Fantastic Find: Irish Genealogical Research Society's Early Irish Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes

Via the New England Historic Genealogical Society's Weekly Genealogist link to an article in the Irish Post we learn that the online databases maintained by the Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) now contain over a quarter of a million names.

[Record relating to James Carey, born in 1844. (c) Society of Genealogists]

Access to the full database is restricted to IGRS members but here's what's available to the general public:

However, as an initial aid, a restricted but free Surname-Only Search of the database can be made by non-members. A search will tell you how many entries in the database match your search criteria. It will not provide all the details of those matched records.  We recommend you read the Introduction to the Index by Rosalind McCutcheon.  When searching the Surname-Only index, please allow for vagaries of spelling; try searching just using the first 3 letters of the name. Look also at alternatives, such as: Nolan/Nowlan, Reilly/Riely/Riley, Crowley/Croly. A good guide for alternative spellings can be found at www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/.*

Here'a a full list of the IGRS collections freely available on their website.

*This website qualifies as a fantastic find all by itself! For example this is what happened when I entered the surname Trainer (my friend Bonnie's mother's name) in Irish Ancestors.

In case you haven't seen it, here's a link to an earlier Fantastic Find: The National Library of Ireland's online collection of Catholic parish registers recording baptisms and marriage.


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