Where do I research ancestors from County Donegal?
Donegal Ancestry, the county's Irish Family History Foundation centre, now works from the Old Courthouse in Lifford, and its database of almost a million records is on RootsIreland: parish registers of every denomination, civil births, marriages and deaths, Griffith's Valuation, the 1901 and 1911 censuses and gravestone inscriptions. The County Archives Service is also in Lifford, and Donegal Central Library in Letterkenny holds the local studies collection. Two things surprise people. First, Donegal's census substitutes start early, the 1630 muster roll and the hearth money rolls of the 1660s. Second, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast holds extensive Donegal material too, because the county is an Ulster county whatever side of the border it sits.
Useful pages: The Irish surnames map · Trace your Irish roots · The 1926 Census guide · Coming home · Irish around the world · Plan your journey
Sources
- Irish Family History Foundation: RootsIreland and the county genealogy centres, rootsireland.ie
- Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the General Register Office of Northern Ireland, via nidirect: valuation revision books, church records and civil records
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