Church and Parish Records
These generally comprise registers of baptism, marriage, burial and membership, maintained at local parish or congregational level by religious denominations.
What Records Exist and What Do They Contain?
Thoroughness of record keeping by all denominations can vary. Most religious denominations maintain their own registers and, depending upon when they were founded, some can date back into the 18th century. From the later 19th century, Catholic parish registers tend to be uniform in the information they record. Generally, in all denominations more modern records will contain enough information to allow identification of an individual’s baptism, marriage, burial or record of membership.
To What Period Do the Records Relate?
Other than where parishes and churches were founded more than 200 years ago, where record keeping has been thorough and consistent, parish and church records should exist from earliest to current times. That said, the records of 1,006 Church of Ireland parishes were destroyed in the Public Record Office fire in 1922.
Where Are the Records Held?
Parish records compiled less than a century ago can usually only be accessed through the local parish or church. Older records can be accessed on microfilm at PRONI and through some local Northern Ireland libraries.
Why Might the Contents of the Records Be Useful?
Parish and church records generally record family details and relationships which can assist in family history research. For instance, in Catholic parish registers, from the early 20th century, marriage records almost invariably record the full names of the parents of the bride and groom. This can be helpful given that until quite recent years, civil marriage records only noted each party’s father’s name.
Who Is the Controller of the Records?
The controller is the local parish or congregation; or an archive to which the records have been transferred, depending upon what access provisions have been put in place.
How Best Can the Records Be Accessed?
Access to older records can generally be quite easy, through copies held by libraries and archives and digitised material placed online. For instance, scanned images of virtually all pre-1880 Catholic parish registers can be found, for free, on the website of the National Library of Ireland. However, they are not indexed, requiring a search through them entry by entry. Indexed data extracted from both Catholic and Protestant parish and congregational records, much of which dates up to the 1920s, can be found on the subscription website Roots Ireland.
Because more modern parish and church records are not considered public records, the best way to access such material may vary according to the denomination controlling them.
Addresses to write to requesting information can be found for Catholic parishes by visiting CatholicIreland.net, where you should then check the link for the relevant diocese.
For the Church of Ireland, the Irish Genealogical Research Society maintains an online resource which includes all parish registers, noting the dates for which they survive, and whether they are held locally or in an archive.
Contact details for congregations attached to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland can be found on the Find a Church page on its website.
For congregations attached to the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Methodist Historical Society in Ireland has an ever-growing collection of local church records from across the island of Ireland which can be identified via its online catalogue. Contact details for specific churches can be found using the Find a Church page of the Methodist Church in Ireland’s website.
PRONI also maintains a Guide to Church Registers, arranged by civil parish, noting the survival dates for all denominations in the nine counties which comprise the province of Ulster.
Cemetery and Crematoria Records
Records of burials and cremations generally fall into two categories, those maintained by local councils and those maintained by private bodies, such as churches or cemetery trusts.
What Records Exist and What Do They Contain?
Many burial registers are simply chronological lists of those buried. Town cemeteries tend to be more detailed and record all burials linked to a particular plot. The data recorded can vary, but generally notes the deceased’s name, address, and age, but other information recorded might be their occupation and religious denomination. Keep in mind that, where a deceased person was cremated, there may be two records to find: that maintained by the crematorium, and a burial record if the ashes then went on to be interred in a graveyard or cemetery.
To What Period Do the Records Relate?
Depending upon when they were first opened, virtually all cemeteries and burial grounds hold records of interments from the early 20th century. Others can be much earlier if the burial ground has been in use over many generations. Records of cremations in Northern Ireland date from the opening of the first crematorium on the island of Ireland which was in Belfast in 1961.
Where Are the Records Held?
These records, still mainly held only in hard copy format, are maintained by the relevant cemetery body, church, or local authority.
Why Might the Contents of the Records Be Useful?
Burial records can provide vital biographical information about deceased people which can help fill in gaps or provide vital clues when trying to understand family relationships. Specifically, as grave plots tend to contain several burials for a family, the records noting this can provide data pertaining to two or three generations of a family.
Who Is the Controller of the Records?
These records are not public records, though access to them can be easier than with other sources given that they record information about deceased people. They are maintained by the relevant cemetery body, church, or local authority.
How Best Can the Records Be Accessed?
Some burial records can be accessed online, such as those maintained by Belfast City Council. For the records of most of Northern Ireland’s burial grounds, enquiries should initially be made with the cemeteries section of each city or borough council:
Memorial Inscriptions
A memorial inscription, also known as gravestone inscription, is the wording engraved on a gravestone.
What Records Exist and What Do They Contain?
Gravestone inscriptions exist where a gravestone has been erected on a grave by the deceased’s family.
To What Period Do the Records Relate?
Most graves from the mid-20th century have a gravestone erected upon them.
Where Are the Records Held?
While visiting the relevant graveyard or cemetery can be a way of identifying memorial inscriptions, in more recent times many have been transcribed and published in either hardcopy format or digitally online.
Why Might the Contents of the Records Be Useful?
Gravestone inscriptions generally record helpful genealogical information such as the deceased’s name, age, date of death and abode. Generally, relationships with others interred in the same grave are recorded.
Who Is the Controller of the Records?
As public memorials, there is no impediment to accessing inscriptions on gravestones.
How Best Can the Records Be Accessed?
Memorial inscriptions can be easily accessed by visiting the relevant graveyard or cemetery or by searching online for one of the many websites across the Island of Ireland which hold databases of photographs and transcriptions of gravestones:
Newspapers
Local newspapers can be a particularly rich source for family information.
What Records Exist and What Do They Contain?
Back copies of virtually all Irish and UK newspapers are held by various national and local libraries.
To What Period Do the Records Relate?
Complete runs of most newspapers survive from the later nineteenth century.
Where Are the Records Held?
For Northern Ireland newspapers, the four main repositories are the Belfast Central Library, the Linen Hall Library in Belfast, the National Library of Ireland in Dublin, and the British Library in London. Many titles have been digitised and are now available online.
Why Might the Contents of the Records Be Useful?
Newspapers carry family notices for births, deaths, engagements and marriages, news items about divorce, court appearances, wedding anniversaries, house sales, sporting achievements, competition results, funerals attendance, church meetings and social events etc.
Who Is the Controller of the Records?
For reasons of conservation, original newspapers might not always be made available in libraries once they have been digitised. They will generally be available in digital form from private subscription websites. Some local libraries subscribe to these websites.
How Best Can the Records Be Accessed?
Most back copies of newspapers are now accessed online through subscription websites, such as Ancestry.com, British Newspaper Archive and Irish News Archive.