Which records are held in Ireland and which in America?
The records divide by where the event happened. America holds the emigrant's American life: passenger arrival lists from 1820, the federal census, naturalization papers, city directories, American birth, marriage and death certificates, and the registers of the American parishes where they worshipped. Ireland holds the life left behind: civil birth, marriage and death records (free at IrishGenealogy.ie), the Catholic parish registers (free on the National Library of Ireland's site), the 1901 and 1911 censuses, Griffith's Valuation for the 1850s and 1860s, and the Tithe Applotment Books a generation earlier. Work from America backwards. The American records are the ones that can name the county or townland, and without that place the Irish records, which are organised by place, are hard to use.
Useful pages: Irish in USA · The Irish surnames map · Trace your Irish roots · Coming home · Irish around the world
Sources
- National Archives and Records Administration (US): passenger lists, census clues and naturalization guidance, archives.gov
- IrishGenealogy.ie and the General Register Office: civil records of births, marriages and deaths
- National Library of Ireland: Catholic parish registers, registers.nli.ie
More in Irish in USA and the diaspora
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- What documents do I need for a Foreign Births Registration application?
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- What is the difference between citizenship by descent and the Foreign Births Register?
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