Ireland Genealogy - Tracing Your Irish Family Tree

Your Irish parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents may make you eligible for Irish citizenship by descent, giving you the right to apply for an Irish passport.

Researching your Irish ancestors online can be difficult as there is no one-stop Web site with vast quantities of Irish family history records. Yet many sites offer valuable data for researching Irish ancestry in the form of extractions, transcriptions and digitized images. Try these sites first when researching your Irish family tree.

Discover the meaning of your Irish last name, and find where in Ireland these Irish surnames are most commonly found.

Tips for obtaining vital records in the country of Ireland -- including records of birth, death, marriage and divorce. Learn the dates for which vital records are available, and where to find them.

This article by Lyman D. Platt gives us a few starting pointers on genealogy research in Ireland as well as a list of resources for further research.

Irish research can be amongst the most difficult in the world. Celtic Origins will have one of their Irish specialists look at your problem without cost or obligation and make a free search evaluation.

"Results of Fire and Famine: Census Records in Ireland 1813-1911,"   is an excellent article from Ancestry Magazine on the problems with the Irish census.

An excellent historical timeline of Ireland from the earliest times through the present by Brendan O' Brien, from Virginia, Co. Cavan.

Over 500 pages of ideas and resources for genealogical research in Ireland. 

From his Pocket Guide to Irish Genealogy, Brian Mitchell explains what resources in your ancestors' country of immigration, such as the United States or Australia, can help you find the information you need

Members are on hand to offer advice and, sometimes, reciprocal research for overseas members and others seeking information on their Irish roots.

Many volunteers willing to help with lookups of specific items at institutions near them or information easily accessible to them pertaining to Irish research.

A free message board devoted to Ireland queries.  

This is THE place to start for genealogy research in Ireland and the UK.

An excellent article on this tax survey held in Ireland 1845-1850, which is an invaluable reference for family historians with ancestors in Ireland since no census material of the nineteenth century has survived.

Search for free online through over 600 million names which were extracted from vital records throughout the world, including the early years of Irish civil registration from 1864 and some Irish church registers.

This site run by Vicky Lindsay provides researchers with the opportunity to exchange information from BDM certificates. 

A wonderful all-volunteer system of county-centered online information for Ireland, including queries, surname listings, publications, associations and libraries, lookup volunteers, records, and more!

An excellent introduction to Irish genealogy, from the book Tracing Your Irish Roots, as well as unique features on the history and culture of Ireland.

This easy to navigate site provides a wonderful timeline of Irish history including a series of maps, from 150 AD to the present. Another nice feature is the lists of surname connections to the Irish counties.

A wonderful guide to genealogical research in Ireland.

A nonprofit organization established to promote the study and exchange of ideas among people interested in Irish genealogical and historical research and education.

Find resources for hundreds of Clan and Family Associations from the Irish Ancestral Research Association.

An excellent article by Mary Johnston on the reasons behind the mass exodus.

This society was founded in London in 1936 to promote and encourage the study of Irish genealogy and to collect books and manuscripts of genealogical value. Membership is open to all who have an interest in Irish genealogy.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, this group boasts over 2200 members in all 50 U.S. States and 10 other countries.  Membership includes a quarterly journal and a welcome packet of research information and forms.

A look at Irish naming trends and patterns as a tool in family history research.

Learn about researching Irish place names and family names with this excerpt from the Introduction to "Irish Records: Sources for Family and Local History," by James G. Ryan, Ph.D.

This company sells high-quality photos of old Ireland and Irish people during the early-1900s. The collection of prints features Irish castles, towns, coastline, and countryside scenes in easy-to-navigate galleries.

The premier Irish family history magazine aimed at all those who wish to know about, and to identify themselves with, the postive aspects of their Irish heritage, with particular emphasis on the International nature of the Irish community.

A wonderful article "Fact or Blarney: Proving the Legacies Left by Irish Storytellers," by Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, from Ancestry Magazine.

The Irish definitely have a gift for words.  Browse through this site for Irish toasts as well as these pages for sayings, blessings, and proverbs.

There is no better step-by-step instruction guide for beginning research in Ireland than this one provided by the LDS church.

Learn more about the wealth of genealogy and family history information available for researchers at the National Library of Ireland.

This site provides an excellent overview of the major research records available for Irish genealogy, including methods for working around the records that were unfortunately destroyed in 1921 during the Civil War.

The sister-site to Ireland GenWeb (see above), this wonderful GenWeb site concentrates it's efforts on research in Northern Ireland.

PRONI holds millions of documents which relate primarily to Northern Ireland with the main concentration of records covering the period 1600 to the present. Many great research guides are available which detail their collections.

Brian Randell, of GENUKI, offers an excellent guide for North Americans researching their Irish history from abroad.

Begin your Irish research on the Internet or at your public library and travel overseas only after you exhaust records available at home. An article by Dwight A. Radford in Ancestry Magazine.

A wonderful lesson in how to research your Irish, Scotch-Irish, and Scottish Ancestors.

A tribute to our Irish ancestors with genealogy, song and dance, recipes, Gaelic terms, Irish roots of American Presidents and more.

A guide to finding information about Irish genealogy at the Library of Congress by Judith P. Reid.

Search for a specific town or townland or obtain a list of all placenames in any specific parish or county of Ireland.

The complete text of this 668 page book written by John Francis McGuire in 1868 is available online.

Web site for the PBS "historic epic" which was first aired in 1998.   Check out their neat list of common Irish surnames, with sources and meanings!

Details of those transported to Australia extracted from records held at the National Archives can be searched online.