It is often thought that Irish records useful for family history were lost in a fire in the Four Courts Building in 1922. While many records were destroyed, other records survived.  Here are just a few examples:

Census Returns

A complete sets of census returns survive for 1901 and 1911; some census records for 1821 and 1851 did survive the fire.

Pension Records

When the Old Age Pension Act was passed in 1908, applicants had to prove they were over 70 years old in order to receive their pension.  Evidence was taken from church registers and from the 1841 and 1851 censuses before they were destroyed. The level of take-up from those eligible for a pension was 98% so these are a good census substitute.

Birth — Marriage — Death

The Civil Registration of births, marriages and deaths are kept for Protestants from April 1845 and for all faiths in Ireland from January 1864.  A link to the indexes and lots of other great sources can be found on the Irish Genealogy website

Parish Registers

The Anglican Church was the official church of Ireland up to 1871. An Act of 1875 stated that the baptism, marriage and burial records should be deposited at the Public Record Office in Dublin.  Fortunately, many clergymen ignored the Act and didn’t send their registers to Dublin which means they were not destroyed in the PRO fire. A list of existing parish registers can be found here: Parish Registers.

Land / Property Records

The Griffith’s Valuation of 1847 – 1864 can fill the gaps left by the destroyed census records as this lists the heads of household and occupiers of every piece of land or property in Ireland.

. . . and there’s more

As Ireland was part of the union of Ireland, Scotland and England from 1801 to 1922 Irish people appear regularly in the main English records. With some creative thought and knowledge of Irish history, records and clues can be found in England.

For example, many Irish people came to England fleeing poverty and the Great Famine in Ireland in the mid-19^th century. By 1861 it is estimated that 3% of the English population, had been born in Ireland.  Many Irish immigrants and their places of birth would be recorded on later census records of England & Wales; this may also be the first clue to Irish ancestry.

Many Irish had to use the workhouses or seek poor relief.  Thousands were repatriated to their place of birth under the new Poor Law Removal Act, leaving a trail of paperwork and the name of the union to which they were chargeable, narrowing down the research.  There is a large collection of Workhouse Records in the Liverpool Archives which include names, ages, family relations and addresses; similar records are likely to exist in other cities where Irish migrants settled.

Records of civil registration in England may give indicate the place of birth etc., Newspapers are also a great source of information as they can include a lot of personal information such as announcements of births, deaths, marriage and anniversaries.

 

So while many records were destroyed in the Record Office fire, there are many records that can still be used to trace Irish Ancestry. They may be different from the usual records that you could use for family history research, they may provide a more colourful and different view of your ancestry than birth, marriage, death and censuses records could do.