Church of Ireland Parish Records Finder
How will these resources help you find surviving Church of Ireland Parish Records?
Firstly, do take a look at my Church of Ireland Parishes & Registers page first if you haven't done so already, as much of what I think I've learned about these records is documented there and went into the construction of this finding aid.
For each county there will be a grid (spreadsheet) that lists all the Church of Ireland parishes for which some form of records exist either in the major Dublin or Belfast institutions or via selected websites. You will be able to compare;
Note, there are also records for many parishes that are still in local custody which are not currently included in these spreadsheets - I'm working on this for the next version! In the meantime you can find out which parishes this applies to by consulting either of the finding aids referenced below for the RCBL or PRONI. The RCBL list also details of which parish records were destroyed in 1922.
Firstly, do take a look at my Church of Ireland Parishes & Registers page first if you haven't done so already, as much of what I think I've learned about these records is documented there and went into the construction of this finding aid.
For each county there will be a grid (spreadsheet) that lists all the Church of Ireland parishes for which some form of records exist either in the major Dublin or Belfast institutions or via selected websites. You will be able to compare;
- on the LEFT, original surviving physical registers, copies, transcripts, microfilm or digital versions held at the:
- on the RIGHT, indexes, transcripts and selected images available on-line via the:
- RootsIreland (subscription site)
- Irish Genealogy (Church Records) website from the Irish Department for Tourism, Culture, Arts, the Gaeltacht, Sports & Media (DTCAGSM) (free website)
Note, there are also records for many parishes that are still in local custody which are not currently included in these spreadsheets - I'm working on this for the next version! In the meantime you can find out which parishes this applies to by consulting either of the finding aids referenced below for the RCBL or PRONI. The RCBL list also details of which parish records were destroyed in 1922.
Where did I get all this information from?
Compiling these comparison spreadsheets has been no easy task. They were born of a frustration of coming across multiple and sometimes contradictory information about what records or copies may have survived and where to get access to them.
For the record, here are the different finding aids I attempted to wrangle into one consolidated set of data:
All of these documents and websites are subject to periodical updates and changes - here's what I've noticed about them as I've consulted different versions over the years:
Always consult the original finding aid BEFORE you plan any trip to an institution to make sure you get the most up-to-date information.
Compiling these comparison spreadsheets has been no easy task. They were born of a frustration of coming across multiple and sometimes contradictory information about what records or copies may have survived and where to get access to them.
For the record, here are the different finding aids I attempted to wrangle into one consolidated set of data:
- "List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers" - RCBL
- "A Handlist of Church of Ireland Vestry Minute Books in the RCB Library, Dublin"
- "A Guide to Church Records" - PRONI
- Irish Genealogy (Church Records) - current list of parishes online
- "Church of Ireland Parish Registers on Microfilm" at the National Archives of Ireland
- Roots Ireland - Sources by County
All of these documents and websites are subject to periodical updates and changes - here's what I've noticed about them as I've consulted different versions over the years:
- Although the RCBL "List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers" is touted as the definitive list and it is very thorough, it does contain errors from their own copied data. For example, if you compare the colour-coded list entry with the detailed catalogue entry accessible via the hyperlinked parish name, some parishes don't have the same county, diocese and/or date ranges. I've taken my data from any detailed catalogue entries that exist.
- Where the RCBL have dates highlighted in pink indicating registers in PRONI, there are a lot of discrepancies with PRONI's own Guide to Church Records. I've taken my data from the latter.
- Where parishes cross county boundaries, check finding aids for BOTH counties as they don't always agree on which county to use. To be fair, PRONI is pretty good at pointing out both counties. Roots Ireland may take a bit more figuring out as parishes seem to be traded around between neighbouring county family history centres.
- Parish name spellings vary constantly. See my Wildcards page for some ideas on what letters to play around with to create spelling variants. The Placenames of Ireland website is also great for suggesting variants. The RCBL and PRONI documents are vast so if you are using the search function and are not having much success with your chosen spelling, try just putting in a distinctive portion of the parish name.
- Roots Ireland volunteers continue to add new records whilst bizarrely some parishes have also disappeared from their county sites that did have transcripts before?
Always consult the original finding aid BEFORE you plan any trip to an institution to make sure you get the most up-to-date information.
How to use the spreadsheets
Firstly, please be a little patient when you first pull up these pages as the spreadsheet might take a few moments to load from the Cloud - the "waiting ..." message bottom left of the screen means something is happening, I promise you! However, occasionally there may be problems with the other server or connections and the spreadsheets will not appear - I'm sorry, not much I can do about that, but just try a little later and things have usually sorted themselves out. If they stubbornly refuse to appear or it's obvious there's something wrong, let me know via my Contact Form and I'll endeavour to fix it.
Secondly, there is much more information available than you can see in the initial spreadsheet window. Click on any parish name in column 2 and scroll right in order to see more, according to the columns described in more detail below. As the red text instruction says, this currently EXCLUDES any records currently held in local custody, as I need to work out a way of shoehorning them into the spreadsheets without making them totally unwieldy!
Civil Parish Name
The Church of Ireland parishes have been matched, where possible, to a civil parish named as it appears on John Grenham's Irish Ancestors website. This is usually the same as the church parish name, give or take several vowels, but it could be a completely different name which will appear in blue. If you want to see where the civil parish is and find out more about the townlands it contains and who its neighbours are then take a note of the name and click on the named cell just underneath the county name. This should take you to the map page for the county where you can select your chosen parish. However, watch out for parishes just on or even crossing county borders as you might have to look at the map for the neighbouring county as indicated.
Civil parishes will help you to find census records and land records. Equally, if you know the civil parish from a census record you have already found, be sure to check this column for ALL occurrences of it as you may find it covers more than one named church and you need to widen your search for records. For example, there may have been what were called Chapels of Ease - smaller outlying churches aligned with the main parish church but located to allow people to attend Sunday service without having to walk all day there and back.
Church of Ireland Parish Name
This is the name of the parish as it appears on the RCBL list, which may be a slightly different spelling to that used by say PRONI or the National Archives of Ireland. Parish names vary across all finding aids, which can sometimes make it difficult to match up parishes exactly across all sources - I've done my best but fully accept that there may be errors. The RCBL may also have the parish in a different county to Roots Ireland, but that is usually because it is located on or near the county border. PRONI is pretty good at pointing out parishes in both counties, so I've gone with the one listed in the RCBL list.
If a parish name in this column is underlined & blue, click on the name to go to FREE transcripts of some or most of the actual records, available on-line through the RCBL Anglican Record Project. There are not very many of these at the moment but always nice to come across the fruits of a fellow genie's labour so generously shared - St. Fiacc's, Clonegal was a true gift to my own research.
If you want to see exactly where the churches where on a map and perhaps learn a little bit more about the local ecclesiastical geography, then click on the cell that says "Church of Ireland Parish Finder & Map" and you will go to Shane Wilson's excellent web page. Use his query boxes to search by county, diocese and/or parish and you will see the churches pinned to a Google map. Shane also helpfully includes what he knows about the physical church and lists its near neighbours in other parishes - very useful if you need to widen your search.
Diocese
You will need to know which diocese a parish was assigned to in order to search the right sets of records for marriage licences and wills prior to civil registration (1845) and state probate (1858) respectively. Note, dioceses and their parishes have changed over time so it may be that the modern parish is assigned to a different diocese today than the historical records suggest. Therefore you might need to take this into consideration when trying to find contact details to request access to records in local custody.
NAI MCF#
This stands for National Archives of Ireland Microfilm number. If you can make it to the National Archives in Dublin and your parish is on their list, then you are in luck, as the NAI had some original records in their possession and filmed many of them covering the 19th century or earlier. They rarely filmed any register entries later than 1870. The actual range of dates covered are not online via the NAI but it looks like John Grenham has been able to consult the card indexes there in person and he has listed them via the Church Records option off his County pages - look under his "Browse" tab, pick your County, pick Church Records and finally Church of Ireland. Scroll down his list to find your parish of interest.
Baptisms, Marriages, Burials & Vestry Minutes
The date ranges of each of these types of events are colour-coded so you can compare holdings and pick the right location for your chosen time period. They are in the same colours that are used to describe the main institutions as listed at the top of the spreadsheet:
- Representative Church Body Library in Dublin
- National Archives of Ireland in Dublin
- Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast
I've tried to reflect the exact date ranges advised by each institution as there can be some quite substantial gaps in the records, which are not always indicated in summary documents like the RCBL list. I've also tried to differentiate between original documents (standard font) and what might be copies, transcripts or other materials (italics). Greyed out boxes are fairly self-explanatory - no records currently available at the named institutions. However, don't forget, these spreadsheets don't currently include date ranges for any registers still in local custody, so check the RCBL and PRONI documents carefully for these.
Roots Ireland or Irish Genealogy Records
This half of the spreadsheet details what you can access online for the given parishes with either of these organisations. The parish name as it appears on their sites and dates ranges for baptisms, marriages and burials are listed for you to compare with the other side of the spreadsheet. If you want to go directly to the relevant website, click on the cell that contains the name of the family history centre (Roots Ireland) or the church records search page (Irish Genealogy).
General points to note for Roots Ireland (see also my observations on my Church of Ireland Parishes & Registers page):
- I strongly recommend that you check the Online Sources for any county that you are interested in BEFORE you buy a subscription as they do add (and remove?) records periodically. I try to keep checking regularly but I may be out of date at any time.
- Checking the Online Sources page for each county may also alert you to additional types of transcripts that are searchable on their site e.g. graveyard transcriptions.
- The Church of Ireland coverage for some counties is woefully lacking but that could be because volunteers have concentrated on the Roman Catholic records.
Where can I access these spreadsheets?
They are accessible from any of the County pages or alternatively you can choose from the list below;
They are accessible from any of the County pages or alternatively you can choose from the list below;
- Co. ANTRIM
- Co. ARMAGH
- Co. CARLOW
- Co. CAVAN
- Co. CLARE
- Co. CORK
- Co. DONEGAL
- Co. DOWN
- Co. DUBLIN
- Co. FERMANAGH
- Co. GALWAY
- Co. KERRY
- Co. KILDARE
- Co. KILKENNY
- Co. LAOIS (Queens)
- Co. LEITRIM
- Co. LIMERICK
- Co. (LONDON)DERRY
- Co. LONGFORD
- Co. LOUTH
- Co. MAYO
- Co. MEATH
- Co. MONAGHAN
- Co. OFFALY (Kings)
- Co. ROSCOMMON
- Co. SLIGO
- Co. TIPPERARY
- Co. TYRONE
- Co. WATERFORD
- Co. WESTMEATH
- Co. WEXFORD
- Co. WICKLOW
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2020