Subscription / Pay-per-View Websites
There are several commercial websites that have record collections that will help you progress with your Irish research. There is duplication across the sites, but equally you may find that there are some very niche collections unique to one of them. You will either have to purchase a subscription or buy some "credits" to pay-per-view (PPV). Investigate the options on the relevant subscription pages of each site.
The following are probably the main rivals offering records that are going to be helpful to you.
The following are probably the main rivals offering records that are going to be helpful to you.
RootsIreland is the Irish Family History Foundation's (IFHF) site for online access to births, marriages, deaths and some other selected records for most of the counties of Ireland (excluding Carlow, Dublin City, Kerry and Cork (South) which are covered by the free Irish Genealogy site.)
This site currently enjoys a bit of a monopoly on a lot of church records and is not without its flaws (covered on my Church of Ireland Parishes & Registers page for more information.) Bear in mind that there are no record images available for you to check yourself, only transcriptions. The coverage is by no means complete for every county - check the sources page for each one very carefully BEFORE you start searching as there may be none of the types of records you seek at all, especially burials!
This site currently enjoys a bit of a monopoly on a lot of church records and is not without its flaws (covered on my Church of Ireland Parishes & Registers page for more information.) Bear in mind that there are no record images available for you to check yourself, only transcriptions. The coverage is by no means complete for every county - check the sources page for each one very carefully BEFORE you start searching as there may be none of the types of records you seek at all, especially burials!
FindMyPast Ireland or FindMyPast UK with a worldwide subscription appear to provide access to the same Irish data sets on either site - study their prices to see what works for you wherever you live. I'm not a fan of their site design re: search interface and their source citations are terrible, but there are some really good Irish resources on this site, many of them unique. This article lists their Irish collections but I'm not sure if it's kept up to date. Alternatively, you can filter on their "All Record Sets" by Ireland for what ought to be the most up to date list. And of course there are the Irish newspapers.
Ancestry with a Premium subscription from the UK site will give you access to their Irish datasets. Some like the Civil Registration Indexes are available on other sites, but I prefer the search screens on Ancestry. There are some unique selected Irish Catholic Parish registers on this site too, although you will need your schooldays Latin!
ScotlandsPeople is the official Scottish record site, which you will need to consult if you discover that some of your Irish kin actually moved to Scotland. The records are very detailed, and this could be the key to solving some people puzzles e.g. finding a sibling's birth in Scotland that lists the birth names of both Irish parents and their date and place of marriage in Ireland. You will need to purchase credits to view actual records, but all index results pages are free.
Northern Ireland Only
GRONI is the General Record Office of Northern Ireland PPV site for civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths. This is the only place where you can access BMD records for Northern Ireland post 1922 unfortunately. You will have to register and purchase at least 1 credit to be able to view any index results prior to purchasing any individual records. There are some quirks to the site, so be sure to read the search advice carefully. I made my own observations several years ago at "NI BMDs - GRONI v the rest", and I don't think the search interface has been improved at all since then.
You also need to watch out for your account being deactivated if you don't use it for a while too. This happened to me recently and although I eventually got it reactivated, I had to scrabble around to find out who to contact. Annoyingly, whatever small credit balance I had was wiped out and I will need to buy that one credit again... I know public finances in Northern Ireland are in a bit of dire state at the moment, but that really does strike me as unnecessarily mean. UPDATE - to add insult to injury they deactivated my account again before I had time to buy that credit, claiming that they had sent me the warning email 21 days previously! When I complained that they were obviously having trouble counting up the number of days in 2 weeks, they mumbled something about maybe they hadn't sent the email properly and decided to reinstate my previous small credit balance.
GRONI is the General Record Office of Northern Ireland PPV site for civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths. This is the only place where you can access BMD records for Northern Ireland post 1922 unfortunately. You will have to register and purchase at least 1 credit to be able to view any index results prior to purchasing any individual records. There are some quirks to the site, so be sure to read the search advice carefully. I made my own observations several years ago at "NI BMDs - GRONI v the rest", and I don't think the search interface has been improved at all since then.
You also need to watch out for your account being deactivated if you don't use it for a while too. This happened to me recently and although I eventually got it reactivated, I had to scrabble around to find out who to contact. Annoyingly, whatever small credit balance I had was wiped out and I will need to buy that one credit again... I know public finances in Northern Ireland are in a bit of dire state at the moment, but that really does strike me as unnecessarily mean. UPDATE - to add insult to injury they deactivated my account again before I had time to buy that credit, claiming that they had sent me the warning email 21 days previously! When I complained that they were obviously having trouble counting up the number of days in 2 weeks, they mumbled something about maybe they hadn't sent the email properly and decided to reinstate my previous small credit balance.
Emerald Ancestors and the Ulster Historical Foundation are both commercial sites that appear to have both the usual BMD records and their own unique offerings. I've not really used either site and I recommend that you study what else they have on offer to decide whether they represent good value for money for you.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2023
