Start your family history
Across the world, millions are tracing their family history and discovering the lives of their ancestors in original records.
To begin your journey:
- Read our step-by-step guide to getting started
- Read our guide to family history in Ireland
- Learn more about our records
- Find out about our research services
Build your family tree for free
Whether you're a novice family historian or an experienced genealogist, our free findmypast family tree stores all your ancestors securely in one place, allowing you access from any computer at any time. Your tree allows you to organise:
- Names
- Dates
- Relationships
- Other information
Life Events - Birth, Marriage, and Death
Birth, Marriage and Death records often make the best starting point for researching your Irish family history.
Search our Life Events (BMDs) to learn about
the key events in the lives of your Irish
ancestors: their births and baptisms,
marriages, deaths and burials, and their wills.
Census, Land & Substitutes
We have over 3 million records to help you fill the gaps left by the loss of pre-1901 Irish censuses.
Land and estates records in particular make for excellent census substitutes. Our collection contains the largest and most detailed records available including the Landed Estate Court rentals and 1.4 million names in Griffith’s Valuation.
Institutions & Organisations
Legal records, whether criminal or civil, are a key source for tracing Irish family history because they record a huge volume of details on prisoners, their relatives, and in many cases their victims.
This collection contains most of the surviving records for prisons and court records in the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland.
Newspapers, Directories & Social History
Newspapers help to build a picture of what daily life was like for your ancestors. Search historical local newspapers from England, Wales and Scotland published between 1710 and 1963.
Irish Directories include a wide variety of information on all walks of life from professionals and tradesmen to scholars. They are excellent aides in helping you build a detailed picture of who your Irish ancestors were.
Armed Forces & Conflict
Our military records contain some of the most detailed information of Irish men and women who fought in some of the most important wars and rebellions in Ireland's history, including the 1798 Rebellion, World War I and the 1916 Rising.
Travel & Migration
Travel & migration is a key feature of Irish history. These records include passenger lists, arrival and departure records.
They are a valuable resource for discovering ages, places of origin, likely destinations, and other information about family members who both left and returned to Ireland.
We're Irish
We're based in Dublin, Ireland; which means we're at the heart of Irish family history.
Partnership
We work with all the major stakeholders in Irish genealogy, such as Eneclann, the National Archives of Ireland and the National Library of Ireland. We also have an international reach through the findmypast family of sites.
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Join our forums and connect with other Irish
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