The Henrietta Street entrance to the Registry of Deeds, Dublin (courtesy of Donna Moughty).
The Society’s Early Irish Marriage Index has been updated once again, adding almost 4,000 more alternative sources and references to marriages in Ireland. Now comprising just over 66,000 records, it notes approximately 147,000 names of brides, grooms and their parents. Here is a direct link to the search page.
Rosalind G McCutcheon
The database was created and is overseen by IGRS Vice-President and Fellow, Rosalind (Roz) McCutcheon, long-time resident of London but a native of Bandon, Co. Cork. The driving force behind the continual growth of this online resource, Roz is responsible for most of the entries added on what has become an almost monthly basis.
With so many parishes in Ireland not having any register of marriages before the 1840s, the database is fast becoming an invaluable tool in identifying where and when ancestors tied-the-knot. It includes references from a myriad of different sources: books, gravestones, family bibles, deeds, wills, letters, court records, published journals, newspapers, census transcripts and old age pensions forms, to name just a few.
Sources drawn upon for this particular update include marriage licence bonds from a number of diocese covering all or parts of counties Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow; and there are further references to marriages from the Registry of Deeds.
Early Irish Marriage Index Search Page
If your ancestors don’t appear yet then please check back each month as the database is regularly being added with new records which each time note several thousand more names. Don’t forget, the Early Irish Marriage Index is freely available to all – not just members of the IGRS – so please spread the word to fellow ancestor hunters.
Good luck!
