Where do I start tracing Irish ancestors if I only know a name and a rough date?
With the free records, in the order that hands each step the information the next one needs. First the surname map, to turn 32 counties into two or three. Then the censuses: 1901 and 1911 cover the whole island and 1926 covers the Free State, all free at the National Archives, and a household return gives you names, ages, occupations and the townland. Then the civil record of a birth, marriage or death at IrishGenealogy.ie, which confirms the townland. Only then go to the parish registers and Griffith's Valuation, which need that townland to make sense. Our Trace Your Irish Roots pathway walks the whole sequence with the official sources linked at each stage.
Useful pages: The Irish surnames map · Trace your Irish roots · The 1926 Census guide · Coming home · Irish around the world · Plan your journey
Sources
- National Archives of Ireland: the 1901, 1911 and 1926 censuses, nationalarchives.ie
- IrishGenealogy.ie and the General Register Office: civil records of births, marriages and deaths
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