The record collections, archives, podcasts and communities I lean on to climb these brick walls — and a few more I’ve found for fun! Use to chase our shared lines yourself and let me know if you’ve found a great one to add.
My favourite touchstones
Learning community
The Green Room
My go-to for being taught rather than just handed records — an Irish-only membership with courses, webinars and an ‘Ask the Genealogist’ service.
Podcast
Ancestors and Algorithms
A show I love for using AI well in genealogy — reading old handwriting, translating records and thinking through DNA.
Research body
Ulster Historical Foundation
What I lean on for the Donegal and border-Cavan lines, and one I’m a member of — Parish Source Guide, surname maps, courses and expert research.
01 All of Ireland
The national collections every Irish search rests on — good for any county.
Start here · births, marriages & deaths
Irish Genealogy (irishgenealogy.ie) Free
Free digitised images of the state birth, marriage and death registers, confirming parents, ages and addresses.
General Register Office (Republic) Paid
Full certificates and cheaper research photocopies for records still inside the privacy window and not yet online.
The pay-per-view service for Northern Ireland BMD after 1922, plus many pre-1922 Ulster images.
Census & census substitutes
Census of Ireland 1901 & 1911 Free
The two most valuable free records — every household member with age, religion, occupation and county of birth.
Pre-1901 census fragments & Search Forms Free
Rare survivals and Old-Age-Pension abstracts standing in for the destroyed 1821–51 censuses, placing a family in a townland before 1901.
Griffith’s Valuation Free
The great mid-1800s census substitute, naming the occupier of nearly every holding in Ireland with townland, landlord and plot.
Tithe Applotment Books (1823–37) Free
Names occupiers of farmland a decade or two before Griffith’s — the main naming source for that generation, rural land only.
Valuation Revision (“Cancelled”) Books Free & paid
A single farm or house followed through time, passing from father to son or a name vanishing — free for the North via PRONI.
Religious Census of 1766 Free & paid
A Church of Ireland census substitute listing parish householders nearly a century before Griffith’s, though most originals were lost in 1922. The surviving returns don’t cover our parishes, so for the Hannigan and Welsh lines it’s one to know about rather than rely on.
Grand Jury Presentments (roads & public works) Free & paid
Pre-council records of local road and bridge works, naming the overseers, contractors and townlands — a census substitute between the gaps.
Church records
NLI Catholic Parish Registers Free
Free images of nearly all surviving Catholic baptism and marriage registers to c.1880 — how most Catholic families get back before civil registration.
RootsIreland Paid
Name-searchable transcripts of church registers of all denominations, county by county, including many not on the free NLI site.
Land, estates & maps
Registry of Deeds + Index Project Free & paid
Property deeds, leases and marriage settlements from 1708, often naming several generations, with a free volunteer index.
Identifies which landlord’s estate tenant ancestors lived on in Connacht and Munster, unlocking estate rent-books and leases.
The Down Survey of Ireland Free
1650s land maps showing who owned each parish before and after the Cromwellian confiscations — for deep-rooted landholding families.
Newspapers & notices
The largest historic Irish newspaper archive — BMD notices, obituaries and townland news, often free through your local library.
British Newspaper Archive Paid
Strong for Ulster and provincial titles held nowhere else, with much of the same content available through Findmypast.
Irish Times & Independent archives Paid
Digitised archives of two national dailies, handy for 20th-century death notices and obituaries.
The big search platforms
Findmypast Paid
One of the strongest Irish record sets — Catholic registers, Petty Sessions, prison and estate records, all name-searchable across counties.
Ancestry Paid
Best for linking Irish ancestors to emigrant descendants through overseas censuses and passenger lists, plus a huge DNA-matching database.
MyHeritage Paid
Strong for European and international records with a large DNA pool and free raw-DNA uploads — good for emigrant branches beyond Ireland.
FamilySearch Free
Billions of free records and digitised microfilm, with a Catalog by townland or parish that surfaces filmed material indexed nowhere else.
FamilySearch Full-Text Search Free
AI search that reads the words inside unindexed images, most powerfully the Registry of Deeds leases, wills and marriage settlements.
Guides, folklore & networking
John Grenham — Irish Ancestors Free & paid
The indispensable ‘which records exist for my parish?’ tool, mapping Catholic and Church of Ireland parishes with surname-distribution maps.
Dúchas — The Schools’ Collection Free
1930s folklore recorded by schoolchildren from older neighbours, often placing a surname in a specific townland.
Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO) Free
A reverse-genealogy community of local volunteers who crack on-the-ground parish problems that records alone cannot.
Irish Genealogical Research Society Free & paid
A learned society from 1936 whose members’ databases hold finding aids and abstracts that partly replace records lost in 1922.
PRONI (Northern Ireland archive) Free
Major free Ulster datasets — Valuation Revision Books, Freeholders, Will Calendars and the Ulster Covenant — essential for Donegal research.
Virtual Record Treasury (Beyond 2022) Free
A growing digital reconstruction of the records destroyed in 1922 — census fragments, wills and land records, with new releases appearing.
Ask About Ireland Free
The free home of Griffith’s Valuation, with historic maps and local-studies articles for townland and county context.
townlands.ie Free
A free gazetteer of Ireland’s 61,000+ townlands within their civil parish, barony and county, with maps and neighbours.
Irish Archives Resource (IAR) Free
A free cross-archive finding aid that points to which archive holds material on a person, place or subject — the estate and manuscript layer.
Irish History Online Free
The free national bibliography of Irish history — 113,000+ books and articles, including published local, parish and townland studies.
Irish Manuscripts Commission Free
Free PDF editions of major published manuscript sources — Pender’s Census of c.1659, deed abstracts and the Civil Survey — for deep-rooted families.
DIPPAM / Irish Emigration Database Free
Free, searchable emigration sources — a large database of emigrant letters, shipping papers and official documents naming people on both sides.
Library Ireland Free
Free full text of classic reference works, including Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837), a parish snapshot just before the Famine.
JSTOR — Ireland Collection Paid
An academic library with 70+ Irish journals, including the county archaeological and historical society journals, for scholarly local context.
02 County Offaly · the Caughlins
King’s County, the Clonmacnoise & Shannon side — where a Caughlin line set out for Wisconsin.
Offaly History / History Centre Free & paid
The county’s leading history centre in Tullamore, with a family-history service, library and parish maps for the Caughlin/Coughlan lines.
Irish Midlands Ancestry — RootsIreland (Offaly) Paid
The one place to search transcribed Offaly church registers in a single database, across every parish at once.
Offaly Heritage (journal) Paid
Scholarly articles reconstructing specific Offaly townlands, estates and parishes — social context the raw registers can’t give.
Offaly County Council — Local Studies & Archives Free
Poor Law and workhouse minute books, rate books and local newspapers filling the gaps between parish-register entries.
03 County Cavan · the Sheridans
Borderland Breifne — the heartland of the O’Sheridan sept, scattered across many small parishes.
Cavan Genealogy — RootsIreland (Cavan) Paid
The essential transcribed index of Cavan church records, with the Sheridan name searchable county-wide.
Cavan County Library — Local Studies Free
A free complement to RootsIreland — graveyard transcriptions, estate and Ordnance Survey maps, newspapers and Local Studies clinics.
Grand Jury, Poor Law and National School records that catch ordinary tenant families who rarely appear elsewhere.
Breifne Historical Society & journal Free & paid
Local parish, townland and clan history for the Breifne region — Cavan, Leitrim and south Fermanagh — home of the hereditary Sheridans.
04 County Donegal · the Hannigans
East Donegal — the Laggan and Finn Valley parishes (Raphoe, Stranorlar, Killygordon).
Donegal Ancestry — RootsIreland (Donegal) Paid
The core transcribed index for Donegal, covering the East Donegal, Laggan and Finn Valley parishes where the Hannigans lived.
Donegal Ancestry (centre) Free & paid
Explains the county’s record holdings and offers commissioned research for the Catholic and Presbyterian mix of the Laggan.
Donegal County Library — Family History Free
Free in-branch Findmypast and Irish Newspaper Archive, plus downloadable pre-1800 census substitutes naming East Donegal householders.
Grand Jury, Poor Law and local-authority records, with the Stranorlar and Letterkenny unions covering East Donegal families.
Donegal Genealogy Resources Free
One of the richest free Donegal sites — headstone transcriptions and parish extracts for the Laggan and East Donegal.
Ulster Historical Foundation Free & paid
Ulster-wide databases and the ‘History from Headstones’ project covering Donegal, handy where Laggan families married across the border.
Ulster Ancestry — Free Pages Free & paid
Miscellaneous free Ulster record extracts and surname look-ups, a supplement to the fuller sources.
07 Across the US
National collections that matter wherever an Irish family settled.
US Federal Census 1790–1950 Free & paid
Birthplace columns confirm Irish nativity; from 1900 the immigration year and naturalisation status point to the next record. Free on FamilySearch.
National Archives — Naturalisation & Immigration Free
Explains where naturalisation files and passenger manifests are held — the records most likely to name a precise Irish origin.
Find a Grave Free
Crowdsourced headstone photos and transcriptions, some memorials recording the exact county or parish of birth.
Chronicling America Free
Free full-text search of historic US newspapers, surfacing obituaries and notices naming an immigrant’s Irish birthplace and relatives.
Newspapers.com Paid
The largest US historical newspaper archive — obituaries, marriage and death notices and arrival mentions, often free through libraries.
GenealogyBank Paid
A large US newspaper archive from 1690, strong on obituaries and the historic ethnic press that name an Irish birthplace.
BLM — GLO Land Patent Records Free
Free US federal land-patent records — the first sale of public land — showing who first bought a family’s land.
05 Wisconsin
Where an Offaly Caughlin line settled — statewide collections, then Dodge County.
Statewide
Wisconsin Historical Society — Genealogy Free
The state’s principal archive, holding the largest collection of Wisconsin manuscripts, church records and naturalisation papers.
Wisconsin Pre-1907 Vital Records Index Free
A statewide index to births, marriages and deaths before October 1907, which often name parents’ birthplaces, sometimes an Irish county.
Wisconsin Vital Records Office Paid
Certified certificates for state events, with death certificates frequently recording birthplace and parents’ origins.
Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Free & paid
County-by-county pages, cemetery and Bible-record projects, and volunteers who check gravestones and obituaries.
Wisconsin Catholic Diocesan Archives Paid
Sacramental registers, often the earliest record of an immigrant family, with sponsors from the same Irish parish; Milwaukee covers Dodge County.
Free digitised county naturalisation, church and vital records, with a wiki pointing to the right collection.
Wisconsin Naturalisation & Land Records Free
Post-1906 naturalisation petitions are the richest source for an exact Irish birthplace and arrival details; earlier ones confirm country and year.
Wisconsin Newspapers & Obituaries Free
Immigrant obituaries that frequently name the county or parish of birth, on Chronicling America and the Historical Society’s holdings.
State censuses between the federal ones; the 1905 uniquely names every individual with their own and parents’ birthplaces.
Dodge County · Beaver Dam · Juneau · Mayville
Dodge/Jefferson Counties Genealogical Society Free & paid
The local society, with a surname index, church records, plat maps and a clippings and photo database.
Dodge County Historical Society Free
A county museum in Beaver Dam with surname files, local histories, photographs and newspapers for context and biography.
Dodge County Register of Deeds — Vital Records Paid
Dodge birth, marriage and death from 1877, with death and marriage records giving parents’ Irish birthplaces.
Dodge County Land Records Free & paid
Deeds showing when a family bought its farm, often clustering relatives and neighbours from the same Irish district.
LandShark — Dodge County land records portal Free
Dodge County’s online portal to recorded deeds and land documents, the quickest route to a family’s land transfers.
Dodge County Naturalisation Records Free
County court naturalisations at the Historical Society and on FamilySearch, with post-1906 files giving the exact Irish birthplace.
Dodge County cemetery, obituary & newspaper links Free
Find A Grave, WIGenWeb cemetery lists and Beaver Dam newspapers, where gravestones and obituaries sometimes state the exact county of birth.
Census of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1895 (vol. I)Free
Volume I (Population & Social Statistics) of the 1895 Massachusetts state census, digitised free on the Internet Archive — read online, download, or full-text search. These are aggregate figures only — no individual names: published statistical tables by city and town (population, sex, age, birthplace and nativity), giving context for the Hampden County mill towns of Holyoke, Chicopee and Springfield rather than a name index you can search for a person — a snapshot of those communities between the 1880 and 1900 US federal censuses.
06 Massachusetts
A classic Irish landing place — statewide collections, then Hampden County.
Statewide
American Ancestors / NEHGS Free & paid
The premier New England society — Boston Pilot ads, Archdiocese of Boston records and Massachusetts vital records in one place.
Boston Pilot “Missing Friends” Free
Immigrants’ newspaper ads seeking lost Irish relatives, routinely naming the exact townland, parish and county of origin — pure gold.
Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 Free
Published town-by-town BMD transcriptions, the ‘Tan Books’, establishing the earliest US-side family framework, free online.
Massachusetts Vital Records 1841–1915 Free
Post-1850 marriage and death records typically giving parents’ names and birthplaces, often naming Ireland, free on FamilySearch.
Massachusetts State Archives Free
Holds the original post-1841 vital records and immigration-related materials useful for pinning an Irish origin.
Massachusetts Naturalisation — NARA Boston Free
Federal and many county naturalisations at Waltham, whose post-1906 petitions can state the exact Irish birthplace, ship and arrival date.
Archdiocese of Boston — Sacramental Records Paid
Catholic registers, often the only record naming the home parish and earlier than civil registration, now being digitised with American Ancestors.
Massachusetts City Directories Free
A year-by-year trace of an immigrant between censuses, pinpointing neighbourhood and parish and confirming a death year.
FamilySearch — Massachusetts Free
Free indexed BMD, church and naturalisation records carrying Irish birthplaces, with a wiki to find the collection.
Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records & Statistics Paid
The state office for modern Massachusetts birth, marriage and death certificates too recent for the free collections.
Hampden County · Springfield · Holyoke · Chicopee
Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society Free & paid
The leading local society for the Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee area, where Irish immigrants concentrated.
Springfield City Library — Local History & Genealogy Free
Local newspapers, city directories and obituary files for finding an Irish immigrant’s home county and tracking families.
Springfield History Library & Archives Paid
A major regional archive with 20,000+ genealogy books, microforms and immigration indexes for the Springfield area.
Diocese of Springfield — Sacramental Records Paid
Catholic registers for Hampden’s parishes, with baptismal sponsors frequently from the same Irish parish.
Hampden County Registry of Deeds Free
Digitised land records showing when a family settled and revealing chains of relatives from the same Irish district.
Hampden County Naturalisation Records Free & paid
Federal and county naturalisations for the Springfield area, with post-1906 petitions the strongest single origin clue.
Hampden cemetery & obituary resources Free
Catholic-cemetery headstones such as St Michael’s, Springfield, and obituaries that often read ‘native of Co. ___, Ireland.’
07 New York · the Hudson Valley
Newburgh in Orange County and Marlborough just over the county line in Ulster — the same west bank of the Hudson, where the Hannigan and Welsh lines settled.
Statewide
New York State Archives — Genealogy Free
The state archives’ portal in Albany, with pathfinder guides mapping which naturalisation, census, court and vital records exist and where.
New York State Census (1825–1925) Free & paid
The censuses between the federal ones; 1855 gives years resident and country of birth, later years the whole family.
NYS Dept of Health — Genealogy Vital Records Paid
Genealogy copies of post-1881 births, marriages and deaths outside New York City, with death records giving birth year and parents.
New York Naturalisation Records Free
Post-1906 naturalisation papers naming the exact Irish town, arrival and ship — often the single best origin record.
Tens of millions of free, scanned New York newspaper pages — my first stop for immigrant obituaries that name an Irish county or parish.
A free, full-text newspaper archive with a cleaner search than Fulton and different coverage — worth running names through both.
New York G&B Society (NYG&B) Free & paid
The statewide genealogical society, with free county research guides for Orange and Ulster and an eLibrary of New York record sets.
Archdiocese of New York — Sacramental Records Paid
Copies of Catholic baptisms and marriages up to 1930 when a parish can’t search its own registers; pre-1881 baptisms often name Irish origin.
FamilySearch / Ancestry — New York Free & paid
The two big platforms for New York’s census, vital, naturalisation and church records — FamilySearch free, Ancestry adding images.
Orange County · Newburgh
Orange County Clerk — Naturalisation & Land Free & paid
The Goshen clerk holds naturalisations from 1802 plus deeds, where most Newburgh Irish naturalised, post-1906 papers naming the Irish birthplace.
Orange County Surrogate’s Court Free & paid
The Goshen probate court, whose intestate administration files name the widow, children and next of kin, sometimes an Irish-born heir.
Orange County Genealogical Society Free & paid
Goshen volunteers with transcribed vital records, obituaries and a Master Surname Index for Newburgh families.
Newburgh Free Library — Local History Free
Newburgh’s local-history collection — city directories, newspapers and church and cemetery transcriptions.
St Patrick–St Mary parish & cemetery, Newburgh Free
The merged Catholic parish for Newburgh’s Irish, also running Calvary Cemetery; registers bridge the pre-1881 gap and name Irish-born parents.
Historical Society of Newburgh Bay Free & paid
An online PastPerfect catalogue including St Patrick’s cemetery and other Newburgh-area transcriptions, searchable by surname.
Cedar Hill Cemetery, Newburgh Free
A large non-denominational cemetery with many Irish burials, its headstones giving death dates and sometimes the Irish county.
Ulster County · Marlborough & Milton
St Mary & St James parish, Marlboro & Milton Free
Marlboro’s historic Irish-Catholic parish, merged with St James, Milton in 2015, so both hamlets’ registers sit together and name Irish-born parents.
St Mary’s Cemetery, Marlboro Free
The Catholic cemetery on Lattintown Road (1882), with a free 686-burial transcription on Interment.net giving death dates and family plots.
Marlborough & Milton newspapers (via Fulton History) Free
The Marlborough Record and Southern Ulster Pioneer, free on Fulton History, where local obituaries name the Irish county.
Marlboro Free Library — Local History Free
A local-history collection plus the digitised ‘Discover Marlboro’ project on New York Heritage, with obituary, church and cemetery material.
Sarah Hull Hallock Free Library, Milton Free
Milton’s village library and first contact for Milton-specific local history and help placing a household.
Marlborough Town Historian & RootsWeb hub Free
A Marlborough volunteer portal run by the town historian, linking to local obituaries, church and cemetery lists and family files.
Ulster County Clerk — Records Center & Archives Free & paid
The Kingston county archives — 200+ years of naturalisations and deeds covering every town, Marlborough included; post-1906 files name the Irish town and ship.
Ulster County Surrogate’s Court Free & paid
The Kingston probate court for the county, whose intestate administration files name the widow, children and heirs, sometimes relatives in Ireland.
Ulster County Genealogical Society Free & paid
A Hurley volunteer society with a reference library and The Genie journal covering the whole county.
Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection Free
The Mid-Hudson Valley’s strongest genealogy collection at New Paltz — indexed church, cemetery and Bible records, censuses and obituary indexes.
08 Societies & historical societies
Join for the journal, the expertise and the local knowledge — where family history meets local history.
Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) Paid
Members’ databases, the journal The Irish Genealogist, and material that survived the 1922 Public Record Office fire.
Ulster Historical Foundation Free & paid
An Ulster-wide research body and Guild membership — databases, guidance and a journal covering Donegal and the North. Usually the body meant by ‘Ulster Heritage’.
North of Ireland Family History Society Paid
A family-history society covering all nine Ulster counties, including Cavan, with a research centre, branches, courses and overseas associate membership.
Federation for Ulster Local Studies Free & paid
The umbrella body for around 100 Ulster local-history societies, a route into parish- and townland-level knowledge for Cavan and Donegal.
Genealogical Society of Ireland Paid
An affordable Irish society with a journal, archive and open lectures — community-focused rather than a records subscription.
Offaly Historical & Archaeological Society Free & paid
The county society, with Offaly Archives, publishing local history and holding archival material for Offaly families and townlands.
Breifne Historical Society Free & paid
A Cavan, Leitrim and south-Fermanagh society whose membership includes the annual Breifne journal, published since 1958.
County Donegal Historical Society Free & paid
Founded 1946 and publisher of the Donegal Annual — parish studies and family and townland articles for Donegal researchers.
Ulster Heritage DNA Project Free to join*
Not a historical society but an Ulster Y-DNA and Family Finder project at FamilyTreeDNA, useful for Donegal male-line research. *Requires an FTDNA test.
Back to Our Past / Genetic Genealogy Ireland Event
Ireland’s main family-history exhibition and DNA lecture series, though intermittent, so worth confirming a current date.
09 Podcasts
Good company for the commute — Irish-specific shows plus the best of the wider genealogy world.
Emerald Roots Free
The Irish Family History Centre’s show — the most directly Irish-relevant, on record types and strategy from people who do it professionally.
Irish GenPod Free
Veteran genealogist Paul Gorry interviewing leading Irish genealogy experts — a limited series with a valuable back catalogue.
Irish Roots Café Free
A large archive of episodes on specific Irish surnames and counties, now sporadic but a rich back catalogue.
The Family Histories Podcast Free
Storytelling plus brick-wall problem-solving, with an Ireland category, and still active in 2026.
Research Like a Pro Free
Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer teaching a disciplined, repeatable research workflow — invaluable for fragmentary Irish records.
Practical AI techniques for genealogy — deciphering old handwriting, translating records and reasoning about DNA.
The Genealogy Guys Free
The longest-running genealogy podcast — news on record releases, tools and DNA; general rather than Irish, but keeps you current.
Genealogy Gems Free & paid
Lisa Louise Cooke’s practical-skills show — Google tricks, online archives and DNA, transferable to the gaps Irish research throws up.
Family Tree Magazine Podcast Free
General genealogy with genuinely Irish-relevant episodes, such as using RootsIreland, and beginner-friendly.
10 Membership areas
Record subscriptions, DNA tools and learning communities worth paying (or registering) for.
RootsIreland Paid
Transcribed church and civil records from the county heritage centres, coverage you often can’t get on the big commercial sites.
Findmypast Paid
Strong Irish and British collections, sometimes available free through your local library.
Ancestry Paid
The largest platform — records, trees and the strongest DNA-matching database for finding Irish cousins.
MyHeritage Paid
A large European and international DNA pool with Smart Matches and free raw-DNA uploads; you pay only to unlock advanced tools.
American Ancestors / NEHGS Free & paid
Databases, a dedicated Irish research hub and expert guidance for the Irish-American side, with a free guest tier to explore.
The Green Room (Your Irish Heritage) Paid
An Irish-only learning community from Mike and Carina Collins — courses, an ‘Ask the Genealogist’ service, live webinars and free johngrenham.com access.
GEDmatch Free & paid
Raw-DNA uploads from any company to find matches across platforms, valuable for pooling Irish cousins who tested elsewhere.
DNA Central Paid
Blaine Bettinger’s structured DNA-methodology courses, for serious learning where the paper trail fails.
Irish Family History Centre Paid
Dublin-based experts at EPIC offering paid consultations and commissioned research when you’re truly stuck.
Ireland Reaching Out (IrelandXO) Free
A free reverse-genealogy community whose volunteers and parish pages help pin a family to a specific townland — ideal for the diaspora.