Sometimes the hardest part of Irish research is actually deciding where to begin and at what point enough information has been gathered so that efforts can move into Irish records. But, the search for Irish origins is a combined research effort in the country where an immigrant settled, and in Irish records-preferably in that order. The biggest mistake a researcher can make when beginning Irish research is to "jump over the water" too quickly. If Irish records are examined prematurely, efforts can quickly come to a stand still.

One of the best strategies in beginning Irish research is to make an inventory of what is already known about a family who immigrated, and then to begin filling in missing information from records in the country where the ancestors settled. The average Catholic and Protestant church records in Ireland start in the late 1700s or early 1800s and are only partially indexed. And many Irish surnames are so common that an inquiry of indexed records would likely produce hundreds of individuals with the same name and no way to know which one is the ancestor. Therefore, learning as much as possible about the immigrant ancestor before taking a research trip to Ireland increases the chances of successfully identifying them once research moves into Irish records.

Historically, Ireland was divided into four provinces: Connaught, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. These provinces contain thirty-two counties, within which are church and government parishes known as civil parishes. Within the civil parishes are small townlands of several hundred or thousand acres. Records generated in the immigrant country will hopefully reveal one of these administrative divisions as a place of birth.

Helpful Guidelines
The guidelines below have been gathered from years of experience conducting research for clients with Irish ancestry:

Search MILLIONS of ancestors in family trees

*First Name

*Last Name

First Name

Last Name

First Name

Last Name

For females, use maiden name
(last name before marriage)

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