Millions of historic Irish civil records are now online for free

More than 2.5 million images of historic records of births, marriages and deaths from the General Register Office of Ireland are available online for the first time, on the free state-run family history website, www.irishgenealogy.ie.

The digitised images include more than 12.5 million individual records dating back to 1864, creating a fantastic new resource for family historians tracing Irish ancestry.

Among the records are the birth, marriage and death register entries for Tom Crean, the Antarctic explorer, whose grandson Brendan O’Brien attended the launch at the National Library in Dublin on 8 September with the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys TD, and Minister for Social Protection, Leo Varadkar TD.

Minister Humphreys said: ‘This is the first time that this huge volume of records is being made available online and it is a very important development in family history research for Irish people and Irish descendants both at home and abroad. Anyone wishing to research their family history will have a veritable treasure trove of records available at the click of a button and I’ve no doubt that these records will help unlock many mysteries that people have been trying to solve for years.’

The online records cover births 1864 to 1915, marriages 1882 to 1940 and deaths 1891 to 1965. Researchers can download an image of the full register page featuring the birth, marriage or death of their relative if the index entry gives the option.