Tracing Family Tree

admiralofthefleet

does anybody know of any irish sites that trace your family tree for free?

i was on the ireland.com page and all was going well til they said it would cost $8 dollars to find the history.
so does anyone know of a site, i did a google search and couldnt find much.

regards,
gar

ps. i hope this in in the rite forum, if not, apologies

ejmaztec

I haven't seen anywhere free (apart from the Mormon site), either. I think that there is too much money to be made by people with access to the information. I know that the real stumbling block is the fact that, during the civil war, all of the central records went up in flames in Dublin. As far as I know, the Mormons have ancestry records with free access but I don't know how complete they are. Someone told me a few years ago that, if anyone became a Mormon, that meant that their ancestors became Mormons automatically. So, apparently, the Mormons sent their people over here to put whatever records were available onto their laptops. The person who told me this isn't too reliable so I don't place much credence in it. I've tried the Mormon site without any success.

http://www.familysearch.org/ENG/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=search_all1.asp&clear_form=true

wow sierra

That story about the mormons is true. Cool idea - your staunchly catholic granny gets converted to a Mormon after her death by her madcap great grandchild.!! Still the site is useful. Try http://www.ellisisland.org free site re Irish emigrants to US. www.cso.ie for old census records (not free) www.nationalarchives.ie not all free but good place to start. Apparently a lot of records are not on the net and you have to call to records offices/churches etc to find them. Also be careful about spelling of names/townlands etc using the incorrect spelling will mean you cant find info ( I know it sounds obvious but its a common mistake). try your local library for books which help you to do it or the librarian might help.

also try www.leitrim-roscommon.com has a good few counties for 1901 census free plus some good links

CherieAmour

I've just started tracing mine and from what I can gather it will cost you money no matter which way you do it. Find out as much as you can first from relatives or friends of deceased relatives and then you won't be wasting your money.

Some websites charge money for access to census, there are also others that will trace it for you but you have to pay them.

I haven't forked out any money yet but know I will have to.

The Office of the Registrar was based in the Custom House when it was burned out so an awful lot was destroyed. Anything that remains is in the National Archive as far as I know!

That programme 'Who Do You Think You Are?' on UK TV had Jeremy Irons on and he was in Dublin getting info. He traced relations in Cork and up the North.

Ruu_Old

I'll find out for you as my folks done alot of this stuff before, very successfully. I'll find out what they done and if they used a specific company.

lockon...

My dad researched our family history a few years back. One of the things that was a great help was checking the old newspapers (death notices etc.). You can get these at the National Libary on Kildare Street.