Church Record Assessment
| Document | Type | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Church Record Assessment | Report | €60.00 | Order Offline | Order Online |
Church Record Assessment
If your ancestor was born before 1864, it will be necessary to search church records of baptism to obtain more information in relation to their birth as the civil registration system for births only began in 1864.
Similarly, for Roman Catholic couples marrying before 1864, the church record is the only one available (civil records of marriage for non-Roman Catholics are available from April 1845 onward).
To search church records, a location within Ireland is needed as there is no centralised index for Irish church records. If you have the name of a parish of origin, it will greatly assist in your search. If not, it may still be possible to trace records.
Have Parish Details?
If you have details of your ancestor's parish of origin our Church Record Assessment Service offers the following:
- A listing of the details of the Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland records relating to the parish that are available for searching in the major record repositories in Ireland
- A listing of the occurrence in the parish of the relevant surname in the index to Griffiths’ Primary Valuation of Ireland - a survey of land and property holding undertaken between 1848 and 1864. The listings in the index include details of the townland (equivalent to a small village or group of farms) where the individual held the land/property.
If records are found to be available for the parish in question covering the relevant period, we can provide a quote for undertaking a search on your behalf of records held in the Dublin Repositories.
As an alternative course of action, you may wish to visit the website of the Irish Family History Foundation at www.brsgenealogy.com They provide a searchable database of many church records from a number of counties of Ireland.
Don't Have Parish Details?
If you don't have details of an ancestor's parish of origin (if perhaps you just have the name of a county of origin) it will be more difficult to locate church records.
It may be possible to identify a probable parish through analysis of surname information from the survey of landholding known as Griffith’s Primary Valuation - taken during the period 1848-1864 (while your ancestors may have left Ireland by the time of the survey, in this case it is being used as a guide in attempting to trace the surname within the region). Our service consists of the following:
- An analysis of the index to Griffith’s Primary Valuation for the relevant surname/surnames to try to identify a possible parish of origin – such analysis has the best chances of success where the relevant surname/surnames is not frequent in the area of the country in question (if you know the surname of a spouse etc. who may have come from the same parish this can further help in narrowing the search).
- A listing of the details of the Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland records relating to the identified parish(es) that are available for searching in the major record repositories in Ireland.
If records are found to be available for the parish in question covering the relevant period, we can provide a quote for undertaking a search on your behalf of records held in the Dublin Repositories.
As an alternative course of action, you may wish to visit the website of the Irish Family History Foundation at www.brsgenealogy.com They provide a searchable database of many church records from a number of counties of Ireland.
