TIP OF THE WEEK – ALL CATHOLIC PARISH REGISTER MICROFILMS OF IRELAND AVAILABLE ON-LINE FOR FREE!
The entire collection of Catholic parish register microfilms held by the National Library of Ireland is now available online, and for free. With this database, people with Irish Catholic ancestors will be to trace their roots back to the 1740’s on a dedicated website free of charge. Over 370,000 digital images of the microfilm reels will be available for download.
These parish register records are considered the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 Census.
The documents, primarily baptismal and marriage records, date from the 1740s to the 1880s and encompass 1,086 parishes throughout Ireland.
For more information, visit www.nli.ie. For more on the launch follow the hashtag #ancestorsonline or follow @NLIreland on Twitter.
To use this site, one must know the parish or diocese where their ancestor lived. It is not possible to search the site for a particular individual or surname.
The site includes a great, interactive map of the counties and dioceses of Ireland.
BONUS TIP OF THE WEEK – KING COUNTY PROBATE COURT RECORDS COMING ON-LINE AT FAMILYSEARCH.ORG
One of the many new databases coming online at Familysearch.org is “Washington, King County Probate Records, 1851-1927.” This database consists of images of probate records, arranged and filmed in chronological order; currently it contains nearly 34,000 images of probate records from 1861-1893, with the expectation of more records being added as they are digitized and uploaded.
The URL for this database is: https://familysearch.org/