Learn More About Your Irish Genealogy
If you want authentic, reliable information about your Irish genealogy, you must visit the official web site of Irish Genealogy Limited (IGL). IGL helps you find the organizations, associations, and records that can help you learn more about your ancestors and the lives they lived so long ago.
Most Irish genealogy records are organized by county, which in Ireland is the equivalent of a state in the United States. If you know the county where your ancestors originated, you will have a big head start on your Irish genealogy research.
The Irish Gravestone Index
One of the most interesting records available through the IGL web site is the Irish Gravestone Index, truly a unique source of information about Irish genealogy. Irish gravestone inscriptions tend to contain valuable information that may not be available from any other archive or record. Some of the information found on gravestones includes family relationships, place of residence, place of birth, place of death, and occupations.
If you have searched for Irish ancestors and found nothing in other records, try the Irish Gravestone Index. It is often the only link you may find to an ancestor where no other written documentation exists. The index contains records of more than 421,000 gravestone entries from hundreds of graveyards across Ireland.
Freeholders' Records
In Ireland, a freeholder was a man who owned his land outright in fee simple or who held it by a lease for one or more lives. Freeholders were entitled to vote at elections. A search of Freeholders' records will tell you whether or not your ancestors were freeholders and whether they voted in their local elections.
Ireland's Memorial Records
Through Ireland's Memorial Records, you can search information about ancestors who perished in World War I, from 1914 to 1918. Entry fields for this database are first name, surname, and year of death.
Other Resources
Don't overlook other resources for your research. You should review Irish population density maps to check the concentration of surnames in the various Irish counties. Check Census records to find the surname, name, and heads of household in Ireland. City directories provide individuals' names, surnames, addresses, and occupations. You may find that your ancestor's occupation listed as "hotel," "victualler" (owner of a restaurant that provides a military base or ship with food), grocer, butter and egg merchant, auctioneer, dentist, spirit dealer, fish merchant, or motor engineer, depending on their employment at the time the directory was published.
