How to trace your Irish roots

Irish history is endlessly fascinating and the stories of our ancestors who have roots in the Emerald Isle are no less intriguing. To help you research and treasure your family stories, we’ve gathered together a selection of handy historical hints and useful websites to help you trace your ancestors in Ireland. Don't believe that 'everything burned in the fire'. It's simply not true. Yes Irish genealogy does have challenges a-plenty but it is possible to make discoveries. We hope you enjoy the guide and links to follow.

Did you know?

The island of Ireland consists of four provinces:

• Ulster (in the North)
• Connaught (in the West)
• Leinster (in the East)
• And Munster (in the South)

And the island of Ireland consists of 32 counties:

When searching family history you’ll likely want to study a map showing historic county boundaries.

• The counties in Ulster are Londonderry, Antrim, Tryone, Down, Armagh and Fermanagh.
• Counties in Connaught: Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Galway.
• Counties in Leinster: Monaghan, Cavan, Longford, Westmeath, Meath, Louth, Offaly (Kings), Kildare, Dublin, Leix (Queens), Wicklow, Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford.
• Counties in Munster: Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, Kerry, Cork and Waterford.

About Irish parishes and townlands

There are about two and a half thousand civil parishes on the island of Ireland and about 1,000 Roman Catholic parishes. The smallest administrative unit is called a townland, and there are more than sixty thousand townlands on the island.

How to trace Irish ancestry for free

Here are some useful websites to get you started tracing your ancestors in Ireland for free.

Find maps for Irish family history research free online:

Townlands.ie – has maps for the 19th century townlands of Ireland.

Find Griffiths' Valuation records FREE online:

Ask About Ireland has Griffiths' Valuation records - mid-Victorian records of owners and occupiers of the land

Find census records for Ireland free online:

National Archives of Ireland – has 1901 and 1911 Census records for the whole island, plus census fragments for a small number of areas 1821-1851.

Make a date in your diary: the 1926 Census for the Republic of Ireland is due to become available, free, online on 18 April 2026! (The 1926 Census for Northern Ireland seems to have become lost over time unfortunately).

Find birth, marriage and death records for Irish ancestors free online:

Irish Genealogy – has birth, marriage and death records for the whole island (births up to 1919, marriages up to 1944, and deaths up to 1969)

Find a directory of web links for Irish records here:

For a treasure-trove of links for Irish online genealogy records, see the FamilySearch wiki pages here and overview information here. While these two links to the Wiki pages are free to view, you will need to log in and pay to actually explore and see the records. Nevertheless these Wiki pages are invaluable research aids - so bookmark the pages!

Become inspired to dig into Irish genealogy and history:

Explore free website, the Virtual Treasury, which is aiming to provide digitised copies of records that were destroyed in the Four Courts Fire in Dublin in 1922 during the Irish Civil War.

How to order birth, marriage and death certificates for family history for Ireland

Irish Genealogy – mentioned above, is your go-to FREE source for historic birth, marriage and death records for the whole island of Ireland. For more recent records you will need to use the two links below.

1. NI Direct – for BMDs for more recent times for Northern Ireland
2. GROI for BMDs for more recent times for the Republic of Ireland

Which genealogy site is best for Irish records?

As the census is such a super-useful family history record, and because the National Archives of Ireland Census website is free to use, then we would think that https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ is a keen contender for best website.

That said, the Irish Genealogy website - providing free access to historic digitised registers of births, marriages and death - is a gem too: www.irishgenealogy.ie

Which Irish records are online?

And, of course, the major general family history websites provide a wealth of material for Ireland. (Login and subscription will be required to explore the records in full):

Find a list of the record collections for Irish ancestors on:

• Ancestry - click here.
• Findmypast - click here.
• MyHeritage - click here.
• TheGenealogist - click here.

Don't forget to explore FamilySearch too. Find the FamilySearch link to records of relevance for Ireland here and Northern Ireland research here.

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How to trace your Irish ancestor's townland

Finding out the name of your Irish ancestor's townland is the Holy Grail of Irish family history. The townlands of Ireland are the smallest administrative unit - there are 60,000 townlands in the island of Ireland. So as you can tell, finding out the townland will mean that you know the origins of your family in Ireland to a pretty precise degree.

Griffiths' Valuations are useful records for finding the townland. See too this video guide from the National Archives of Ireland with further ideas to help you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-0ZurOdgqM

How to research Irish ancestors. You can do it!

Long-time family historians will know that many of the Irish census records have been destroyed and genealogical research in Ireland is traditionally regarded as a bit daunting. However, in recent years the growing collection of digitised records and useful websites means you can, with luck, make headway, as you will have realised from the links above.

To follow is the information, organised by topic, in case that appeals to you more than the questions-based approach above. The main thing is - take heart - it really is possible to find out about ancestors in Ireland. It's not necessarily easy, but you may be pleasantly surprised at what you can learn.

Quick links by topic

1. Maps
2. Census
3. Griffith’s Valuation
4. Birth, marriage & death
5. Parish registers
6. Wills
7. Emigration records
8. Archives & libraries
9. Associations, societies & websites
10. Irish history

Here are ten tools to help you tackle the quest:

1. Maps

You’ve found you have Irish ancestors but where did they come from? Old Maps Online has beautifully digitised old maps to search, browse and zoom. At Irish Townlands  you can work down from county to parish and townland, whilst at John Grenham you’ll find a range of clear useful maps showing boundaries.

2. Census

The census is a gem of a genealogy source, listing people by household (ie showing all the people under one roof, with occupations, place of birth and more). For Ireland the census records that have survived the passage of time are the 1901 and 1911 Censuses available free here.

3. Griffith’s Valuation

In the absence of a complete run of census records for researching 19th-century ancestors in Ireland, genealogists look to substitute records, most notably Griffith’s Valuations. Taken between 1847 and 1864, this property valuation covering all of Ireland is useful as it covers all sectors of society, landowners and tenants. Find it in several places for free online, including here. 

4. Birth, marriage & death

Civil registration records for Ireland began from 1845 for Non-Roman Catholic marriages and from 1864 for all denominations’ birth, marriage and death registrations. The Irish Genealogy website gives not only the index details but scanned copies of the full register pages.

5. Parish registers

Digital scans of Roman Catholic parish registers are freely available at NLI. Find the parish you need, and work through the register page by page or alternatively search the transcriptions at Ancestry or FindMyPast. 

For Church of Ireland parish registers see the work in progress here.

About half of the Church of Ireland parish registers were destroyed in the Four Courts fire in 1922. To see a list of surviving registers, search the directory on the COI website. 

6. Wills

For Calendars of wills 1858-1917 for all Ireland (or up to 1920 for the Republic of Ireland) can be searched here. See also wills calendars for Belfast, Armagh and Londonderry here.

7. Emigration records

If you’re tracing family who left Ireland then passenger lists can be useful – both those recording departures from Ireland and for arrivals too. The National Archives and Records Federation Irish Famine records span 12 January 1846 to 31 December 1851, and list more than 600,000 people arriving at the port of New York during this period, 70 percent of whom list Ireland as their native country. The database is available to search in many places online, including free site FamilySearch:  https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/2110821

8. Archives & libraries

For Northern Ireland see the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast and for the Republic of Ireland, see the National Archives of Ireland, Dublin and the National Library of Ireland.

9. Associations, societies & websites

• The Irish Family History Foundation 
• Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations 
• Irish Family History Society 
• North of Ireland Family History Society 
• Genealogical Society of Ireland 
• The Irish Genealogical Research Society 

10. Irish history

To make sense of your ancestors’ lives in Ireland it’s essential to learn about the wider history. As it was only following the Irish War of Independence that the country was divided into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, before 1922 you will find that many of the record collections you search will not be split north and south.

Typically nine out of ten people in Ireland have been Roman Catholic – particularly for the era in which you’ll be tracing your family history. This will have an impact on where you find your ancestors in the parish registers and whether you’ll find them listed as voters in electoral registers.

The Potato Famine (1845-49) occurred 180 years ago yet its consequences reach down to us today.

Prior to the famine, Ireland’s population was about 8 million but during those few years of crop failure a minimum of 1 million were to die and a further 2 million would leave the shores of their homeland in search of new lives in the decade following 1845.

Perhaps your ancestor was among them, and maybe this is the reason you count yourself part of the Irish diaspora to this day.

Further reading on Irish genealogy

See our additional guides to Irish genealogy, by Irish genealogy specialist David Ryan:

• Find your Irish ancestors using local archives and libraries
• From The Ashes: 1922 Irish Public Record Office Fire

Images in the public domain from the British Library Flickr collection.

 

Blog last updated 28 February 2025