IRISH GENEALOGY RECORDS DESTROYED MYTH or FICTION

‘All Irish genealogy records destroyed in 1922 fire’: Myth or fact?

What is it that makes Irish family history research so challenging?

Located of the River Liffey, Dublin’s Four Courts building opened in 1802.

By the early 20th century, the four courts had been replaced but the name retained, and the west wing of the building was being used as the Public Records Office (PRO). The PRO housed many genealogical treasures including Irish census returns, originals wills dating to the 16th century, and more than 1,000 Church of Ireland parish registers filled with baptism, marriage and burial records.
Sadly, nearly all were lost during the Irish Civil War on 1922 when, after an explosion and fire ravaged the building.

The famous fire

You will hear and read much about this fire at the PRO in the course of your genealogy research.

Too often, it is mentioned alongside a claim that ‘ALL’ Ireland’s records were lost and, as a result, ‘tracing your Irish ancestors is an impossibility’. It simply isn’t true.

Of course it was a catastrophic event.  But while the loss of so many valuable records certainly makes Irish family history challenging, the term ‘impossible’ is completely misleading. Some important records were nowhere near the flames.

What survived

Here’s a quick run-through of the main record collections used  that either survived the fire or were nowhere near the flames …..

  • The 1901 and 1911 Irish census returns survive.
  • So do all civil registration records.
  • So do nearly half of all Church of Ireland parish registers (many clergymen had simply not sent their registers to Dublin).
  • Baptism, marriage and burial records for Roman Catholics, Presbyterians and Methodists were not housed at the Public Records Office
  • Griffiths Valuation – the primary source of land and property records for the 19th century is intact.
  • Indexes to wills and probate bonds survive.
  • So do a good number of local muster rolls, poll tax lists and other records dating back to the very early 1600s.

What was lost?

Apart from a few fragments, the Irish Censuses of 1821, 1831, 1841, and 1851 were burned in the Public Records Office.

So, too, were just over half of all the Anglican Church of Ireland registers deposited there following the dis-establishment of the state church in 1869.

In addition, the majority of wills and testamentary records that had been proved in Ireland were reduced to ashes (although transcripts of many testamentary records survive).

All pre-1900 documents from the legal courts were lost, as were local government records for the same period.

So where does this leave you?

. You know that plenty of family history records survived, and most people – most – can bridge the lost 19th-century censuses to discover at least something about their ancestors in Ireland if they have a reasonable idea of where they lived.

Those hit hardest by the destruction of the PRO are those researchers descended from Church of Ireland families (never more than 25% of the island’s population) and those whose ancestors were wealthy enough to make wills (again, a relatively small proportion). 

I can’t promise that Irish family history outside of these groups is easy peasy. Never mind ‘THE 1922 FIRE THAT BURNED ALL THE RECORDS’, there are even more record collections that don’t survive in their entirety for completely different reasons! But depending on where (in time, as much as in place) your research starts, you have a fair chance of uncovering some part of your Irish heritage.

Where next?

  • More about the surviving 19th- and 20th-century  Irish census