Church of Ireland Parish Records Going Online

Good news for those searching their Irish ancestors! Those of us with Catholic ancestors already had our genealogy gift in 2016 - the digitization of the Catholic Church records. Read about those records at 10 Million Irish Catholic Parish Records Coming Online!

Now a grant has been given to digitize the Church of Ireland Parish registers.

The register records date back as far as 1619 and include the Church of Ireland parish registers for baptism, marriage, and burial. There are 1,110 sets of parish records in total and approximately 840 of them contain varying quantities of public records which have not yet been digitized.

I'll watch for news of a projected finish date so be sure to check back to Olive Tree Genealogy blog frequently. Eventually the digitised records will be indexed and made available on IrishGenealogy.ie. See Church of Ireland Press Release

New York Catholic Records Online

This release from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) includes baptism and marriage records from over 230 parishes across the Archdiocese of New York. There are millions of transcriptions of these key genealogical events - in the coming months, millions more transcriptions and images will be added to the collection.

It's great to see partnerships from the big genealogy organizations and websites. Life in the genealogy world is so much easier now than it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago!

For full details see Big News: New York Roman Catholic records now online

Hundreds of Irish Famine Graves Discovered in Massachusetts

A Rhode Island woman researching her husband's Irish ancestors found approximately 600-900 gravestones marking the second resting place of bodies previously disinterred from the Irish Catholic Cemetery in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Discovering that her husband's ancestor was no longer buried in the Catholic Cemetery but had been moved, along with hundreds of others, to a new location, she set out to pay a visit. To her surprise only 4 headstones were seen in that new location. She knew from her research that the stones had been laid flat on top of the coffins when the bodies were moved, so she began scraping away dirt and grass. And there she found the stones, hidden under dirt and grass since 1947.

Along with Archie Bennett, Waltham historic preservationist; Sheila Fitzpatrick of the Waltham Historical Society; and The Irish Ancestral Research Association, they decided to begin a restoration project to uncover all the stones.

Continue reading Irish Central's story Rhode Island woman's quest uncovers hundreds of Irish Famine graves

Ireland Catholic Parish Registers Free in March!

Ancestry.com has launched the Ireland Catholic Parish Registers online. With more than 10 million Catholic Parish records, this launch will help create the largest collection of Irish registers available online.

Best of all the records are free during March 2016.

Here's some facts before you start your search!

The collection means that Ancestry.com will have over 55 million Irish records and will provide the largest collection of Irish Catholic parish records available online.

The collection is made up of Baptism, Marriage and Burial records from over 1,000 Catholic parishes across the whole of the island of Ireland - both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

Baptism and Marriage records make up the majority of the collection and Burial records can be found primarily for parishes in the northern regions.      


Ancestry.com has indexed records from over 3,500 parish registers. This is the first time that the collection has been indexed with the images linked online.

10 Million Irish Catholic Parish Records Coming Online!

More than 10 million Catholic Parish records from Ireland are to be published online by Ancestry.com, the world’s largest family history resource. The collection means that Ancestry will have over 55 million Irish records and will provide the largest collection of Irish Catholic parish records available online.

The collection is made up of Baptism, Marriage and Burial records from over 1,000 Catholic parishes across the whole of the island of Ireland - both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Baptism and Marriage records make up the majority of the collection and Burial records can be found primarily for parishes in the northern regions.

Ancestry has indexed records from over 3,500 parish registers. This is the first time that the collection has been indexed with the images linked online.

John Slyne, VP, International Operations at Ancestry comments: “The Ireland Catholic Parish Registers is the single most important collection needed to trace Roman Catholic ancestors in Ireland in the 1800s and we are delighted to make it available through Ancestry.  Providing the very best Irish records to our members is important to us and this collection helps us do that, taking the total number of Irish records to over 55 million.  It also means we continue to provide the largest online collection of Irish Catholic parish records available anywhere which is good for those in Ireland and also those across the World with Irish roots.

The collection is set to go live on Ancestry.com in March 2016.