Irish family history research has a well-deserved reputation for being difficult. Often it can seem nearly impossible. Where do you go to research once you have exhausted the typical sources? David Ryan shares his expertise for overcoming the common barriers to tracing Irish ancestors
This article will look at some of the most common barriers we encounter when researching our Irish ancestors and offer some potential solutions. When tracing your Irish ancestors, it’s very easy, for instance, to overlook the fact that there is so much material that isn’t online. From land records, probate indexes and many other collections, there are a lot of overlooked resources that might help with your research.
Family stories
Family stories are often the prompt to start us on the journey of researching our family history. These have often been passed down through the generations and may have become distorted and contradictory through the passage of time. This can cause confusion when beginning research into your Irish family history. Before starting the research, take the time to find out more if you can and to try to verify at least some of the information. For example, were your ancestors really from Cork or did they just depart from there?
Missing records
One of the first things most learn about Irish genealogical research is how challenging the loss of many historical records has made it. The Public Records Office of Ireland, which held valuable census records, church registers, and other documents, was destroyed during the Irish Civil War in 1922. This event resulted in significant gaps in the available records, making it harder to trace ancestors. However, it did not result in the total loss that is often assumed. But what was lost in the fire, and what does that mean for Irish genealogy?
Apart from a few fragments, the Irish censuses of 1821, 1831, 1841, and 1851 were burned in the Public Records Office. The later census records from 1861 to 1891 were not in the Public Record Office at the time of the fire. However, their loss was due to government bureaucracy. The original census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed shortly after the censuses were taken over privacy concerns. The 1881 and 1891 census were pulped during the First World War due to a paper shortage, and possibly under an assumption that the returns had been copied. There was no census in 1921 due to the upheaval caused by the Irish War of Independence. The first census of the new
