Ireland

This article details connections between British India and Ireland, particularly emigration and immigration.

Also see

• Irish Townlands
• Passenger Lists (UK Ports)
• Newspapers and journals online: Pay websites and Subscription websites-online newspapers, journals and directories: Other British and Irish publications for information about the website "Irish Newspaper Archives".
• British Army - Attestation, or Enlistment books (Army Book 358) from 1920 for free online records 1920-1922 of the five disbanded British Army Irish regiments: Connaught Rangers, the Leinster Regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Regiment and the Royal Munster Fusiliers.

FIBIS Resources

• The Irish In India (1790-1920) A youtube presentation of a lecture given by FIBIS chairman, Peter Bailey, in May 2012
• FIBIS database Depot Registers of Irish Recruits 1811-1855 L/MIL/9/29-46 HEIC depot description lists relating to Irishmen who enlisted for HEIC army on the FIBIS database

External links

• Limerick Museum has a section on The East India Company and Limerick containing the following datasets online:
  • Limerick Recruits to East India Company to 1832
  • Bombay soldiers 1831-60
  • Madras soldiers 1831-60
  • Bengal Soldiers 1831-1860
  • Supplementary Information
  • Discharged Soldiers 1820-61
  • Bengal officers to 1834.
  • Ghuznee prize list
• IrishGenealogy.ie, a free website operated by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Government of Ireland “a website that allows users the opportunity to search a wide range of record sources in their search of their Irish Ancestry. The website is home to the on-line historic Indexes of the Civil Registers (GRO) of Births, Marriages, Civil Partnerships and Deaths and to Church Records of Baptism, Marriage and Burial from a number of counties”. There is also a category "Research: Get Help"

Note, the website also includes records prior to 1922 for what became Northern Ireland.

Update

• From 8 September 2016, images of the General Register Office's historical birth, marriage and death registers are also available online. Due to privacy restrictions, birth records from the past 100 years (after 1915), marriage records from the past 75 years (after 1940) and death records from the past 50 years (after 1965) are not available.
• Updated 2 April 2025, additional records have been released, with births to 1924, marriages to 1949, and deaths to 1974.

• Ireland research page FamilySearch contains a collection of Indexed records which may be searched, including Ireland Civil Registration, 1845-1913 based on a series of microfilms which have been digitised but which are not available for viewing. Search FamilySearch for other datasets. Note, you must first be signed in to FamilySearch, a free website. Also Search the Catalog and Search Books/Digital Library where , as an example O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and Upper Blackwater in Ireland Volume 1 of 15, catalogue entry for 15 volumes counties Kerry and Cork.
• National Library of Ireland: free online Catholic Parish Register images: Baptisms and marriages to 1880 and others. Introduced 8 July 2015. These images are not indexed by name, so you will need to know the relevant parish. Although the description says the records are Baptisms and marriages only, it appears other records are included also.

Update October 2016. These records are also available on Findmypast, a pay website, as Ireland Roman Catholic Parish Registers Browse (located in Life events (BMDs)/Parish Registers). Significantly it is stated "we have further indexed the records, which means that they are available for search by name". Findmypast also has databases Ireland Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms, Marriages, Burials (3 separate databases), (located in Life events (BMDs)/Parish Registers) and Ireland Roman Catholic Parish Congregational Records, located in Life Events (BMDs)/Religious Ceremonies, with images, all sourced from National Library of Ireland, (and with links to the image on NLI Registers website).

Update Ancestry also introduced a similar database 29 February 2016 and updated 9 May 2018, "Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915" (country Ireland, located in category Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish)

• National Archives of Ireland
  • Genealogy Includes links to the 1901 and 1911 Censuses, Soldiers Wills 1914-1918 and Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1858 - 1920. Free online records.

Update

• 15 September 2016. Six new record series were released , including "Shipping agreements and crew lists, 1863 – 1921" for the Merchant Navy, which covers not only Irish sailors, but include natives of Norway, Russia, Sweden, American and Germany. Also "Will Registers 1858 – 1900". Four of these record series, including Crew Lists and Will Registers are also available for free on Findmypast.
• November 2018. Census index records are also available on FamilySearch, with data provided by the National Archives of Ireland.

• Comments about census indexing errors "Centre for Irish Genealogical and Historical Studies"

• Archives for family and local history Northern Ireland Government website nidirect.gov.uk
  • Public Record Office of Northern Ireland also referred to as PRONI. Includes a pay Search facility, see below under Pay websites, GRONI (General Register Office NI)

Searchable Online Street Directories 1819-1900 (broken range). "Street directories are printed volumes listing names of individuals and/or businesses. Most directories have details for Belfast and for the principal towns and villages in Ulster." nidirect.gov.uk. From a Search result it is possible to click to earlier or later pages.

• More directories are available Ireland, Belfast & Ulster Directories Findmypast database (pay website) including 1904; 1912; 1920; 1923-1926; 1928; 1931-1932; 1935-1938; 1942-1948, see List. Also Lennon Wylie lennonwylie.co.uk includes transcribed editions including 1901; 1907-1910; 1918; 1939.

"Researching your ancestors using the resources and records of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)" YouTube video 8 February 2022 19.56 minutes.

• Online records from Anglican Record Project, Church of Ireland parishes A work in progress. There appear to be additional records linked from the page Online Parish Records. List of Parish Registers with link to a pdf download, or direct pdf link - Information about surviving Parish Registers. All links, Church of Ireland website, category RCB Library.
• Pay websites
  • Findmypast contains many Irish records. Under the tab "Search records" is a category "A-Z of record sets" which is a listing of all the record databases. It is then possible to select a filter on the left hand side of the webpage "Ireland". Includes "Ireland, Belfast & Ulster Directories", mentioned above. In addition, there are Irish newspapers in the category "Newspapers and periodicals"/"Irish newspapers".
  • Ancestry contains many Irish records. Note there are records under Ireland, and also under "UK and Ireland" which is a different category. Make sure the category "Only records from UK and Ireland" is unchecked/not selected, otherwise Ireland records will be omitted. Ancestry Card Catalogue of all Record Databases (located as an option under the Search tab), including
    • Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index, 1864-1958 (located in " Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish"). Index records only, sourced from the GRO (General Register Office) in Dublin, and from the GRO in Belfast, the latter records for Northern Ireland.
  • Search GRONI's online records General Register Office NI [Northern Ireland] (GRONI). The credits which need to be paid are for searching only. Certificates must be purchased separately. Note, the records prior to 1922 for what is now Northern Ireland are also available on the free website IrishGenealogy.ie, refer above.
  • Ulster Historical Foundation, [Northern Ireland] a non-profit organisation formed in 1956 . Search for birth, death & marriages (BMD), census records, street directories etc. Church registers from Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, a few other churches. Some civil records. Some free records, mostly Pay-Per-View, and some Member Only. Pay-Per-View coverage: Online Records for County Antrim (includes Belfast), Online Records for County Down (of six Counties). Most appear to be pre 1922 records. Members receive a 50% discount on Pay-Per-View records, in addition to other benefits.
  • RootsIreland.ie subscription website owned by Irish Family History Foundation. "The main sources on the site are Irish Catholic and other church records of baptisms, marriages and deaths".
  • The Irish Genealogical Research Society includes Early Irish Birth, Death and Marriage Indexes 1660 to 1863, being transcriptions from many sources. "Access to the marriage index is completely free to all and the birth and death indexes allow name searches for non-members".
  • Irish Ancestors. Links from this page are generally free. Includes
    • Catholic parishes in Ireland (free page)

  Additionally, click on the Sitemap, bottom of the webpage, for more details of the contents of the website. Records on the site, and some other pages require a subscription. The site allows "five free page-views".

• Catholic Church Records: Lecture Notes for WDYTYA Live, Birmingham April 2015 by Dr Jim Ryan. ancestornetwork.ie
• National Archives Guide: Looking for records of a birth, marriage or death in Scotland and Ireland
• What Irish records are online?, archived page at 30 April 2016 from Irish Ancestors (irishtimes.com),a website which is now no longer available.
• "‘Lads of true spirit’ – recruiting for the East India Company in Ireland" in 1779. British Library Untold lives blog 3 October 2018.
• Articles in Irish Family History-Journal of the Irish Family History Society

• "The India Callaghans" by Alfred D. F. Gabb, Volume 11 (1995) page 32
• "From Co. Kildare to India" by Tom Radigan, Volume 13 (1997) page 3
• "An Irish community in Bombay" by Abagail Sheppard, Volume 15 (1999) page 22
• "Irishmen in the East-India Company Army" by Peter Bailey, Volume 17 (2001) page 84

• Recruiting regions of Irish infantry regiments in the British Army from 1881 until 1922. A list of regiments, depots, counties together with a map. Select page 5 of the digital document, print page 75, in this link.
• "Information Document on the Irish Regiments of the British Army up to 31st July 1922". Irish Military Archives Dublin
• "Irish Soldiers in the British Army 1792-1922: Suborned or Subordinate?" by Peter Karsten Journal of Social History Volume 17 No. 1 (Autumn 1983) pages 31-64
• The Irish Great War Dead Archive introduced November 2021. An initiative of Tipperary County Council Library Service, the research of military historian Tom Burnell. At introduction does not included Northern Ireland war dead.
• Frontline Ulster website includes information about some Army Barracks throughout Ireland.
• Placenames Database of Ireland logainm.ie. Developed by Dublin City University (DCU) and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Government of Ireland.

Historical books online

• Indexes to Irish Wills. Five Volumes in One edited by W P W Phillimore and Gertrude Thrift 1997 Reprint edition, first published 1909 to 1920. Archive.org Books to Borrow.

v. 1. Ossory, Leighlin, Ferns, Kildare.--v. 2. Cork and Ross, Cloyne.--v. 3. Cashel and Emly, Waterford and Lismore. Killaloe and Kilfenora, Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe.--v. 4. Dromore, Newry, and Mourne.--v. 5. Derry and Raphoe

Note, this book is available as a database on the pay website Findmypast.

• Tracing your ancestors in Northern Ireland : a guide to ancestry research in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland by Ian Maxwell. 1997. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Note: Due to date of publication, online sources would not be mentioned and possibly some aspects may be out of date.