Free Websites
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Here are links to what I consider to be some of the most useful FREE Irish websites, suffixed thus;
    (SEARCH MAPS) if there are active maps that you can click on to explore further layers.
    (MAPS) if there are static pictures or actual maps of geographical divisions.
    (NAMES) if there are searchable databases of named data, but do remember for some sites this may be very limited.
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Commercial Sites
  • Irish Ancestors - John Grenham's very comprehensive site for locating places with active maps of civil parishes, Roman Catholic parishes and Poor Law Unions.  John has generously kept free to access all the reference material that was previously free on his old home at the Irish Times website.  However, there is a limit on accessing his Record Reference pages of 5 free views in any 24 hour period.  If you need to view more you will have to subscribe or wait until tomorrow...(SEARCH MAPS)  
  • FamilySearch Ireland Research Page - This is probably the best page to familiarise yourself with what this site has to offer for Ireland.  There are several indexed collections of records as well as many more unindexed images that you can browse.  Free online courses and the extensive Wiki pages will also help you to understand the context for the records as well as equip you with search tips.  The list of current indexing projects could also be a way for you to get involved in helping others to gain access to the records in the future.  (NAMES)
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Volunteer Sites
  • GENUKI - Ireland page = Good site to familiarise yourself with lots of basic geographical information and explore their county pages.  However, be warned, many of these pages are very sparsely populated and have not been updated for several years.
  • Irish Genealogy Projects (IGP) = Big volunteer based project that gathers together ad-hoc genealogical data from all across Ireland.  Organised by county.  The style and quality of the different pages does vary but several adopt helpful standard headings for record categories. (NAMES)



National Sites
  • Virtual Treasury of Ireland = Launched on the anniversary of the destruction of the PROI, which it seeks to recreate in digital form, this is a free website that will eventually contain some very unique treasure.  It's early days, so I'm exploring it too but there are indexes that will no doubt grow.  (NAMES) (PLACES)
  • Irish Genealogy = The Irish Dept. of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht site that has extensive church records for the counties not covered by the Irish Family History Foundation's Roots Ireland site, namely Dublin, Cork, Carlow and Kerry. This is also the only site where you can see images of the birth, marriage and death registers for civil registration records. (NAMES)
  • National Archives of Ireland = There are several large searchable data sets on their genealogy records page. (NAMES)
  • Griffiths Valuations (AskAboutIreland) = The best free site for exploring these major 19th century land rental records.  There are images of the original maps that accompanied the records making it possible to see exactly where your ancestors either owned or rented property - these can be hard to read but are incredibly detailed.  Make sure you read their guide to interpreting the records and maps first. (MAPS) (NAMES)
  • PRONI Online Archives & Catalogues =  The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has some online records, most notably indexes to Will Calendars and Valuation Revision Books for the NI counties.  It also has an extensive collection of microfilm covering church records for not just the northern counties but other selected churches and Christian faiths in other parts of the island of Ireland.  (NAMES)



Independent Sites
  • Irish Genealogy Toolkit = Claire Santry's great site for clear information, links and practical research advice (MAPS)
  • Index of Free Irish e-Books = This is a real treasure trove of links to online books including histories, journals, almanacs and directories.  The Church Records pages in particular contain links to selected online records where you may get lucky with a parish of interest. (NAMES)
  • SWilson.Info = Shane Wilson's very wide ranging collection of maps, transcripts and articles.  Check out the articles list in particular for some good advice on navigating place-names. There is also a brilliant Catholic Parish finding page which also shows you where the churches were c.1837. (NAMES) (MAPS)
  • Sean Murphy's "A Primer of Irish Genealogy" = Sean Murphy's excellent introduction to searching for your Irish ancestors in the form of a PDF document that you can download.  Sean taught a hugely popular genealogy course at UCL in Dublin for many years and has also been involved in several volunteer projects in Dublin.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2022