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 Latest Irish Genealogy News

Rolling news for Irish family historians
Last updated on 2 August 2025

Irish Genealogy News: August 2025

FindMyPast has added a new collection of 42,328 headstone transcriptions. These inscriptions were gathered by volunteers and published between 1892 and 1934 in the Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland. All 32 historical counties of Ireland are represented. Search the Ireland, Memorials of the Dead collection. 

Donated by volunteers, headstone inscriptions and photos for the following burial grounds are now available to view at Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives. They are free to explore.

KERRY    
Cloghane New Burial Ground Partial

LIMERICK
Abbeyfeale Cemetery Part 6

WEXFORD
Ardcolm CoI Graveyard, Castlebridge
Clologue, aka St. Brigids Graveyard
Limbrick R.C. Cemetery, Kilanerin (partial)

Irish Genealogy News: July 2025

Ancestry has updated the Ireland, Poor Law Union Removals From England, 1859-1860 collection. I originally blogged about this record-set back in May 2017 when the first instalment of just under 2,000 records landed (see blogpost here). It now holds 6,883 records and, although the collection's name hasn't been altered to reflect its upgraded span of dates, it now offers records dating from  1857 to 1879. The source material is no longer only from England, either. 

Tipperary Studies has published a first tranche of digitised North Tipperary Graveyard Registers. This initial upload includes records from 22 burial grounds across the area. All are in the care of Tipperary County Council. The records span the 1940s to the present day and note name, last residence, date of buriel and plot location. 

Here's an unusual index newly landed at Ancestry: Ireland, Infants born in Irish Workhouses Index, 1872-1874

The infants listed in the index were either born in a workhouse or were brought to the workhouse in good health before their first birthdays. The index doesn’t offer details of parents/relatives nor does it have images of the original docs.

Its genealogical value is unlikely to be huge, especially since all the corresponding births should be recorded in the civil register (and searchable for free at irishgenealogy.ie). However, there may be unusual circumstances where a researcher finds one of these 14,179 records of help, so my advice would be to read the 'About this collection' text on the search page to understand the limitations of this record-set.

Ancestry has added a small esoteric collection of 2,137 records called Galway, Ireland, Ballynahinch Estate Records, 1905-1940. There are two distinct record sets within the new database.

The first is a Visitor Book recording visitors and guests to Ballynahinch Castle (now a swanky hotel) from 1907 to 1940. A quick look through a dozen or so browsable pages shows a clientele hailing from across the island of Ireland, from England, Italy, and the US (especially from Pennsylvania).

The second is a Rental Book for the year 1907 recording tenants working on the huge estate of woodlands, lake and streams that surround the hotel. The names of the individual tenants and details of their rented land (area and value) and rent fees are also provided.

The Irish Genealogy Reseach Society (IGRS) has launched a new online database created from a card index compiled by the late Patrick Smythe-Wood FIGRS, a distinguished genealogist whose family came from County Antrim. It notes biographical information from Irish, and a small number of Canadian, newspapers. 

There are approximately 11,600 index records, referencing about 20,000 individuals, most of them from the nine Ulster counties. While the data spans 1772-1900, the majority of the records date from 1800 to 1860.  Patrick’s interest in the history of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary, military personnel, and other uniformed services (customs and excise officers for instance), is widely represented.

Members of the IGRS have free access to the full database.

Non-members can search the database for free to check for the prevalence of particular first name and surname combinations. 

Find out more about this unique and exclusive collection.

The Republic of Ireland's Central Statistical Office (CS0) has released the latest chapter in its Stories from the Census 1911 series. This explores tenement living across the island. Find out more here.

From 1-16 July, researchers can avail of a 20% discount on 12-month subscriptions to RootsIreland.ie. The database is best known for holding the most extensive collection of church records from across the island and offers transcriptions from the baptisms, marriages and burials registers of many denominations. You can check what's available for each county here.

Thanks to its hard-working team of volunteers, the free-to-access Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives has uploaded not only another tranche of photos and inscriptions from a selection of burial grounds but also a number of useful land record sets, a bundle of Presbyterian marriages and a rare list of the parish poor in the early 19th century:

Headstones

• Dublin: Glasnevin Cemetery, Part 16 - Updated
• Kerry: Cloghane Old Burial Ground 
• Limerick: Abbeyfeale Cemetery Part 5
• Wexford: Tomhaggard Graveyard Part 2 (Finished)

Land records

• Clare: Tenants on the O’Brien estate in Newmarket-on-Fergus, 1738
• Galway: Tenants on the Trench estate in Kilconnell Barony, 1840–50
• Offaly: Tenants on the Prittie estate, 1826
• Tipperary: Tenants on the Prittie estate, 1826
• Tipperary: Tenants on the Kingston estate in Ballyporeen, 1840
• Wexford: Tenants on the Ram estate in Gorey, 1826

Other records

• Tyrone: 2nd Presbyterian Marriages, Leckpatrick 1845-1921
• Wexford: Killinick Poor 1813-1820