Digital Libraries
Plenty of e-books relating to Irish history and genealogy are cropping up online that can be worth perusing. For example, great antiquarian books on Ireland can be found on the Internet Archive where international libraries and academic institutions often publish digital versions of their out of copyright treasures. For example the University of Pittsburgh have made available "Irish Landed Gentry" by John Hart (See my blog piece too.)
The Boston College Libraries' Irish History books are also published on here with 756 books listed - well worth settling down for a browse.
The AskAboutIreland digital book collection is also worth investigating - click on the "e-books by county" link on the right hand-side of the search page to find directories and histories.
Peter Clarke's Free Irish e-books site is a veritable goldmine of biographical, genealogical and historical material. He has collated literally thousands of links across a wide range of topics so make good use of his subject headings to explore the site. Be warned though - as he is posting links to other third party sites, it is inevitable that they break from time to time or disappear completely. If you find something useful and there is an opportunity to download, then do so as you may not be able to rely on accessing it again via this site.
The FamilySearch Digital Library also looks like a valuable source of material although you will need to be clever in how you search the catalogue. There is great treasure in here though as this is where one of the links from Peter Clarke's site mentioned above brought me to. Note, not all books are available to view online due to copyright restrictions.
Documenting Ireland: Parliament, People and Migration (DIPPAM) is a bit of mouthful and the first part of that triumvirate, the Enhanced Parliamentary Papers on Ireland (EPPI) looks to contain some fairly dull material genealogically speaking, but you would be wrong. Not only is this where I stumbled across the resource on apothecaries that I mentioned on my medical ancestors page, but just today, I spotted the First Annual Report of the Registrar General of Births, Marriages and Deaths for 1864, which is stuffed with fascinating statistics! The other resources on this site, namely the Irish Emigration Database and Voices of Migration and Return may prove very valuable if you are retracing your family footsteps from abroad.
The Irish Manuscripts Collection of digital editions of out of print publications is a very small virtual bookshelf, but there are some great free resources here. I've already highlighted the IMC published works of Beryl Eustace on wills in the Registry of Deeds and see my blog post about the Kings Inns Admission Papers. Do explore the other titles in this collection, which they are promising to expand.
The Boston College Libraries' Irish History books are also published on here with 756 books listed - well worth settling down for a browse.
The AskAboutIreland digital book collection is also worth investigating - click on the "e-books by county" link on the right hand-side of the search page to find directories and histories.
Peter Clarke's Free Irish e-books site is a veritable goldmine of biographical, genealogical and historical material. He has collated literally thousands of links across a wide range of topics so make good use of his subject headings to explore the site. Be warned though - as he is posting links to other third party sites, it is inevitable that they break from time to time or disappear completely. If you find something useful and there is an opportunity to download, then do so as you may not be able to rely on accessing it again via this site.
The FamilySearch Digital Library also looks like a valuable source of material although you will need to be clever in how you search the catalogue. There is great treasure in here though as this is where one of the links from Peter Clarke's site mentioned above brought me to. Note, not all books are available to view online due to copyright restrictions.
Documenting Ireland: Parliament, People and Migration (DIPPAM) is a bit of mouthful and the first part of that triumvirate, the Enhanced Parliamentary Papers on Ireland (EPPI) looks to contain some fairly dull material genealogically speaking, but you would be wrong. Not only is this where I stumbled across the resource on apothecaries that I mentioned on my medical ancestors page, but just today, I spotted the First Annual Report of the Registrar General of Births, Marriages and Deaths for 1864, which is stuffed with fascinating statistics! The other resources on this site, namely the Irish Emigration Database and Voices of Migration and Return may prove very valuable if you are retracing your family footsteps from abroad.
The Irish Manuscripts Collection of digital editions of out of print publications is a very small virtual bookshelf, but there are some great free resources here. I've already highlighted the IMC published works of Beryl Eustace on wills in the Registry of Deeds and see my blog post about the Kings Inns Admission Papers. Do explore the other titles in this collection, which they are promising to expand.
Here are links to some other texts I've found useful:
"An Historical Guide to Ancient and Modern Dublin: Illustrated by Engravings etc." (George Newnham Wright, 1821)
"A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland" (Sir Bernard Burke & Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, 1912)
"Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History" (Joseph Byrne, 2004)
"General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland, 1861"
"Guide to Irish Quaker Records, 1654-1860" (Olive C. Goodbody & B. G. Hutton, 1967)
"Guide to Public Records deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland" (e-book, Herbert Woods 1919 original prefaced by Sean Murphy)
"Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland, 1536-1810" (Sir Arthur Vicars, 1897)
"Irish Landed Gentry" (John O'Hart, 1887)
"Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1844-1845, Volume I, A-C Index"
"Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1844-1845, Volume II, D-M Index"
"Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1844-1845, Volume III, N-Z Index"
"A Primer of Irish Genealogy" (Sean Murphy)
"Return of Owners of Land of one acre and upwards for Ireland" (1876)
"Topological Dictionary of Ireland" (Samuel Lewis, 1837)
"Varieties and Synonymes of Surnames and Christian Names in Ireland" (RE Matheson, 1901)
"An Historical Guide to Ancient and Modern Dublin: Illustrated by Engravings etc." (George Newnham Wright, 1821)
"A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland" (Sir Bernard Burke & Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, 1912)
"Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History" (Joseph Byrne, 2004)
"General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland, 1861"
"Guide to Irish Quaker Records, 1654-1860" (Olive C. Goodbody & B. G. Hutton, 1967)
"Guide to Public Records deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland" (e-book, Herbert Woods 1919 original prefaced by Sean Murphy)
"Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland, 1536-1810" (Sir Arthur Vicars, 1897)
"Irish Landed Gentry" (John O'Hart, 1887)
"Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1844-1845, Volume I, A-C Index"
"Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1844-1845, Volume II, D-M Index"
"Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1844-1845, Volume III, N-Z Index"
"A Primer of Irish Genealogy" (Sean Murphy)
"Return of Owners of Land of one acre and upwards for Ireland" (1876)
"Topological Dictionary of Ireland" (Samuel Lewis, 1837)
"Varieties and Synonymes of Surnames and Christian Names in Ireland" (RE Matheson, 1901)
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2022
