The National Library of Ireland

One of the places that I visited to do some research was the National Library of Ireland. I was able to walk to get to the library as it was only about four blocks from our hotel in Dublin. As I was walking there, a couple of people happened to notice that I held a map in my hand and wanted to know if they could help me. The first person that noticed was just before I reached the street for my final turn. The second person stopped me just steps from the library.

I just want to let you know that not only do they have a genealogical research service, by this I mean that they have a couple of genealogists who assist people by directing where they can find the records that they are looking for, but they also provide research materials for other purposes. These records could be either in English or Irish or copies could be found in both languages. This pretty much applies to the Irish Republic as a whole.

They do have a website, http://www.nli.ie/ , that you can go to and look for yourself to see if they hold the publication that you are looking for. There is a section of the website that is dedicated to genealogy which has a number of pages to it. The first page of the genealogical section is labelled “Getting started” and has links to the Catholic Parish Registers that are held at the NLI and the census and civil records. They also recommend that you read their booklet which they provide a link to a pdf copy that you can download. They also provide links to the General Register Office and to the FamilySearch.org website.

If you click on the link for the NLI sources, you will see a list of the sources that they have available. This list includes:

Catholic parish registers

Property records

Newspapers

Directories

Heraldry

Other sources

They also provide free access to subscription websites such as Find My Past and Ancestry. There may be other websites than these two, but I did use Ancestry while I was there.

The section for the Genealogy Advisory Service gives a listing when you can get some advice about your research. I used it and they gave me advice on their holdings.

There is a section for Genealogy Events. However, there is nothing listed at this time. I would imagine that if “Who Do You Think You Are – Live!” were to visit Ireland, this would be listed in this section.

The next section to look at is Family History and Memoir Writing. The library works in conjunction with Irene Graham in offering workshops and lectures on memoir writing. I would think that this would be similar to the writing group that the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa has as a special interest group. There is a link to upcoming events as well as a link to Irene Graham’s website.

If you are interested in commissioning someone to do some research for you, the library does not offer this service but does provide a list of over 65 private individuals and organizations who will be happy to help you.

If you click on the Links button, you will get a rather long list of links of various websites ranging from main repositories to websites to government registries to almost anything that you can think of to find the records that you need.

Last, but not least, is the FAQs page. It lists twelve frequently asked questions that are answered below the list.

All in all, I think that the National Library of Ireland has a well organized website with regards to family history. They provide information, databases, and references to the things that they do not have in their repository. I am starting to think that I should have taken some time before going to Ireland and gone through their website. I know that I was not prepared to do a lot of research when I travelled there last month, but I did know this and used the time to acquaint myself with the facilities that Dublin offers the family historian. I am doing some of this basic research now as, being part of a tour group, there was only a very limited time to do any research.

My suggestion to anyone even remotely planning a research trip to Ireland is to start with the websites for the National Library of Ireland and the National Archives of Ireland. Then, you can branch from there, either online or in person.