The IGRS will publish the first online instalment of the Michael Leader Parish Register Transcripts on 4 July 2026, making available a unique body of Irish genealogical research compiled over several decades by former IGRS Vice-President Michael Leader.
The launch date has been chosen to coincide with an event in London at the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith, as part of the IGRS's international programme marking its 90th anniversary. The event will bring together members, researchers and family historians and will feature lectures by Michael Mahoney of The National Archives, Kew, and historian Dr Damian Shiels. Further details and booking information are available here: The London Event | Irish Genealogical Research Society
The initial release comprises 1,548 pages of transcripts drawn from 24 datasets covering 21 parishes and congregations, representing just over one-fifth of the nearly 7,000 pages in the Michael Leader collection.
Living in England, Leader travelled extensively to Ireland from the 1950s through to the 1970s, transcribing parish registers and related records. Although centred on County Cork, his work also extended beyond the county. At a time when these records remained dispersed among individual parishes and congregations, he brought together transcripts from numerous locations to create what has become one of the most substantial collections of its kind. The publication project now enables that collection to be searched and accessed online through the IGRS website for the first time.
The first release comprises material from 21 parishes and congregations represented in 24 datasets. Most relate to Church of Ireland records and the great majority are from County Cork, although the release also includes material from counties Limerick and Longford. The records include baptisms, marriages, burials, monumental inscriptions and other church material. Among the highlights are extensive transcripts from St Multose, Kinsale, with records dating back to 1684. A significant proportion of the material contains information not readily available from other sources, while some record sets survive almost solely through Leader's transcripts.
Since these transcriptions were made, some original records have deteriorated and access arrangements have changed considerably, increasing the value of Leader's work and underlining the importance of making the collection more widely available.
The publication represents the latest stage of the Society's digitisation programme and follows several years of work by volunteers who organised, catalogued, edited and prepared the collection for online publication. The transcripts will be available to IGRS members through the Society's website, with further releases planned later in 2026.
When publication of the parish register transcripts has been completed, work will move to the digitisation of the Michael Leader pedigree collection, another significant resource for Irish family history research.
Further details about the contents of this release are available in the accompanying PDF, which can be accessed via this link.
