Irish Genealogy News January-February 2026

Irish Genealogy News: February 2026

FindMyPast has updated its British Military record collection with big top-ups to two record-sets:

British Army, Worldwide Index - more than 235,000 new additions for 1881.
Royal Horse Artillery & Royal Artillery - some 72,000 new records for 1877-1882.

Ancestry has updated two of its FindAGrave collections, both of which may help researchers with Irish ancestors. They are:

The Society of Genealogists (SoG) website has been updated with a refreshed design and a brand new Learning Hub.

This update is designed to make it easier to explore family history learning and discover trusted genealogical content in one clear place.

In the Learning Hub, both members and non-members will find:

Filters to help researchers find their topics of interest.
A new search bar allowing you to search educational content by keyword or speaker name.
All the SoG's talks and guides in one place.

IrishGenealogy.ie, the free state-managed database of BMD indexes and (some) register images, has received its annual update, adding Birth records registered in 1925, Marriage registered in 1950, and Deaths registered in 1975.

Unfortunately, while the Death Indexes for 1864-1870 are available to search, the online register images are not. This is an ongoing annoyance for genealogists widely thought caused by an inter-departmental tussle for funds.

The records now available at IrishGenealogy.ie are:

Births: 1864 to 1925 - Indexes and register images
Marriages: 1845* to 1950 - Indexes and register images
Deaths: 1871 to 1975 - Indexes and register images
Deaths: 1864 to 1870 - Indexes only

* Marriages from 1845-1863 do not include Roman Catholic church marriages.

The British Newspaper Archive, which offers much of the British Library's newspaper and journal collection in its online database, has achieved a major milestone with more than 100million pages of newsprint now searchable. (The entire database is also available through some FindMyPast subscriptions.)

Helping it along to the milestone were two new additions to the Irish collection - the Leinster Express and the Irish Railway Gazette .

The Irish Genealogical Research Society is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year with a programme of international events. The inaugural event will be hosted by BIFHSGO (the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa) on Saturday 28 March.

Professor David A Wilson will present a lecture entitled “Focusing on the Migrants: How Genealogy Has Transformed Our Understanding of the Irish in Canada”, and light refreshments will be available. The event, which starts at 2pm in Ottawa/6pm in Ireland/UK, is free to attend, either in person (at Knox Presbyterian Church in Ottawa) or online. Registration is required. See details at BIFHSGO.ca.