"Midnight Feasts" - Hunting for an Irish vital event
Having told you how bad "genealogical" snacking is for your research i.e. feverishly ploughing through online databases for your ancestors, I'm now going to lay on a veritable smorgasbord of midnight feasts to allow you to do just that!
I know, I've been there. It's 2am and you have been hunting fruitlessly for your 3xGGparents marriage for hours. You can't think where to look next and nothing looks tempting in the "Snack" drawer. Time to restore a bit of calm and order. The pages below this one are focused on one particular type of vital event or type of record with all the links listed that I've used or think might be useful. These include both reference sites, to learn more, and databases and transcripts to further your quest. Some are entire collections or volumes that you are going to have to make time to search within or browse. You may also have to invest some time learning about them too, which you can do elsewhere on this site by clicking on the green [?] symbol where it appears.
Listing the resources like this on dedicated pages also graphically highlights how what looks like the same resources are accessible via several different channels, some free and some via subscription. I've grouped together those that I think are essentially the same - it's interesting to see how slightly different collection titles can easily obscure this fact. I've also listed approximate record counts at JAN 2022 and again it's interesting to note how these vary wildly - go figure? Check any information screens for original sources to try to be better informed (good luck with that on FindMyPast though!)
However, whatever your favourite go-to source or subscription website is, remember it can be useful to search the same resource in different places as you may have more search options or filters on the different search screens. There may also have been some independent indexing but this is never reported. "Pay your money and take your choice" as they say.
So, if you are hunting for any of these, click through for inspiration;
Remember that late night snacking can be bad for us, so just a reminder on what you can expect to see - enjoy sensibly!
I know, I've been there. It's 2am and you have been hunting fruitlessly for your 3xGGparents marriage for hours. You can't think where to look next and nothing looks tempting in the "Snack" drawer. Time to restore a bit of calm and order. The pages below this one are focused on one particular type of vital event or type of record with all the links listed that I've used or think might be useful. These include both reference sites, to learn more, and databases and transcripts to further your quest. Some are entire collections or volumes that you are going to have to make time to search within or browse. You may also have to invest some time learning about them too, which you can do elsewhere on this site by clicking on the green [?] symbol where it appears.
Listing the resources like this on dedicated pages also graphically highlights how what looks like the same resources are accessible via several different channels, some free and some via subscription. I've grouped together those that I think are essentially the same - it's interesting to see how slightly different collection titles can easily obscure this fact. I've also listed approximate record counts at JAN 2022 and again it's interesting to note how these vary wildly - go figure? Check any information screens for original sources to try to be better informed (good luck with that on FindMyPast though!)
However, whatever your favourite go-to source or subscription website is, remember it can be useful to search the same resource in different places as you may have more search options or filters on the different search screens. There may also have been some independent indexing but this is never reported. "Pay your money and take your choice" as they say.
So, if you are hunting for any of these, click through for inspiration;
Remember that late night snacking can be bad for us, so just a reminder on what you can expect to see - enjoy sensibly!
- All resources are FREE to access unless otherwise stated e.g. (£) or (members only.) Some may require you to register.
- Many of them are searchable databases of names or are links to the main reference sites for Irish institutions or resources.
- Those italicised and enclosed in "quotes" and/or suffixed with (e-book) will take you to some pretty huge files that can usually be browsed and text-searched on screen or optionally you may be able to download the entire volume if you wish.
- Those suffixed with someone's name are the work of generous fellow genies, past and present. These are either in the form of published transcripts rather than original images (so are subject to the usual cautions about possible transcription errors) or are blogs or independent web sites with records and / or great finding aids or articles. I can't vouch wholeheartedly for their authenticity nor agree with any opinions expressed of course - you will have to make up your own mind.
- I do try to check out all the links from time to time but inevitably some may become unavailable or broken - please let me know via my contact form and I will attempt to re-link to them.
- Finally, I strongly recommend that you have good anti-virus/firewall software switched on when browsing - I haven't had any problems so far with accessing these sites, but I'm afraid that might not hold true forever - mindless idiots and evil shysters think it's fun to wreak havoc with malware and we can but try to protect ourselves against them with whatever tools we have.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2022
