Irish Databases at Ancestry.com

St. Patrick ancesry.bmpIn honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I’d browse around Ancestry.com and post a recap of some of the more popular Irish databases that are available through World Deluxe memberships. Here’s are some favorites I found:

Ireland, Index to Griffith’s Valuation, 1848-1864
This database, an index to one of Ireland’s premier genealogical resources, Griffith’s Valuation, references approximately one million individuals who occupied property in Ireland between 1848 and 1864. The Griffith’s Valuation, or Primary Valuation of Ireland, was executed under the direction of Sir Richard Griffith to determine the amount of tax each person should pay towards the support of the poor within their poor law union. This involved determining the value of all privately held lands and buildings in rural as well as urban areas to figure the rate at which each unit of property could be rented year after year. The resulting survey was arranged by barony and civil parish with an index to the townlands appearing in each volume. The original volumes of the survey are held in the National Archives, Dublin and Public Record Office, Belfast.

Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1824-1837
The Tithe Applotment Books record the results of a unique land survey taken to determine the amount of tax payable by landholders to the Church of Ireland, the established church until 1869. They are known as the Tithe Applotment Books because the results of this land survey were originally compiled in nearly 2,000 hand-written books. This data set represents a virtual census for pre-Famine Ireland. Since it covers all of Ireland it is immensely important in terms of constructing, not just an image of a particular family line, but of wider social conditions in the country. Only the six counties that constitute present-day Northern Ireland – Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone, covering 223 parishes, are included.

Irish Flax Grower’s List
In 1796 the Irish Linen Board published a list of almost 60,000 individuals who had received awards for planting a specified acreage of flax. Those who planted one acre were awarded 4 spinning-wheels, and those growing 5 acres were awarded a loom. The records include the name of the individual, county, and parish. The records cover most of Ireland.  The Flax Growers List is arranged by civil parish in each county except for Dublin and Wicklow, which were not included in the records.  The counties available are; Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim,  Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon,  Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath,  Wexford.

The Royal Irish Constabulary 1816-1921
The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was created in 1816, and initially staffed mainly by Irish-born men. However, toward the 1900s, and especially afterwards, the RIC recruited men from countries such as England, Scotland, Wales, and the United States. The records of the RIC were only indexed annually by the date of enlistment. Until this database was created, the only way to identify whether an ancestor joined the forces was an extremely time-consuming search. Some people joined for a few days or weeks, others stayed for years, and quite a few migrated. There are mentions in the index on whether a person emigrated, died, or married.

Cassell’s Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland
This database contains the last five volumes of the six volume series titled, Cassell’s Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland, being a complete topographical dictionary of the United Kingdom. Gazetteers like this one are very useful sources for genealogists because they help us locate and learn about the places our ancestor’s lived.

Irish Records Extraction Database
This 100,000-name database of Irish vital records is the result of many years of research in Irish records. It contains records of births, marriages, deaths, burials, cemeteries, wills, immigration, census, and so forth. It includes records from many different locations in both Ireland and Northern Ireland and it includes over 120 unique sources. The records include information from as early as 1600 and as late as 1874. This collection seeks to allow users to search otherwise inaccessible or hard-to-find collections.

Irish Immigrants: New York Port Arrival Records, 1846-1851
This database is a collection of mainly Irish immigrants between 1846 and 1851 whose names were extracted from the originals of New York, USA, port arrival records (Customs Passenger Lists). Information from the following categories can generally be found for each of the more than 600,000 entries: Surname, Given Name, Age, Gender, Literacy, Native Country, Residence, Destination, Transit Type, Compartment, Port of Embarkation, Ship, Number of Passengers on the ship, Arrival Date, and Occupation. Also, try searching the entire Immigration Collection at Ancestry, which will include additional years for the port of New York, as well as other U.S. ports.

And sometimes you’ll find the records of your Irish ancestors in record collections created beyond the shores of the Emerald Isle:

UK Medical Registers, 1859-1959
This database contains annually published books listing all of the names of doctors who were licensed to practise in the United Kingdom and abroad from 1859-1959. Also included are foreign doctors who qualified in Britain and you’ll find the names of many Irish doctors within the pages of these registers. .

UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960
This database is an index to the Board of Trade’s passenger lists of ships arriving in the United Kingdom from foreign ports outside of Europe and the Mediterranean. They include records from some Irish ports, as well as Irish passengers traveling to or through other UK ports. In addition, the names found in the index are linked to actual images of the passenger lists, copied from The National Archives (TNA) collection series BT26.

New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896
This database contains a collection of assisted immigrant passenger lists to New South Wales, Australia for various years between 1828 and 1896. “Assisted immigrants” are individuals whose passages were either subsidized or paid for by another person or through another agency. This collection is comprised of four different series of records. They are:

  • Returns of convicts’ applications for wives and families to be brought to New South Wales at Government expense
  • Persons on bounty ships (Agent’s Immigrant Lists)
  • Persons on bounty ships to Sydney, Newcastle and Moreton Bay (Board’s Immigrant Lists)
  • Persons on early migrant ships (fair copy)

British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920
and
British Army WWI Pension Records, 1914-1920
About 210,000 Irish men served in British forces during World War I.

16 thoughts on “Irish Databases at Ancestry.com

  1. In the “Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books” description it first says that all of Ireland was covered; then it says that only Northern Ireland was included. What am I to conclude about the southern part of Ireland?

  2. Pingback: Irish Databases at Ancestry.com « Genealogy Blog Linker

  3. The Irish Government supported website http://www.askaboutireland.ie has the complete Griffiths Valuation linked to maps of the time and current maps. Hence you can identify the property number occupied by your ancestor and then cross-reference with the maps to locate the property at the time of the Valuation and at the present time. The website is free but due to funding limitations and a slowness by PRONI to scan maps, the maps for the 6 northern counties are not completely accessible on line. This is an excellent resource, even if only a pilot. Perhaps Ancestry.com could help and finish the job and make it available.

  4. http://www.amazon.com/Galway-Bay-Mary-Pat-Kelly/dp/0446579009/ref=cm_cr-mr-title new book by Mary Pat Kelly (I know you have Kellys Juliana!) is a genealogy success story – the author researched her family and finally found where they were from in Galway, Ireland. It should be noted the author began with microfilm reels and was greatly aided when records began to be computerized. We all have to begin from family information and then the research. Even though Irish famine immigrants’ times were long ago, by historical perspective we know more now in 2009 than was perhaps known in the past, i.e. there was not really a “famine” there was a “Great Hunger”. Potato crops did fail, but there was other food in Ireland, which the English shipped right out of the Irish harbors. I liked this book for telling the family story through generations and it shows how bare facts of historical research really do give us a look at our people of the past.

  5. Ireland has been a hard one for me. I have had no luck finding when and where any of my family came from in Ireland. I keep hoping one of them will pop up on the immigration records. On the other hand my husbands was a breeze. If only they had been Scottish. They have great records.

  6. Ida, Be very sure of your name and even the spelling. we grew up thinking my Grandmother’s Name was Kennedy but NO! that’s what the people at Ellis Island gave her parents. So actually it was Canady.whitch I’ve never heard of,so good luck.

  7. The maps I found of my family names on the Griffiths Valuation on the “ask about Ireland” site do NOT match the colored ones I purchased in 2006 in Dublin at the Valuation Office. They kind of resemble the black & white ones I purchased at the National Archives. Has anyone else got any of these other maps that they can compare? Thanks for a reply.

  8. I am looking fo any info on Herrity and Campbell families of Donegal Co., I do know the Campbells were from glenties

  9. I am researching the name of McIlravey in Norther Ireland Coleraine Londonderry Co…hope someone out there has some info. on this family…Adam McIlravey b. 9 Aug 1870 Coleraine

  10. I am searching for information on the last name SMITTICK, SMITTICKE. I wa told that the spelling has changed over the years. I was told that it could have been SMITHWICK.

    I have found some SMITTICK that came from Ireland that moved to Tennessee, where my family is from.

    If you have any information, please email me at [email protected]

    Thank you

  11. Mcphatter is so hard to find. their beginnings. Mine were from north knapdale, argleshire, scotland — john mcphatter, 1778. lived in north carolina, died in n. c., wife was mary born in 1764, same place. people in the family say we are scotch-irish. help.
    norma
    [email protected]

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