Irish Newspapers
"Cold-blooded ruffian!"
"Shivered to atoms!"
Newspapers are one of my favourite go-to resources for researching family history. Not only can you find lots of great genealogical information, they are also wonderful for adding colour to your family tree. You can never be quite sure of what you might find and some of the language can be just hilarious, as the snippet to the left illustrates!
Your ancestors might have been caught up in, or indeed been major protagonists, in all sorts of conflicts, scandals and squabbles, all gleefully recounted in minute detail like this. Or you may find more direct genealogical events reported that you would have struggled to find elsewhere.
Even if you just while away a rainy afternoon reading through all the news reports you will get a real feel for what was going on in the lives of your ancestors alongside major international historical events, all expressed in the language of the day. Seeing the wreck of the Titanic reported next to the cattle stolen from your great-grandfather's farm is quite thought provoking on how our ancestors learned about what was happening not just on their own doorsteps but across the world.
Your ancestors might have been caught up in, or indeed been major protagonists, in all sorts of conflicts, scandals and squabbles, all gleefully recounted in minute detail like this. Or you may find more direct genealogical events reported that you would have struggled to find elsewhere.
Even if you just while away a rainy afternoon reading through all the news reports you will get a real feel for what was going on in the lives of your ancestors alongside major international historical events, all expressed in the language of the day. Seeing the wreck of the Titanic reported next to the cattle stolen from your great-grandfather's farm is quite thought provoking on how our ancestors learned about what was happening not just on their own doorsteps but across the world.
What can you expect to find in the newspapers & how can this help you find other records?
From a family history point of view, here is my take on a few things of interest that I've found in Irish newspapers and how these discoveries have sometimes prompted me to search successfully elsewhere.
From a family history point of view, here is my take on a few things of interest that I've found in Irish newspapers and how these discoveries have sometimes prompted me to search successfully elsewhere.
- Births, marriages and deaths (BMD) announcements are probably the main events that you will first look for.
- Births may sometimes tragically be suffixed "since died" which may explain the child's later absences from the family. Look for the corresponding death certificate and be alert to the fact that the death might have been recorded before the birth was recorded and quite possibly have ended up in different registration quarters as a result.
- Marriage announcements may also be complemented by florid reports elsewhere in the newspaper. This seems to have been especially popular in the first half of the 20th century. You're going to learn a lot about prevailing fashion and check out all the relatives who gifted which items of wedding silver that perhaps later became family heirlooms. My great uncle Garnet and his bride Eleanor scored a huge stash of presents at their 1917 Wicklow wedding, which were all duly reported in some detail in the Skibbereen Eagle where the bride hailed from.
- Search forward in time from deaths for obituaries or funeral reports, the latter usually with a long list of mourners. Chief mourners were usually described in relation to the deceased and this is often where you might find clues to a daughter's marriage if her husband is mentioned as a son-in-law.
- "In Memoriam" notices may also appear on subsequent anniversaries of a death and you are likely to get lots of family relationship detail mentioned.
- Look out too for clues to other families having emigrated. Death notices in particular might carry the exhortation, "American papers please copy".
- Legal reports range from court cases reported verbatim in all their gory glory to simpler notices of bankruptcies or petty crimes. Your relatives might also be mentioned as sitting magistrates in petty sessions. In my experience, this type of reporting can get quite repetitive and seem to add little to the overall picture, but it can help to narrow down the date range for a death search when he stops being mentioned like this.
- Land sales facilitated under the Encumbered Estates Act would be advertised in some detail which should lead you to more detailed sales particulars on FindMyPast under Landed Court Rentals, 1850-1885.
- Business advertisements were of course prolific and whilst they can also be very repetitive, they can help solve people puzzles too. For example, where a son succeeded a father in business, you might find this advertised in the newspapers to ensure customers knew that the business was carrying on following a death.
- The results of professional examinations or school and university results were often reported in detail - look for alumni registers (see my Students, Clergy & Lawyers page for more information on Trinity College Dublin records for example.)
What newspapers were published and how do you find out which ones might be relevant?
The earliest recognisable Irish newspapers date from the first decades of the 17th century, usually focused on the comings and goings of the upper classes who would of course have been the main purchasers. Publishers promoted their offerings with wonderful names like Pue's Occurences (1704), Faulkner's Dublin Journal (1725), Saunders's News-Letter (1755), Finn's Leinster Journal (1768) & Walker's Hibernian Magazine (1771). Newspapers based in the major cities have long pedigrees and often swept up news items from emerging regional titles as well as publishing foreign news stories. Dublin's Freeman's Journal (1763) and The Belfast News-Letter (1737) are probably 2 of the best known.
Many regional newspapers also emerged in the mid 19th century as literacy increased. Some of these lasted but a few years, whilst others are still going today. Mergers resulted in frequent changes of names which can make it confusing to work out exactly which newspapers to pay attention to in the areas you are interested in at particular times.
The National Library of Ireland used to have a nice little newspaper database that could be searched by keyword and returned details of changes of name, extent of holdings and other places that held copies. In a massive step backwards, they got rid of this and if you want to find out about their newspaper holdings, you are going to have to wrestle with their catalogue. However, like most academic catalogues in my opinion, you are playing good old-fashioned letterbox Scrabble again and you almost have to know what you are looking for in order to find it! The data in the database would have come from the Newsplan projects that were undertaken across the UK and Ireland in the 1990's to provide the necessary scope for a microfilming project. The rather bland NLI newspapers reference page mentions the Newsplan report for Ireland as a useful research tool but neglects to provide a link to it, so click on mine in blue! This lists the newspapers alphabetically by name with some cross-referencing for changes of name.
If you want to be better informed about which titles covered the county you are interested in, choose the Browse option from the top of John Grenham's Irish Ancestors site. Select the county you are interested in from the drop down menu on the left and then choose 'Newspapers' from the second menu. John has helpfully listed all the relevant newspapers, including national titles, with details of coverage at multiple locations and links to any online repositories. You should also read his information page on Newspapers or watch his Youtube video on Historic Newspapers to learn more about these resources.
Don't be too prescriptive about only following up leads in county newspapers for just one county though. You may find family news reported at some distance from where the event actually took place. The 1825 death of my 4x great grandmother, Ruth Empson took place in the city of Kilkenny, but I actually found it reported in the Waterford Mail. In fact, always check out neighbouring counties for titles possibly based in county towns just over the border, as these would have reported on events all around them.
The earliest recognisable Irish newspapers date from the first decades of the 17th century, usually focused on the comings and goings of the upper classes who would of course have been the main purchasers. Publishers promoted their offerings with wonderful names like Pue's Occurences (1704), Faulkner's Dublin Journal (1725), Saunders's News-Letter (1755), Finn's Leinster Journal (1768) & Walker's Hibernian Magazine (1771). Newspapers based in the major cities have long pedigrees and often swept up news items from emerging regional titles as well as publishing foreign news stories. Dublin's Freeman's Journal (1763) and The Belfast News-Letter (1737) are probably 2 of the best known.
Many regional newspapers also emerged in the mid 19th century as literacy increased. Some of these lasted but a few years, whilst others are still going today. Mergers resulted in frequent changes of names which can make it confusing to work out exactly which newspapers to pay attention to in the areas you are interested in at particular times.
The National Library of Ireland used to have a nice little newspaper database that could be searched by keyword and returned details of changes of name, extent of holdings and other places that held copies. In a massive step backwards, they got rid of this and if you want to find out about their newspaper holdings, you are going to have to wrestle with their catalogue. However, like most academic catalogues in my opinion, you are playing good old-fashioned letterbox Scrabble again and you almost have to know what you are looking for in order to find it! The data in the database would have come from the Newsplan projects that were undertaken across the UK and Ireland in the 1990's to provide the necessary scope for a microfilming project. The rather bland NLI newspapers reference page mentions the Newsplan report for Ireland as a useful research tool but neglects to provide a link to it, so click on mine in blue! This lists the newspapers alphabetically by name with some cross-referencing for changes of name.
If you want to be better informed about which titles covered the county you are interested in, choose the Browse option from the top of John Grenham's Irish Ancestors site. Select the county you are interested in from the drop down menu on the left and then choose 'Newspapers' from the second menu. John has helpfully listed all the relevant newspapers, including national titles, with details of coverage at multiple locations and links to any online repositories. You should also read his information page on Newspapers or watch his Youtube video on Historic Newspapers to learn more about these resources.
Don't be too prescriptive about only following up leads in county newspapers for just one county though. You may find family news reported at some distance from where the event actually took place. The 1825 death of my 4x great grandmother, Ruth Empson took place in the city of Kilkenny, but I actually found it reported in the Waterford Mail. In fact, always check out neighbouring counties for titles possibly based in county towns just over the border, as these would have reported on events all around them.
British Newspaper Archive
Where and how can you access Irish newspapers or transcribed content?
Fragile original copies do survive in libraries and archives, most notably the British Library which became the official depository for all Irish newspapers at the end of the 1860's. You will also find many local Irish libraries and the National Library of Ireland built up collections of Irish newspapers too, but these are mostly likely to have been transferred on to microfilm to preserve the originals. Last time I visited the NLI, there was a separate microfilm room off the splendid reading room where you could serve yourself with the most popular titles from the stack of drawers. Other titles will have to be ordered up from the catalogue.
If you want to access Irish newspaper content from the comfort of your own home, there is no getting away from the fact that you are going to have to pay for the privilege. Digitisation is an expensive and time-consuming process. However, the various commercial companies that are providing access often promote subscription deals, especially around the anniversaries of major newsworthy events. These are often flagged up on the major Irish genealogical blogs so be sure to keep an eye out or sign up for their newsletters. Alternatively, invest in a local library ticket where you might find free access to some of them, in both the UK and Ireland in my experience.
The British Library entered into a partnership with Find My Past to digitise their vast newspaper holdings (which were physically relocated from Colindale, North London to new facilities in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire.) The British Newspaper Archive (BNA) is the result with millions of pages digitised already and more being added all the time.
You can find out more about the current coverage of Irish newspaper titles on BNA or even click on the map of Ireland on the front page and you will be taken straight into the search screens for all Irish content that you can narrow down with search terms.
You can also access the same Irish newspapers on FindMyPast if you have a suitable subscription - you will have to narrow your search to the Irish collection on the Advanced Search screen. Be sure to check the British newspapers too, as you may well find mentions of ancestors in the mainland editions too. FindMyPast have also created a separate data set for the official government newspaper, the Dublin Gazette, 1750-1800, which has been indexed by name.
Other commercial newspaper companies have also created subscription services. Check out local libraries in Ireland for free institutional access to either of these;
Fragile original copies do survive in libraries and archives, most notably the British Library which became the official depository for all Irish newspapers at the end of the 1860's. You will also find many local Irish libraries and the National Library of Ireland built up collections of Irish newspapers too, but these are mostly likely to have been transferred on to microfilm to preserve the originals. Last time I visited the NLI, there was a separate microfilm room off the splendid reading room where you could serve yourself with the most popular titles from the stack of drawers. Other titles will have to be ordered up from the catalogue.
If you want to access Irish newspaper content from the comfort of your own home, there is no getting away from the fact that you are going to have to pay for the privilege. Digitisation is an expensive and time-consuming process. However, the various commercial companies that are providing access often promote subscription deals, especially around the anniversaries of major newsworthy events. These are often flagged up on the major Irish genealogical blogs so be sure to keep an eye out or sign up for their newsletters. Alternatively, invest in a local library ticket where you might find free access to some of them, in both the UK and Ireland in my experience.
The British Library entered into a partnership with Find My Past to digitise their vast newspaper holdings (which were physically relocated from Colindale, North London to new facilities in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire.) The British Newspaper Archive (BNA) is the result with millions of pages digitised already and more being added all the time.
You can find out more about the current coverage of Irish newspaper titles on BNA or even click on the map of Ireland on the front page and you will be taken straight into the search screens for all Irish content that you can narrow down with search terms.
You can also access the same Irish newspapers on FindMyPast if you have a suitable subscription - you will have to narrow your search to the Irish collection on the Advanced Search screen. Be sure to check the British newspapers too, as you may well find mentions of ancestors in the mainland editions too. FindMyPast have also created a separate data set for the official government newspaper, the Dublin Gazette, 1750-1800, which has been indexed by name.
Other commercial newspaper companies have also created subscription services. Check out local libraries in Ireland for free institutional access to either of these;
- The Irish Times does appear on other sites like the BNA, but it also has its own dedicated archive site.
- The Irish Newspaper Archives provides online access to a wide range of regional and some national titles.
One other potential online route is via the Gale Group Historical Newspapers collection. These resources, or perhaps a subset of them, are usually accessible via a range of academic and civil institutions. For example, I have freely accessed the British Library 19th Newspapers Collection via the "online reference shelf" of my local libraries in the county of Surrey. Check out your own local authority libraries website to see if they offer similar access.
Only a couple of Irish newspapers are available via this route - namely the Freeman's Journal and the Belfast News-letter, but I certainly found plenty of information for free via this route before the advent of the BNA.
Only a couple of Irish newspapers are available via this route - namely the Freeman's Journal and the Belfast News-letter, but I certainly found plenty of information for free via this route before the advent of the BNA.
If you have an Ancestry subscription there are 2 indexed Irish newspaper collections that you might find useful - Belfast Newsletter Births, Marriages & Deaths Notices, 1738-1925 & the Irish Police Gazette, 1861-1893. There is also an unindexed collection - Ireland Newspapers, 1763-1890 - which you can browse by title.
Depending upon your subscription, Ancestry may also occasionally throw up suggested records from the various collections of marriages and obituaries that it has indexed from content on its sister site, Newspapers.com. In addition to the vast library of American titles, there are also newspapers from other countries featured, although the coverage of Irish titles is quite sparse.
However the real value of these collections is in following up on the descendants of Irish kin who emigrated to America. You can learn quite a lot from the sometimes mangled family information "scraped" from the newspaper into the Ancestry index record. You will of course learn more and be able to clip an image of the page (which might include photographs) if you view the original image via the main web site. Investigate subscriptions or take advantage of any free trials or sessions often offered over American public holiday weekends.
It's not all births, marriages and deaths of course - take your time to have a good roam around and you may learn some amazingly diverting things about your relatives - my 5th cousin 1xremoved's open water swimming exploits in shark infested Pacific waters being a case in point!
Depending upon your subscription, Ancestry may also occasionally throw up suggested records from the various collections of marriages and obituaries that it has indexed from content on its sister site, Newspapers.com. In addition to the vast library of American titles, there are also newspapers from other countries featured, although the coverage of Irish titles is quite sparse.
However the real value of these collections is in following up on the descendants of Irish kin who emigrated to America. You can learn quite a lot from the sometimes mangled family information "scraped" from the newspaper into the Ancestry index record. You will of course learn more and be able to clip an image of the page (which might include photographs) if you view the original image via the main web site. Investigate subscriptions or take advantage of any free trials or sessions often offered over American public holiday weekends.
It's not all births, marriages and deaths of course - take your time to have a good roam around and you may learn some amazingly diverting things about your relatives - my 5th cousin 1xremoved's open water swimming exploits in shark infested Pacific waters being a case in point!
Irish newspapers have been a happy hunting ground for amateur genealogists for many years and several fellow genies have valiantly compiled finding aids in the form of indexes and transcriptions. Some of these have made their way online and can be very useful shortcuts to finding the original newspaper stories. FindMyPast has 2 of note;
- The Irish Newspaper Transcript Archive, ffoliott Collection, 1756-1850 was compiled by the legendary Rosemary ffolliott. The images of her neatly typed index cards speak of a methodical dedication to organising information for others to find long before the internet. You should be able to use her newspaper references to search the Irish newspapers on FindMyPast to find the original newspaper images. The collection does skew towards Cork titles and is by no means comprehensive, but with its focus on early publications where the old-fashioned typesetting on the original newspapers can be challenging to search, you may find this source very helpful as a finding aid.
- The Tipperary Clans Archive is not a source name that's going to jump out of a list at you and yell "newspaper index", but that is effectively what it is. The description of this source tells of The Tipperary Clans Heritage Society employing students under a summer job scheme to produce hand-written indexes and basic transcriptions of, amongst other things, selected newspaper BMD announcements. From these brief details you should again be able to track down the original newspaper. As you might expect from the source title, Co. Tipperary newspapers are well represented but scroll down beneath the search fields to see the full list. Do make sure you look at every record even when you can see there are probably duplicates returned for the same event. Each one is likely to come from a different newspaper and one transcriber may have noted down more information than another that helps you narrow down a long list of candidates.
Selected result found on FindMyPast's Irish Newspapers searching for "Empson" & "Kilkenny"
What is the best way to search newspapers?
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has revolutionised searching within the huge volume of digital newspaper pages which would be almost impossible to index manually. I won't claim to completely understand how it works but I believe it's doing its best to recognise the patterns made by letters and inevitably will not get it right sometimes and will completely miss other instances. It may also struggle where names are printed in italics for instance, which is often the case in BMD announcements. You can see from the somewhat challenging to read results illustrated above that you might wonder whether you have found anything relevant. Be patient and be prepared to wade through a lot of results methodically.
When searching, my advice is to try out different combinations of keywords that are as distinctive as possible and remember the wise mantra "Less is more!" - try a couple of things in combination at a time and use any filter options to narrow down large sets of results. Here are a few of my tips and observations;
- Common names are going to throw up thousands of results I'm afraid. Don't get me started on trying to find my Brass ancestors - do you know how many things made of brass were advertised in Victorian newspapers?!
- Even if you specify a forename and a surname you are still going to get back results where the 2 words appear anywhere on the page, not necessarily always consecutively as you want.
- Don't always use a forename either as often only initials were used.
- The Scots-Irish convention for passing surnames down as middle names is your friend here too - try putting any unusual middle names in the forename field and see what comes back.
- Older newspapers invariably use a long "f" to indicate "ss" in words. So, in the case of my troublesome Brass ancestors, searching for "Braf" returns some more candidates.
- Place names make good keywords - try the names of houses or farms, townlands, parishes etc.
- Depending upon how the various different search screens are designed, you can sometimes select specific types of articles such as Family Notices (BMDs) but if you only look at these announcements, you will miss out on glorious news stories like the one illustrated at the top of this page!
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2023
