Irish Ancestry: Where to start?

[ral91]

Hi,

Now, I've a branch of my family who are Irish; my Grandmother came over and married my Grandfather in the '50's, and I know very little about her family. Although I've managed to extract some info out of her, I always feel she is reluctant to talk about it. (not a happy childhood as far as I know)

I have her parents' names and one set of her grandparents, but I'm wondering where to go from here. I've never researched ancestors outside of London before, so find it a bit daunting. I feel a should find a bit more about her family, as opposed to her husbands. I'm sure she'd love to know more.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Ryan

 

[susanwillis59]

whole new ball game irish records, unfortunatly most of the records where destroyed in 1920. having said that there are loads of sites dedicated to irish geneology. i have axxxxxxxry and for irish records they are not so good.the LDS site is good. the main problem for me is the price of the certificates they are 20.00 pounds , which is a lot to pay if its a wrong un. but dont let that deter you, start with what you have , but the only thing i have found is that in ireland its all about countys. my hubbys dad was born in belfast, but couldnt find him , when we finally found out it was county antrim we found him. im sure some of our irish members will help you so just stick a post on the forum and happy hunting. suex

 

[Siobhan]

You should be able to locate some of your gt or gt gt grandparents in the 1901 and 1911 census, both of which are free and online at www.census.nationalarchives.ie. Earlier census returns exist only for a few locations.

The entire civil registration index from 1845/1864 to 1921 for (Northern Ireland bmds) or 1959 (Republic bmds) are also online and free through the LDS Irish Collection. If you identify an entry that seems to be relevant to you, you can purchase the certificate for just 4Euros by downloading the application form at www.groireland.ie, quoting the reference found in the index, and sending off for a 'research photocopy'. Takes a few weeks.

Provided you know the location your family came from, you should be able to research back to the early 1800s fairly easily and very cheaply. You don't need subscriptions to any of the big genealogy databases -- they're generally pretty useless for Irish research.

Good luck.

 

[Karen Strother]

Hi
I have some very good news for Irish researchers. I was trying to locate the marriage cert of my GG grandparents in 1876 in Drogheda. Managed to get the folio etc from LDS site but all the sites I found for ordering certs were going to cost an arm and a leg.
Then I received an email update from Rootsireland.ie so logged in and found their marriage record. It will help if you know the area or it will take ages to keep narrowing the search fields down.
It cost me 5 euros to look at the record, which I printed. It is the actual Church Marriage Record too. They debited my credit card about $7.50 Australian so I saved heaps. Needless to say, I'm glad I got it this way - I was after the parent's names and they are not on it so I got a huge bargain!
Cheers
Karen

 

[ral91]

Hi
I have some very good news for Irish researchers. I was trying to locate the marriage cert of my GG grandparents in 1876 in Drogheda. Managed to get the folio etc from LDS site but all the sites I found for ordering certs were going to cost an arm and a leg.
Then I received an email update from Rootsireland.ie so logged in and found their marriage record. It will help if you know the area or it will take ages to keep narrowing the search fields down.
It cost me 5 euros to look at the record, which I printed. It is the actual Church Marriage Record too. They debited my credit card about $7.50 Australian so I saved heaps. Needless to say, I'm glad I got it this way - I was after the parent's names and they are not on it so I got a huge bargain!
Cheers
Karen

Hi Karen, that sounds like a stroke of luck for you! When you mention knowing the area I'm looking for, how specific would you need to be? All I know is that my grandmother and great grandparents were from "outside of Galway" Would this be too vague?

Ryan

 

[Karen Strother]

Hi Karen, that sounds like a stroke of luck for you! When you mention knowing the area I'm looking for, how specific would you need to be? All I know is that my grandmother and great grandparents were from "outside of Galway" Would this be too vague?

Ryan

Hi Ryan
All I knew when I first started this line was that they had baptised 2 children in Mornington Meath. I tried Meath sites from googling with no luck, tried all the Irish sites then realised the records were not available. I found the marriage info on the LDS IGI Pilot site. I searched for both names but nothing came up so then I searched separately and found him, searched again for her and saw the Vol and Folio numbers matched. Then I ordered the film to have a look at my local family centre but it didn't show anything but the info on the site so I wasted my money! They married in Drogheda which is in Louth so I guess they moved after getting married.
I am now looking for her baptism but no luck - sometimes they married in the church the women were baptised in.
Try pilot first for children's baptisms if you know the children's details then you may get an idea of the area. If you need help just post the names and dates and any children etc and I will try for you.
Cheers
Karen