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 Latest Irish Genealogy News

Rolling news for Irish family historians
Last updated on 4 November 2025


Irish Genealogy News: November 2025

The volunteers team at Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives had a busy October with the following records added to the free-to-access database: 

Headstones

Land records

Miscellaneous / Land records



With Armistice Day around the corner, the British Newspaper Archive has been concentrating on adding editions published during WW1. The following Irish newspapers, all of them with existing holdings, have been updated accordingly: 

  • Connaught Telegraph, 1914-18
  • Waterford Standard, 1920
  • Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail, 1918-19
  • Dromore WeeklyTimes and West Down Herald, 1915-19;
  • Dromore Leader, 1916-20
  • Tyrone Courier, 1914-18
  • Drogheda Advertiser, 1915
  • Kings County Chronicle, 1914-20
  • Roscommon Herald, 1914-19
  • Newtownards Chronicle and County Down Observer, 1914-18
  • Irish Society, 1916
  • Irish Independent, 1916 
  • Irish Homestead, 1916
  • Cork Weekly Examiner, 1920.

The additions will also become available within FindMyPast's newspapers collection. 

Until the end of November, the BNA is offering a 25% discount on new subscriptions across its range. Find out more. 



Ancestry DNA tests are on special offer (up to 50% off) for researchers based in Ireland, UK and USA until Thursday 20 November.  See Special Offers page.



Irish Genealogy News: October 2025

The Irish Family History Foundation, the organisation which manages the island-wide network of genealogy centres and the RootsIreland database, has published another issue of its Irish Genealogy Matters newsletter. This brings news from around the centres, upcoming events, and an overview of the 165,000 records added to the database so far this year. 

You can view or download a free copy of Irish Genealogy Matters here.



Free access to more than 1.5billion death, burial, cemetery and obituary records is available on MyHeritage from 30 October to 2 November. 

Since last Halloween, 18 collections in this category have been added or updated to the MyHeritage database. Check them out this weekend.



New to Ancestry is a rare type of record-set: the Tipperary, Ireland, Coroners' Inquests Index, 1832-1836. It is teeny, with details of just 125 inquests included. 

These records cover just a few years of a decades-long period of violent and sectarian unrest in Ireland when secret agrarian societies aimed to protect the interest of the peasantry.



The BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk has had a reasonably busy month for additions and updates to its Irish holdings.

The most recently added titles are:

Longford Leader, 1916-1917

Irish Golfer, 1899-1900

Illustrograph (Dublin). 1894-1899 

The Irish Church Advocate was also updated with more editions. They date 1886–1889 and 1891.



Some 12,000 census substitute records for Counties Antrim and Down have been added to the RootsIreland database as follows (number of records in brackets):

Antrim

  • Matriculated and Non-Matriculated Students (949)

Down

  • Act of Union Petitions, 1799-1800 (760)

Antrim & Down

  • Supporters/Subscribers to Charitable and Public Causes, 1781-1900 (5,218)
  • Irish Emigration Records, 1773-1939 (681)
  • Tenant farmers on different estates in Ulster, 1651-1903 (2,314)
  • Freeholder Index (1,728)

See the detailed release blogpost here.



Having vacated its premises in Werburgh Street, Dublin City 8 at the end of last month, the General Register Office of Ireland's Public Search Room has relocated to The Guild Building, Cork Street, Dublin 8 D08 HX90. The office is on the 2nd Floor and is open for walk in visits on Tuesdays only from 9:30am to 12:30pm and from 2:00pm to 4:30pm.

The Research Room also offers an email service Monday–Friday where researchers can request searches and photocopies of civil birth, marriage and death registers. Details. 

 



RootsIreland.ie has added 7,203 Roman Catholic baptisms covering 1829-1911 for Moyvane parish, Co. Kerry. Tthis parish was also known as Newtownsandes and Knockanure. For an up to date list of sources for Kerry and to search them, go to kerry.rootsireland.ie and login or subscribe as required.



Civil death records 1864-1870 inclusive have been removed from the state-managed IrishGenealogy.ie database. Needless to say, no explanation for their absence has been provided. 

Most researchers will recognise that this specific batch of records has long been a bone of contention because searches of the index do not offer up an image of the respective death registration page. (Images are available for civil death records from 1871 to 1974 but not for those registered in the seven years from 1864. 

It was one thing to not have access to the registration images; now we can't even search the registration index on the site!

Despite no official comment about this negative development, I've dusted off my optimistic hat and started to hope that the upload of the long awaited death registration images may be imminent. 

In the meantime, one new search feature has gone live on the site. Researchers can now search for birth, marriage and death records by county and then by town or registration district. 




The BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk has added more editions to its online holding of the Belfast Newsletter, one of the island's most significant regional titles. It now provides searchable access to nearly three-quarters of a million pages across 56,741 editions dating from 1738-1740, 1746-1747, 1749-1750, 1752-2004. The full BNA is also available as part of some FindMyPast subscriptions.




MyHeritage has announced a landmark move to Whole Genome Sequencing for its at-home DNA test, MyHeritage DNA. It is the first major consumer DNA testing company to adopt Whole Genome Sequencing at a scale of more than one million tests per year. Click the image below to learn more.

MyHeritageDNA whole genome sequencing launch Oct 2025 - sml

MyHeritage whole genome sequencing advert Oct 2025

MyHeritage has announced a landmark move to Whole Genome Sequencing for its at-home DNA test, MyHeritage DNA. It is the first major consumer DNA testing company to adopt Whole Genome Sequencing at a scale of more than one million tests per year. Click the image above to learn more.




The BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk has added two more Irish titles to its database, which now holds more than 96million pages of digitised papers from the last three centuries.  The new titles are;

Both titles will automatically join FindMyPast's Irish newspaper collection. 



The Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project, which is managed and run by volunteers, has updated its main index recently. It now stands at 636,519 entries. It is free to search. To learn more, go to https://irishdeedsindex.net/.





The volunteer-led and free-to-access Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives has added the following files to its databases:

Headstones

CARLOW: St. Patricks (R.C.) Graveyard Pt. 3, Newtown
LIMERICK: Reilig Íde Naofa Abbeyfeale Pt 7
LONDONDERRY: St. Joseph's Graveyard, Craigbane
WEXFORD: St Patrick's, Wexford Town

Land Records

LEITRIM: Tenants of the Wynne Estate, Leitrim
SLIGO: Tenants of the Wynne Estate, Sligo




Lime Green circle with white words See my selection of the Top 10 free Irish Genealogy websites.

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