digitised and made available at the time you search the site.

  In addition to a searchable index, you can downland the actual pages of the census returns, including the household returns and the enumerator's returns. (For details of what information the different returns contain, see these pages: the 1901 census and the 1911 census).

  The first returns released online were for Dublin 1911. That was in December 2007. (Find out more about the digitisation and release schedule.)

  While the sluggish speed of the digitisation has been criticised, there is no ignoring the fact that this growing site is an outstandingly important resource to the genealogy community worldwide.

• National Library of Ireland.

  I've included the National Library's online presence here despite its not having a database. It earns its place in this list of free Irish genealogy websites because here you can find a list of the National Library's microfilm holdings of Roman Catholic parish registers.

  These microfilms can only be viewed in person. However, even if you don't intend to visit Dublin, this list is important because it provides an at-a-glance view to the church records that survive. (It is worth noting that a minority of parishes hold additional, older records in local custody.)

  For example, the Library holds a microfilm of the baptism and marriage records of Killian parish in co. Galway dating back to 1804. For the parish of Clarenbridge in the same county, baptism records date back to 1854 while marriage records go back to 1837. This means that a family researcher looking for a Catholic ancestor born in 1810 in Killian should find a baptism record but if that same ancestor were from Clarenbridge, there would be no surviving records. Armed with this information, the genealogist knows to look elsewhere for this ancestor.

• PRONI

  Established in 1923 following the partition of the island into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is the official repository for public records for the six counties of Antrim, Armagh, Derry (Londonderry), Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone.

  This free Irish genealogy site offers databases containing details of those who signed the Ulster Covenant (1912), records of pre-1840 Freeholders, and the first phase of the Will calenders (1858-1900) project. You can also download several very useful advice guides specific to Northern Ireland research such as National School Records.

  Of course, the site also includes details of which microfilms or paper records are available for viewing at PRONI for each church and for which years.

• Townlands Database

  The IreAtlas townland database is a searchable database of all 60,000+ Irish townlands (and towns) as used for the 1851 census. It details the name of the County, Barony, Civil Parish, Poor Law Union and Province for each location.

  It is an important website for Irish ancestry research because it helps you to find the various jurisdictions in which any given Irish townland is located. Since each jurisdiction keeps different kinds of records useful to genealogical study, it is critical to know the jurisdictions which covered your ancestor's birthplace or home. To take advantage of this free Irish genealogy database, you must use the correct spelling of the townland (see the Help page if you get a nil return -- the problem is likely to be caused by spelling).

Where next?

There are also a small but growing number of family research collections available online for a fee. See my top 5 non- free Irish genealogy databases here.

If you don't know where in Ireland your ancestors lived, use these techniques to narrow the search.

Continue to move on with your Irish family history research.

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