Church of Ireland Parishes & Registers
Photo by Wiggy
Why are parishes important genealogically and how many of them were there?
From its creation as the Established Church in the second half of the 16th century, the Church of Ireland parish church has been where many important genealogical events have taken place and been recorded in the parish registers, namely baptisms, marriages and burials. Other ecclesiastical events may also have been recorded such as banns and confirmations. The business of running the parish was also meticulously recorded by wardens and clerks in the vestry minutes books.
Whilst the ruling Protestant population formed a minority of the worshipping population, their churches could be described as the "legal" and "civil" epicentres for everyone in their hinterlands e.g. dispensing local ecclesiastical justice and parochial welfare. For many years they were also the only places in which marriages would be recognised as lawful which was vitally important for ensuring inheritance rights for children. Outside of the larger towns and cities, they were often the only consecrated ground in which Christian burials could take place. For all these reasons, it can be a good idea to search Church of Ireland records for your non-Anglican ancestors too.
There were probably an average of around 2500 Church of Ireland parishes in existence over the 250 years or so that the records we are interested in were created. That's my guess as it's about the same number of civil parishes that were formed by Elizabeth 1 to exactly match the existing church parishes. Of course, both of these geographical units have been subject to changes in size and shape over the years with lots of mergers and divisions. Some ancient names have disappeared forever, whilst others popped up again later (Bunclody - I'm looking at you!) This can make tracking down church records very challenging, so you are in for some meticulous research.
Four Courts Conflagration in 1922 - Photo from Wikimedia Commons
What records were lost?
Let's deal with THE elephant in the room first. Until it's disestablishment in 1870, certain records of the Church of Ireland were technically records of state and as such parishes who were unable to demonstrate that they could secure them properly were required to deposit their registers in the Public Records Office of Ireland (PROI) in Dublin. This office was located in the Four Courts Complex on the north bank of the River Liffey.
In the summer of 1922 during the Irish Civil War, someone thought it was a grand idea to store munitions next to all that flammable paper and the inevitable happened, with over 1000 years of Ireland's history going up in smoke. Legal records including wills proved in the Diocese of Dublin and later, the Principal Registry, along with Chancery and Exchequer documents all turned to ash and decorated the skyline, as pictured right. About 1000 Church of Ireland parish registers covering roughly half of Ireland were also included in the bonfire, along with marriage licence bonds.
Was there ever an event in Ireland's long and at times troubled history that we genealogists weep copiously over? This singularly shocking catastrophe also had far-reaching consequences for the cause of Irish family history research over the last century, in that it fuelled the oft-heard lament that "You can't do Irish research because everything was burnt!" Not true, of course - it's just that bit more challenging and that sometimes makes for some colourful alternative evidence, don't you think?
Let's deal with THE elephant in the room first. Until it's disestablishment in 1870, certain records of the Church of Ireland were technically records of state and as such parishes who were unable to demonstrate that they could secure them properly were required to deposit their registers in the Public Records Office of Ireland (PROI) in Dublin. This office was located in the Four Courts Complex on the north bank of the River Liffey.
In the summer of 1922 during the Irish Civil War, someone thought it was a grand idea to store munitions next to all that flammable paper and the inevitable happened, with over 1000 years of Ireland's history going up in smoke. Legal records including wills proved in the Diocese of Dublin and later, the Principal Registry, along with Chancery and Exchequer documents all turned to ash and decorated the skyline, as pictured right. About 1000 Church of Ireland parish registers covering roughly half of Ireland were also included in the bonfire, along with marriage licence bonds.
Was there ever an event in Ireland's long and at times troubled history that we genealogists weep copiously over? This singularly shocking catastrophe also had far-reaching consequences for the cause of Irish family history research over the last century, in that it fuelled the oft-heard lament that "You can't do Irish research because everything was burnt!" Not true, of course - it's just that bit more challenging and that sometimes makes for some colourful alternative evidence, don't you think?
What Church of Ireland records did survive and where can you find them?
Firstly, not every pre-1922 parish register was deposited in the PROI that fateful night. Over 600 original registers remained in local custody, where they may have remained to this day or sadly, may have disappeared into private collections or, God forbid, skips. Some clergy made local transcripts to keep prior to handing over their precious volumes. Enterprising Victorian genealogists also made selective transcripts to support their own research. Parish documents other than the registers may have survived in local custody, such as vestry minutes. These can be a hugely valuable source of information on the distribution of parish welfare or the enforcement of local ecclesiastical law across all parishioners, not just the Church of Ireland congregations. All of this genealogical bounty is accessible in different forms via the following physical and online locations;
Firstly, not every pre-1922 parish register was deposited in the PROI that fateful night. Over 600 original registers remained in local custody, where they may have remained to this day or sadly, may have disappeared into private collections or, God forbid, skips. Some clergy made local transcripts to keep prior to handing over their precious volumes. Enterprising Victorian genealogists also made selective transcripts to support their own research. Parish documents other than the registers may have survived in local custody, such as vestry minutes. These can be a hugely valuable source of information on the distribution of parish welfare or the enforcement of local ecclesiastical law across all parishioners, not just the Church of Ireland congregations. All of this genealogical bounty is accessible in different forms via the following physical and online locations;
- The Representative Church Body Library (RCBL) in Dublin - original documents, copies, transcripts plus a few online resources,
- Local custody across Ireland - original documents (you will have to apply to the local rector or diocesan office),
- The National Archives of Ireland (NAI) in Dublin - microfilm copies and a few selected original documents,
- The National Library of Ireland (NLI) in Dublin - very little though - perhaps selected transcripts in manuscript collections,
- The Public Record Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast - original documents and microfilm,
- Local county archives & libraries (see county specific pages under "Recipes") - possibly access to material transcribed by RootsIreland?
- RootsIreland subscription website - transcripts of multiple sources but no source citations,
- Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, the Gaeltacht, Sports & Media - free website at irishgenealogy.ie. - indexes and some digital images for 3 counties only (Cork, Dublin & Kerry),
- Ireland Genealogy Projects (IGP) - free website - miscellaneous transcripts and extracts contributed by volunteers,
- Church of Ireland Parish Search Forms - digitised results from searches made in early decades of the 20th century. Multiple sources - see below.
- Google! (* other browsers are available!) - try your luck with parish names.
Click on image to access latest version of document
What's available from the Church of Ireland library?
The Representative Church Body Library (RCBL) in Dublin has become home to many of these precious ledgers and other associated documents and continues to receive deposits of both older and current registers for safekeeping. Dr. Susan Hood, in association with the IGRS, has posted a video entitled "Church of Ireland Records", which is an excellent introduction to the subject.
The RCBL also publish the current authoritative work on what records survive for any given parish in the form the "The List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers". This document is kept up to date with any new acquisitions and also attempts to document the existence of some of the copies or transcripts in other locations e.g. NAI, NLI & PRONI.
It's a bit of a monster and even speaking as a spreadsheet diva with a penchant for overloading information by colour-coding, this document does suffer a bit from ... overloading of information by colour coding! That said, there is a wealth of information in here to help your research. You can not only learn what the RCBL have in Dublin, but also what still remains in local custody and what was lost in 1922. You can also learn a bit about what is held in PRONI but be warned, this list is very incomplete on this point and the date ranges are wildly different in some instances. I'm not sure why this is the case.
This means there might be several entries for the same parish, which are all listed in alphabetical order in one continuous huge list with the diocese and county given to help distinguish between common names. There are also quite a lot of entries in italics that refer you to another parish name, reflecting the many splits and mergers that have occurred over the years I suppose. I do think that this wonderful resource is screaming out to become a database!
In the meantime, a really useful feature of this document are the embedded hyperlinks for most parishes. If the parish entry is highlighted in yellow with date ranges and/or the name is in blue and underscored then click on the name to go to a short document that will be the detailed RCBL catalogue entry. This is usually in a standardised format and contains a variety of useful extra information e.g.;
So, ALWAYS consult the detailed RCBL catalogue entry if it is available BEFORE planning any field visit to the library.
One extra bit of advice when trying to access the catalogue entries - unfortunately from time to time some of the links may break and may result in a rather alarming error popping up that says your privacy is being attacked online! Don't panic - I alerted the RCBL to this problem and they provided a short term remedy for whenever it happens, whilst they no doubt go about finding and correcting the broken links. Look at what appears in your browser window as the URL and insert "www." before the word "ireland" right at the beginning. Hit return and you should get to the document safely.
The RCBL do have a very limited number of parish transcripts available to browse online, somewhat confusingly located on 2 separate pages; Links to the parishes mentioned on these pages can also generally be found in the main RCBL Table of All Parish registers - scroll right to see if they are highlighted in green in the Notes section, but be warned I have found quite a few broken links. I'm afraid the RCBL likes to move pages around on its site to keep me on my toes!
The Irish Government did award the RCBL a grant in 2018 towards digitising the surviving Church of Ireland registers. However, there have been no further announcements as to plans or progress made in the last 5 years. I believe that the idea is to make the documents freely available online, which would be marvellous, but it would be good to know what is happening with the project.
The Representative Church Body Library (RCBL) in Dublin has become home to many of these precious ledgers and other associated documents and continues to receive deposits of both older and current registers for safekeeping. Dr. Susan Hood, in association with the IGRS, has posted a video entitled "Church of Ireland Records", which is an excellent introduction to the subject.
The RCBL also publish the current authoritative work on what records survive for any given parish in the form the "The List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers". This document is kept up to date with any new acquisitions and also attempts to document the existence of some of the copies or transcripts in other locations e.g. NAI, NLI & PRONI.
It's a bit of a monster and even speaking as a spreadsheet diva with a penchant for overloading information by colour-coding, this document does suffer a bit from ... overloading of information by colour coding! That said, there is a wealth of information in here to help your research. You can not only learn what the RCBL have in Dublin, but also what still remains in local custody and what was lost in 1922. You can also learn a bit about what is held in PRONI but be warned, this list is very incomplete on this point and the date ranges are wildly different in some instances. I'm not sure why this is the case.
This means there might be several entries for the same parish, which are all listed in alphabetical order in one continuous huge list with the diocese and county given to help distinguish between common names. There are also quite a lot of entries in italics that refer you to another parish name, reflecting the many splits and mergers that have occurred over the years I suppose. I do think that this wonderful resource is screaming out to become a database!
In the meantime, a really useful feature of this document are the embedded hyperlinks for most parishes. If the parish entry is highlighted in yellow with date ranges and/or the name is in blue and underscored then click on the name to go to a short document that will be the detailed RCBL catalogue entry. This is usually in a standardised format and contains a variety of useful extra information e.g.;
- Specific details will be listed of any records destroyed in the PROI in 1922.
- Remember this is a catalogue entry for what is in the library so any registers still in local custody will NOT be appear here - check back to the main list for a separate entry for the parish which will appear without any colour coding.
- The main list will have broad date ranges for baptisms, marriages and burials but there could be substantial gaps - these will be apparent from the actual individual sets of documents listed in the catalogue entry.
- I have found some discrepancies between what is summarised in the main list for some parishes and what is detailed for them in these entries e.g. different dioceses, counties or date ranges. Therefore, personally, I am taking what's in the catalogue entry as gospel for now.
- Look out for burials that may have taken place in a different nearby church graveyard or cemetery because the parish church or chapel of ease did not have its own burying ground.
- Documents might also have survived for other genealogically interesting events such as marriage banns, confirmations or conversions.
- The notes section may contain invaluable information regarding changes in the administration of the parish over time including splits and mergers, which might mean the records you seek in a particular time frame are actually in another parish's register. This same section may also contain details of published histories that can also be consulted at the library or searched for elsewhere. Graveyard transcriptions might also be usefully deposited with the library as well.
- Additional original documents may be listed that could tell you more about life in the parish e.g. account books or details of special funds raised for church restorations or events. Vestry minutes have a more varied survival rate but can run from the late 18th century right up to the early 2000's and Vestrymen may be listed separately. For example, I found a long list of my Revell men serving as church wardens in the parish of Dunganstown in Co. Wicklow, year to year. Noting when William replaced John might be a clue to a son replacing a father when he died perhaps?
- Copies or transcripts are usually highlighted separately.
- Some original documents may be marked as fragile and you may not be allowed to access them.
So, ALWAYS consult the detailed RCBL catalogue entry if it is available BEFORE planning any field visit to the library.
One extra bit of advice when trying to access the catalogue entries - unfortunately from time to time some of the links may break and may result in a rather alarming error popping up that says your privacy is being attacked online! Don't panic - I alerted the RCBL to this problem and they provided a short term remedy for whenever it happens, whilst they no doubt go about finding and correcting the broken links. Look at what appears in your browser window as the URL and insert "www." before the word "ireland" right at the beginning. Hit return and you should get to the document safely.
The RCBL do have a very limited number of parish transcripts available to browse online, somewhat confusingly located on 2 separate pages; Links to the parishes mentioned on these pages can also generally be found in the main RCBL Table of All Parish registers - scroll right to see if they are highlighted in green in the Notes section, but be warned I have found quite a few broken links. I'm afraid the RCBL likes to move pages around on its site to keep me on my toes!
The Irish Government did award the RCBL a grant in 2018 towards digitising the surviving Church of Ireland registers. However, there have been no further announcements as to plans or progress made in the last 5 years. I believe that the idea is to make the documents freely available online, which would be marvellous, but it would be good to know what is happening with the project.
What's available in other archives?
National Archives of Ireland
The National Archives of Ireland's Guide to Church of Ireland (Anglican) parish registers page lists their holdings. Principal amongst these are the microfilmed registers they created in the 1950's and 1980's. The parishes they filmed (some in duplicate) are listed in their Church of Ireland Parish Registers Microfilms document. Unfortunately this document does not list the date ranges covered, which I believe may be in a card index only available for consultation in their Reading Room, but only for the registers filmed in the 1950's ... which you can't tell apart from the 1980's in the online list anyway ... are you keeping up?! According to the opening page they say that filmed registers generally only go up to 1870 and rarely beyond. As you have to view them in situ anyway, you'll have to consult those card indexes yourself or ask for help. John Grenham must have done just that to construct his references for these records that are accessible via his Browse tab (pick your county from the drop down list on the left and then choose church records, then Church of Ireland.)
The National Archives of Ireland also has some rather more specific transcripts on microfilm of selected Church of Ireland Parish registers in the form of what they call Church of Ireland parish registers - Surrogates. These relate to searches made in relation to confirming an individual's right to the new Old Age Pension in the early decades of the 20th century. I'm not sure what to make of this source myself having never consulted it but you may be extraordinary lucky with it for one of your relatives I suppose. As an amusing aside, the document does contain the hilarious line admitting that "the various forms in which Church of Ireland parochial material exists in the National Archives is confusing for readers", which made me chortle ... I also think that microfilms must be the original source for the Church of Ireland Parish Search Forms discussed in online sources below.
National Library of Ireland
The National Library of Ireland's Catalogue undoubtedly contains lots of publications in which you will find information about Church of Ireland churches and parishes and possibly even some register copies or transcripts e.g. published histories, local historical society publications etc. You will just have to settle in for a long session of searching the catalogue with parish names and see what turns up. I did find a few mentions of NLI holdings in some of the RCBL catalogue entries, but these were almost negligible.
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
PRONI not only has a large number of the Church of Ireland registers for their 6 counties (originals and microfilm), but also a large number of microfilmed copies of registers for some parishes in the bordering counties of the Republic of Ireland, mainly because they were part of the same northern dioceses. They are also in the process of creating digital versions of the registers but unfortunately these are not currently available remotely online - you still have to visit PRONI in Belfast to view them.
The PRONI Guide to Church Records page has a couple of documents that you can download and/or search through for more information, namely;
Local County Archives & Genealogy Centres
The subscription website RootsIreland (which is discussed in more detail below) represents a coalition of local county archives and genealogy centres which provided much of the material published online. However, as ever, not everything makes it online and the catalogues for these local facilities should be consulted for Church of Ireland records and other useful resources. The staff and volunteers at these places are likely to know the local landscape well and can help you navigate complex church geography.
All of the county specific pages you can find under my "Recipes" page have a named link to whatever local archive or genealogy centres I could find. Note, some of the counties may have more than one centre, especially the bigger counties like Cork and Galway. Like most facilities of this type today, money is tight, so expect to be charged for certain services like photocopying or privileges like being able to use your own camera. Opening times may also be restricted - check before visiting. Beyond answering maybe some basic family history questions, you might also be asked to pay for someone else to do more extensive genealogical research for you. It all depends on the centre.
National Archives of Ireland
The National Archives of Ireland's Guide to Church of Ireland (Anglican) parish registers page lists their holdings. Principal amongst these are the microfilmed registers they created in the 1950's and 1980's. The parishes they filmed (some in duplicate) are listed in their Church of Ireland Parish Registers Microfilms document. Unfortunately this document does not list the date ranges covered, which I believe may be in a card index only available for consultation in their Reading Room, but only for the registers filmed in the 1950's ... which you can't tell apart from the 1980's in the online list anyway ... are you keeping up?! According to the opening page they say that filmed registers generally only go up to 1870 and rarely beyond. As you have to view them in situ anyway, you'll have to consult those card indexes yourself or ask for help. John Grenham must have done just that to construct his references for these records that are accessible via his Browse tab (pick your county from the drop down list on the left and then choose church records, then Church of Ireland.)
The National Archives of Ireland also has some rather more specific transcripts on microfilm of selected Church of Ireland Parish registers in the form of what they call Church of Ireland parish registers - Surrogates. These relate to searches made in relation to confirming an individual's right to the new Old Age Pension in the early decades of the 20th century. I'm not sure what to make of this source myself having never consulted it but you may be extraordinary lucky with it for one of your relatives I suppose. As an amusing aside, the document does contain the hilarious line admitting that "the various forms in which Church of Ireland parochial material exists in the National Archives is confusing for readers", which made me chortle ... I also think that microfilms must be the original source for the Church of Ireland Parish Search Forms discussed in online sources below.
National Library of Ireland
The National Library of Ireland's Catalogue undoubtedly contains lots of publications in which you will find information about Church of Ireland churches and parishes and possibly even some register copies or transcripts e.g. published histories, local historical society publications etc. You will just have to settle in for a long session of searching the catalogue with parish names and see what turns up. I did find a few mentions of NLI holdings in some of the RCBL catalogue entries, but these were almost negligible.
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
PRONI not only has a large number of the Church of Ireland registers for their 6 counties (originals and microfilm), but also a large number of microfilmed copies of registers for some parishes in the bordering counties of the Republic of Ireland, mainly because they were part of the same northern dioceses. They are also in the process of creating digital versions of the registers but unfortunately these are not currently available remotely online - you still have to visit PRONI in Belfast to view them.
The PRONI Guide to Church Records page has a couple of documents that you can download and/or search through for more information, namely;
- "A Guide to Church Records" - huge document covering all faiths including Church of Ireland
- "Church Records available as digital copies in PRONI" - only 24 Church of Ireland parishes so far (SEP 2019)
Local County Archives & Genealogy Centres
The subscription website RootsIreland (which is discussed in more detail below) represents a coalition of local county archives and genealogy centres which provided much of the material published online. However, as ever, not everything makes it online and the catalogues for these local facilities should be consulted for Church of Ireland records and other useful resources. The staff and volunteers at these places are likely to know the local landscape well and can help you navigate complex church geography.
All of the county specific pages you can find under my "Recipes" page have a named link to whatever local archive or genealogy centres I could find. Note, some of the counties may have more than one centre, especially the bigger counties like Cork and Galway. Like most facilities of this type today, money is tight, so expect to be charged for certain services like photocopying or privileges like being able to use your own camera. Opening times may also be restricted - check before visiting. Beyond answering maybe some basic family history questions, you might also be asked to pay for someone else to do more extensive genealogical research for you. It all depends on the centre.
What Church of Ireland records are available online?
Irish Government, Dept. of Tourism, Arts, Culture, the Gaeltacht, Sport & Media
If you have ancestors in Cos. Carlow, Kerry and Dublin (including all the city parishes), you are in luck, as many of the Church of Ireland parish registers for these areas have been indexed and in some cases digitised and made available for free on the Irish Government irishgenealogy.ie website - choose Church Records on the main Search screen. There used to be some PDFs available that would tell you simply what records were actually available but the new dumbed-down site design (FEB 2025) seems to have removed or hidden them - if you find them let me know * sigh *.
Irish Genealogical Projects (IGP)
You may also find lots of ad-hoc transcripts online with clever searching - the Irish Genealogy Projects (IGP) can be a happy hunting ground for example. Such finds are unlikely to be comprehensive and may be restricted to a one-name study perhaps, but useful all the same. I have also come across some very selective extracts by simply putting the parish name and county for instance into a search engine. These are usually associated with local history projects or personal hobby websites, but they might at least give you a lead on where to try to corroborate what they tell you about your ancestors or the parish.
RootsIreland
The Irish Family History Foundation's RootsIreland (£) is a subscription site that covers most of the 32 counties but not all. Each county that participates (see the map on their home page) has a range of sources, including Church of Ireland records for most of them. If there is no chance of accessing any of the other locations detailed above, then currently this might be the only way you will be able to search Church of Ireland records remotely. However, I have to say that I have several caveats about this site based upon my own experiences;
Church of Ireland Parish Search Forms
When the old age pension was introduced in Ireland in 1909, prospective pensioners had to prove that they were 70 or older to qualify for it. As civil registration of births did not start until 1864, one of the ways they could prove their age was to request a search be made for their baptism in the earlier parish registers. At the time, these registers were still intact in the Public Record Office of Ireland and civil servants made notes on the submitted forms with what they did or did not discover. They also helpfully noted other siblings and sometimes the mother's maiden name if known. The collection is tiny but as many of those parish registers were later to be lost in 1922, if you get lucky in this collection you may just solve that people puzzle.
The forms have been digitised and are indexed on the following subscription platforms,
Irish Government, Dept. of Tourism, Arts, Culture, the Gaeltacht, Sport & Media
If you have ancestors in Cos. Carlow, Kerry and Dublin (including all the city parishes), you are in luck, as many of the Church of Ireland parish registers for these areas have been indexed and in some cases digitised and made available for free on the Irish Government irishgenealogy.ie website - choose Church Records on the main Search screen. There used to be some PDFs available that would tell you simply what records were actually available but the new dumbed-down site design (FEB 2025) seems to have removed or hidden them - if you find them let me know * sigh *.
Irish Genealogical Projects (IGP)
You may also find lots of ad-hoc transcripts online with clever searching - the Irish Genealogy Projects (IGP) can be a happy hunting ground for example. Such finds are unlikely to be comprehensive and may be restricted to a one-name study perhaps, but useful all the same. I have also come across some very selective extracts by simply putting the parish name and county for instance into a search engine. These are usually associated with local history projects or personal hobby websites, but they might at least give you a lead on where to try to corroborate what they tell you about your ancestors or the parish.
RootsIreland
The Irish Family History Foundation's RootsIreland (£) is a subscription site that covers most of the 32 counties but not all. Each county that participates (see the map on their home page) has a range of sources, including Church of Ireland records for most of them. If there is no chance of accessing any of the other locations detailed above, then currently this might be the only way you will be able to search Church of Ireland records remotely. However, I have to say that I have several caveats about this site based upon my own experiences;
- Cost: Although they periodically advertise discounts, it is still relatively expensive. Consider buying a day pass and be prepared to put in a long day making the most of it (500 record view limit though.) To be fair, if you choose to take out a longer subscription then the cost of the day pass will be deducted from the new subscription if you upgrade within 30 days (site policy as at November 2019.)
- Coverage: I urge you to consult the county specific source pages very carefully before you take out a subscription to make sure you stand a chance of finding what you are looking for. This applies to both the coverage of parishes and the types of records actually available. For example, Co. Carlow was not included for many years and whilst it may now have "gone green" on the RootsIreland Map indicating coverage, this is for Roman Catholic records only. Co. Carlow Church of Ireland records are free online remember - see above. Some counties may only have a handful of Church of Ireland parishes, especially those in the province of Ulster, whilst others (Co. Waterford, I'm looking at you!) seem to have cheerfully appropriated parishes from neighbouring counties, although to be fair most of these straddle the borders.
- Searching: The initial search boxes are fairly crude - just names and a year, although you can restrict your search to one or more counties. Unless you buy a subscription you will not be able to preview any of the results. Instead you will just be informed of counts of various different types of potential matches which feels a bit pointless to me. According to John Grenham (Tracing Your Irish Ancestors), the more advanced search interface that is behind the paywall is quite powerful with more fields that can be searched for specific types of record. This certainly used to be the case when I used the equally eye-wateringly expensive pay-per-view version that preceded the current subscription model.
- Quality: Be very aware that what you are searching are indexes of transcripts that are presented to you in pro-forma forms - there are no Church of Ireland register images attached for you to be able to check the quality yourself. For an idea of what to expect, check out the RootsIreland sample records page. This will inevitably throw up instances where it's not clear how the transcriber decided to create the transcript. For example, St. Canice's cathedral burial records for some of my Kilkenny Empson ancestors have "Mallardstown" graveyard attached to their transcripts yet, from other sources, I have the memorial inscription from the family tomb in the cathedral graveyard that indicates that they are buried there? Mallardstown is miles away. Go figure - copied error in a transcribers spreadsheet or is there something actually written in the register? Which brings me to another gripe ...
- Source Citations: Nope. You will need to guess which actual original records were transcribed which might be relatively straightforward most of the time i.e. Church of Ireland parish registers for the named church. However, as I've seen from using the main RCBL list, the names don't always match up or certain types of records may actually be in the original registers of another parish, especially burials as not every church had its own graveyard. It's also frustrating trying to reconcile time periods for which the RCBL are telling you the registers were lost but for which RootsIreland has some transcripts of baptisms etc.? Made from local copies? Family bibles in county archives? Published pedigrees? Your guess is as good as mine. I don't actually understand the logic of this omission as surely the local archives that form RootsIreland would be keen to encourage researchers to visit and view the original sources they have if that's where the information came from?
- Multiple Records: Be careful what you wish for. There may be multiple records returned by your query but no explanation to help you understand the context. For example, I was recently searching for some Wicklow baptisms for a one-name study and came across one little girl baptised on the 3rd June 1727 ... plus an identical record for the 3rd June 1737. Data loading error? Transcription error? Or could it be a sister named for a dead sibling and curiously baptised on the same day and month a decade later (huge coincidence I know)? However, without an image to check or guidance from the site on their transcription practices, I'm none the wiser.
- Alternatives: There are also a huge number of parishes with marriages covering the period 1845-1900 (sometimes these were the only records for the parish, especially in the Ulster parishes.) This is probably a result of civil records of Church of Ireland marriages being attributed to the parish. These same records are generally available to search and view for free through the Irish Government website, irishgenealogy.ie, although the current RootsIreland help pages have not been updated to reflect this. There are also some other transcripts that you can apparently view for free on RootsIreland e.g. Griffith's Valuations, but these are available for free elsewhere too e.g. Ask About Ireland which has images, maps and better query functions, in my opinion.
Church of Ireland Parish Search Forms
When the old age pension was introduced in Ireland in 1909, prospective pensioners had to prove that they were 70 or older to qualify for it. As civil registration of births did not start until 1864, one of the ways they could prove their age was to request a search be made for their baptism in the earlier parish registers. At the time, these registers were still intact in the Public Record Office of Ireland and civil servants made notes on the submitted forms with what they did or did not discover. They also helpfully noted other siblings and sometimes the mother's maiden name if known. The collection is tiny but as many of those parish registers were later to be lost in 1922, if you get lucky in this collection you may just solve that people puzzle.
The forms have been digitised and are indexed on the following subscription platforms,
- Ireland, Church of Ireland Search Forms for Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1731-1870 (Anc=£) That start date looks optimistic...
- Church of Ireland Parish Record Search Forms (FMP=£)
Which parish is relevant to your research?
To answer this, you need to find which Church of Ireland ecclesiastical parish covered the townland your ancestor lived in. As this was generally speaking, the same as the civil parish, start by querying the Irish Ancestors Placenames website for your townland of interest, and noting the civil parish it falls within. Do remember to make liberal use of wildcards. If you can't find it via there, try the excellent Placenames of Ireland Database, which is good at suggesting alternative spellings that your parish might be hiding behind.
Shane Wilson's site also has an excellent Church of Ireland Parish Finder page which allows you to query by parish name and find out where any surviving parish church is located. Shane has also added some snippets of history so be careful to note when the current church was built and whether the parish was merged with neighbours etc. For example you could find that earlier 18th century burials might actually be located in a now abandoned graveyard next to the old ruined church rather than the Victorian church built later.
To answer this, you need to find which Church of Ireland ecclesiastical parish covered the townland your ancestor lived in. As this was generally speaking, the same as the civil parish, start by querying the Irish Ancestors Placenames website for your townland of interest, and noting the civil parish it falls within. Do remember to make liberal use of wildcards. If you can't find it via there, try the excellent Placenames of Ireland Database, which is good at suggesting alternative spellings that your parish might be hiding behind.
Shane Wilson's site also has an excellent Church of Ireland Parish Finder page which allows you to query by parish name and find out where any surviving parish church is located. Shane has also added some snippets of history so be careful to note when the current church was built and whether the parish was merged with neighbours etc. For example you could find that earlier 18th century burials might actually be located in a now abandoned graveyard next to the old ruined church rather than the Victorian church built later.
Image sourced via www.irishgenealogy.ie
What's in the registers?
As you can imagine, the parish registers themselves vary hugely in content, style and condition. The very earliest registers can be fragile and some of the handwriting is appalling. Be sure to have a very thorough search through all the pages as very often events could be recorded out of sequence, different types of events may have been jumbled together or new pages started for just marriages say in the middle of the register ... which the baptisms and burials would soon catch up with! Later registers made use of pre-printed pages which meant that sometimes less information was recorded e.g. father's names no longer on marriages for a short period. Baptism and burial registers also had pre-printed pages - look out for dates of birth and death added as margin notes when there was no specific box for them.
As you can imagine, the parish registers themselves vary hugely in content, style and condition. The very earliest registers can be fragile and some of the handwriting is appalling. Be sure to have a very thorough search through all the pages as very often events could be recorded out of sequence, different types of events may have been jumbled together or new pages started for just marriages say in the middle of the register ... which the baptisms and burials would soon catch up with! Later registers made use of pre-printed pages which meant that sometimes less information was recorded e.g. father's names no longer on marriages for a short period. Baptism and burial registers also had pre-printed pages - look out for dates of birth and death added as margin notes when there was no specific box for them.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2025
