Thursday 3 July 2014 - Jimmy Deenihan T.D., Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht together with Joan Burton T.D., Minister for Social Protection, will today launch the Indexes to the Registers of the General Register Office (GRO) Civil Records online at www.irishgenealogy.ie.
This is the first time that the Indexes have been made available online by the General Register Office and is a very welcome development.
Minister Deenihan commented:
"Genealogy is an important way of connecting with those abroad who wish to trace their roots and also permitting those here in Ireland to establish their family history. It can also be of significant economic benefit to the country in the development of cultural tourism and in attracting visitors to Ireland to trace their ancestry, visit their ancestral homes etc. In addition, genealogy is also immensely important from a social history perspective. I am delighted that through the cooperation of our two Government Departments we can expand the range of records available to those wishing to find out more about their family history."
Minister Burton said:
“This is an investment for the future which allows us to access our past from the comfort of our living rooms. The availability of electronic records is essential for the development of modern genealogy services. With this in mind, I will shortly be publishing the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill 2014 in which I will be providing for certain historic records to be made available online direct to the public. I look forward to further developments on this wonderful initiative which will allow us, and future generations access to invaluable information regarding our ancestors. I would like to congratulate all involved in bringing this element of the project to fruition and acknowledge the work undertaken in both my own Department, with particular mention for the General Registrar and his staff, and also the staff of the Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht.”
www.irishgenealogy.ie is a genealogy website run by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The website contains over 3 million church records from Dublin, Cork and Kerry. In addition, the website contains a web portal that allows people to do one search which will scan a range of records. The range of records includes the 1901 and 1911 Census Records, Tithe Applotment Records, Military Archives and Ellis Island records and Castle Garden Records. A link will then bring you directly to the results of that search.
The addition of the Indexes to the General Register Office Civil Records represents a valuable addition to the site. The indexes are guides to the registers of various life events. While they do not contain all of the information that would be contained in a register entry, they provide a very useful research tool.
Minister Deenihan further commented:
"Once again, I warmly welcome this very valuable addition to the www.irishgenealogy.ie and I thank my colleague the Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton TD and the Registrar-General of the General Register Office for all their help and cooperation in relation to this undertaking."