Today I wanted to look at a little-known but hugely helpful section of the website – the Genealogy FAQs

These 30 questions cover topics helpful for a beginner such as:

• Weren’t all Irish records destroyed?
• Where can I get a birth, marriage or death certificate?
• Are census records available?

There are also useful sections on the various land divisions found in Ireland from townlands to provinces as well as the main religious denominations. We have FAQs on printed sources, wills, pre-1800 records and how to find records of your ancestors if they were farmers or were poor.

While these questions are intended as an introduction to the many wide-ranging types of sources which can be used to search for Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors, there is much more to cover than was possible in these brief FAQs. If you are interested in learning more about the records and information highlighted here, please check out our Irish Genealogy Essentials course. This course consists of over 28 hours of pre-recorded lectures and runs at set-times throughout the year.

We also offer four modules which you can purchase and watch at any time on:

• Introduction to Irish Genealogy (census and civil records, church registers and Irish land divisions)
• Church Records in Ireland (religious denominations, church registers, administrative records and graveyards and gravestone inscriptions)
• Irish Land Records (Irish land divisions, Griffith’s Valuation and valuation revision books, landed estate records, Registry of Deeds and early nineteenth century land records)
• Lesser-known Sources (school and education records, workhouse registers and local government records, business, occupation and hospital records and records relating to law and order)