“Janey Mack!” New Online Irish Records

If you are like most of us who do genealogy, you get pretty excited (hence the Irish exclamation I used in the title—“Janey Mack”) when new information is available online. So, you can probably guess how excited I was when I learned that more Irish historical register records, including birth, marriage, and death (BMD), are available online! The General Records Office (GRO) has made numerous records available to the public online (for free!), including birth records for 1917 and 1918, marriages from 1864-1869 and 1942-1943, and death records for 1967 and 1968. These records can be searched at the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht website.

Now available are birth register records from 1864-1917, marriage register records from 1845-1943 (non-Roman Catholic; they began in 1864), and death register records from 1864-1968. The GRO is updating record availability all the time, so continue to check back to see if new records have been added. I took a look at the new records and found an ancestor’s birth record from 1917. The information lists the mother’s maiden name. I now have a new clue and a new line to research.

To learn more about Irish records research, the Midwest Genealogy Center offers two classes; sign up for Irish Records Research: The Colonial Period on Wednesday, September 18, to learn how to research your 18th century ancestors, and Irish Records Research: Waves of Migration on Wednesday, September 25, to learn how to research your 19th and 20th century ancestors.

If you are looking for a wide selection of Irish records, FindMyPast (in-library use only) is available at any MCPL branch. There are millions of Irish records dating as far back as 1270. Their Irish record collection includes:

• Irish vital records dating back to the 13th century
• Military records
• Over 2 million Irish directories
• Irish prison registers and court records

Check out these resources for yourself and see what new discoveries you can make!

Sheri V.
Midwest Genealogy Center