Galway County Council

Home

Site breadcrumb trail...

Web Sites Dealing with Genealogy

Introduction
Many of the web sites in this list deal with specific years. Those not dealing with specific years are presented first. Those dealing with specific years are presented in order of year with the earliest years at the top of the list. The years are written in red throughout the body of the document.

Irish Roots

A useful site for anyone of Galway extraction wishing to research their family tree. It covers every county in Ireland and it is a free service.

National Library of Ireland
A general guide to researching your family tree is available from the National Library of Ireland.

The Irish Times Ancestors page
This is a search tool which guides the user towards what is available and where it is to be found. For the most part, it will steer you towards resources which are not available on the web. In such cases, it will provide the addresses (physical not virtual) of where these resources are to be located. As the site itself stresses 'Please be clear: the record references returned by the searches are, in the main, bibliographical and do not include the original records - in other words, they are detailed aids to research rather than the research itself ' ). This is a subscription site and costs $60 for a thorough search of the site.

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
This is a searchable database of half a million passengers who arrived in the United States since the 1600s right up to 1929.

Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages

Church records and some civil records are available at http://rootsireland.ie. Church records include baptismal records and marriage records. For the most part, these date from the 1840s. A few parishes have earlier records. Civil records, which date from 1864, are in the process of being added to the site, and these include birth, marriage and death records. The site is a subscription site.

Church records and civil records are also available at http://www.familysearch.org, and this site is free. This is a work in progress and does not include all records.

Finally, you can obtain photocopies of civil records (which date from 1864) by contacting the General Register Office at http://www.groireland.ie


Trade Directories

These are available from 1751 to 1894. These list the owners of businesses in urban centres. These are not available on the Internet but may be accessed at the
National Library of Ireland .

The National Archives of Ireland Transportation Records Database
This is a searchable database of records relating to convicts transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868 inclusive.

Tithe Allotment Books
These were compiled between 1823 and 1837. It lists the occupiers of land holdings in rural parishes. 
The Tithe Applotment books are also available at http://www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie

Famine Irish Passenger Record Data File
This is a searchable database of 604,596 persons who arrived in the United States between December 1846 and December 1851.

Griffith's Valuation
This was compiled between 1848 and 1864 and lists all occupiers of property living in Ireland at this time. The Primary Valuation was the first full-scale valuation of property in Ireland. It was overseen by Richard Griffith and published between 1847 and 1864. It is one of the most important surviving 19th century genealogical sources. An index of names and placenames occurring in the Valuation can be searched.

Ellis Island Records
This lists all people who came through Ellis Island between the years 1892 and 1924. The site is searchable.

The Censi of 1901 and 1911
This lists all people living in Ireland in these years. 
The 1901 and 1911 censi or censuses are available here

Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Debt of Honour List
This is a searchable database of all soldiers in Commonwealth countries who died during the two World Wars. It is estimated that 35,000 Irish people were killed in the First World War while serving in the British army. Information on the Royal Dublin Fusileers includeing finding war graves is here