If you have Irish immigrants in your ancestry and have attempted to trace them back to Ireland, you already know the challenges of this quest. Many Americans who have Irish lines only know that someone came from Ireland at some time. Others are more fortunate to have found family records, immigration records or vital records that offer some clues as to where their ancestors lived in Ireland and when they might have emigrated. But for the majority of us who descend from poor Irish men and women who spent much of their lives struggling as new immigrants, we find they left few records. On the US census, often an ancestor’s record shows only the country of origin as Ireland, and we yearn for at least the name of the county.
Before we dive in to a tool to help us identify the areas of Ireland where our ancestors may have lived, it is imperative to understand how the country is organized.
While we have states and counties in America that form our basic municipal organization, Ireland has several more divisions besides the county level, both civil and religious. Wesley Johnston explains the province/county divisions very clearly and provides excellent maps.
After the county level, the next division is the Roman Catholic diocese. In Ireland, the organization of the dioceses precede the partition, so some are only in the North or in the Republic while others span both areas.
Within the diocese is the parish, and there are two types: civil and ecclesiastical, the latter of which is subdivided into Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland (Protestant.)
Two other divisions, the Barony and the Poor Law Union will not be part of this post but can be very helpful to researchers.
We now turn our attention to a record collection that may be of help in your search, no matter where you are in your knowledge of the location of your ancestors in Ireland. This record set is the “Ireland Roman Catholic Parish Records” at the National Library of Ireland (NLI.)
You can view the records at this site, but they are not transcribed and can be difficult to read. Fortunately, the genealogy program Findmypast
has transcribed many of the records and makes them searchable free of charge (you do need to set up an account.) Here is the page to browse the Parish records:
You are also able to search by surname in each of the three types of records: baptism, marriage and death. Later in the post, I will demonstrate a search of the baptismal records.
The company describes the full collection as:“ …over 10 million Catholic family records …Original church registers of baptisms, marriages, burials, communions, confirmations and more will reveal some of the most important details in your family's history. Every county and over 1,000 parishes in Ireland are covered.”
Before we do a search of the Parish Records to give you a taste of the process, here’s a tip: if you are new to Findmypast or want a refresher on how to search the records, I suggest you watch Jen Baldwin’s youtube video.
I decided to begin my Parish Record search in Findmypast with my paternal great grandfather’s surname of Carney. I have included screen shots (by permission of Findmpast) from the program to guide you through my search process.
When you sign in to Findmypast, this page appears: