National Library of Ireland releases RC parish registers

[seaglass]

Can't wait to dive into this

http://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2015/07/national-library-of-ireland-releases-rc.html

Today is a landmark day for Irish genealogy. The National Library of Ireland has released its entire collection of Roman Catholic parish registers in image format on a dedicated section of its website. And it's simply wonderful!

The registers span the 1740s to the 1880s; most start in the 1820s and a sizeable number even as late as the 1860s.

http://registers.nli.ie/

[csziggy]

1. Darn - my Irish ancestors were Northern Irish Protestants

Or Quakers. Several bought land from William Penn - one family arrived before Penn did and the son met Penn on the dock when he came to America.

I do have a very few that were reputed to be Irish but we don't know where they came from before they arrived in America - maybe I can find them in the registers!

[jopacaco]

2. Thanks

I am in Ireland right now and my cousin told me about this but couldn't remember the site. I know what I will be doing when I get home. Thanks again.

[shanti]

3. Sounds promising

just wish they had a way to search by family name. It doesn't look to be transcribed at all.

[CountAllVotes]

4. These records were free to view on ancestry.com

Over the President's Day weekend. It was far more extensive than this time period however!!

Ireland, Select Catholic Birth and Baptism Registers, 1763-1912

Did anyone find anything?

I sure did! In fact, I hit the goldmine I would say!

Years ago my mother told me that my father wanted to name me "Nancy" of all things. There are no Nancys in the family or so I thought.

I found my grgrgrandfather living in Cashel, Tipperary (as I had been told this is where he was from). Seems his mother was named "Nancy". His wife was said to be from the Parish of Urlingford in Co. Kilkenny. I found her too along with a few of her siblings. Seems my grgrgrandfather had none -- well none that survived the Great Famine.

Makes me glad to have found this tidbit and also kind of sad too. I wonder why my late father never mentioned that he knew a lot more than he pretended to know.

I found another grgrgrgrandfather that came to New York on a Famine ship as well. His baptismal record was on found in this same batch of baptismal records and I was able to clarify that it was indeed him via this record.

Found lots of other christening records as well. This is indeed a valuable resource and I take it that a paid ancestry.com world membership will give you constant access to these records.

Good luck searchers! It never ends does it?

[OnDoutside]

5. Just in case you didn't know, Nancy was a short version of Anna Cecilia here in Ireland.