June 25th, 2013

The Ultimate Resource Collection for Tracing Irish Genealogy Online

If you are looking to trace your Irish genealogy online, it’s important to know where to look. There are lots of websites that promise a lot but deliver little in the way of genuine Irish genealogical databases and info. One could waste hours of valuable time pursuing leads from a search engine that end up nowhere. You however need not worry about that. You have arrived at the ultimate collection of resources for pursuing Irish genealogy online.

All of the websites listed below have bona-fide databases of valuable Irish genealogy records or other useful tools that can help you find your ancestors. Some of them may charge a fee if you wish to order a copy of a record, but most of the databases are completely free to search.

Irish Family History Foundation
The Irish Family History Foundation consists of a network of county oriented genealogical research bases in Ireland. They possess millions of digitized Irish genealogy records, including of church records, census returns, and gravestone inscriptions. The website contains information on every county’s IFHF center.

Cavan Genealogy Database
Part of the Irish Genealogical Online Record Search System, they have the largest collection ofIreland’s Parish records that can be searched online. Search is free (subject to certain conditions).

Clare County Library
The website of the Clare County Library has a searchable online database which includes Griffith’s Valuation for County Clare, the 1901 census report, and many other records and directories.

Donegal Ancestry Centre
The Donegal Ancestry Centre was set up with the primary purpose of helping family history researchers trace their Donegal ancestors. It is the official family history research center forCountyDonegal.

Ask About Ireland
This is an initiative of public libraries, local museums, and archives that have combined to encourage the digitization and online publication of Griffith’s Valuation and other resources that may be useful to genealogists tracing their Irish family line.

Irish Times Digital Archive
Contains exact reproductions of every article published in the Irish Times from 1859 to present.

Irish Genealogical Research Society
The Irish Genealogical Society was established inLondonin 1936 in order to encourage and promote the study of Irish genealogy and to amass a collection of books and manuscripts of genealogical value. This is a private organization with membership dues.

Irelands Gravestone Index
Here you can search almost half a million gravestone inscriptions from every county in Ireland.

These are the most valuable Irish ancestry records databases and resources we could find online. If you know of another site that has a database or collections of Irish ancestry records that are useful for tracing Irish genealogy online, please let us know by leaving a comment or posting a link in the Comments section.