Irish archives are a major source for Australians researching Irish convict ancestors, despite the fact that not all records from the Chief Secretary’s Office in Dublin Castle survive, especially from the period before 1836. Penal transportation to Australia, and later to Bermuda and Gibraltar, covered the years 1791 until 1853, when the sentence of penal […]
To ensure the legality of a will of a deceased person, a grant of probate must be made by the courts. As part of this process, the original will is lodged with the courts. If someone dies intestate, without having made a will, the courts can grant letters of administration for the disposal of the […]
What Church of Ireland parish registers are held in the National Archives? Parochial records (baptisms, marriages and burials) of the Church of Ireland (Anglican Church) pre-1870 are public records and may be held on microfilm in the National Archives. For records post-1870, it will be necessary to contact the Representative Church Body Library (RCB Library), […]
National Archives has produced a series of brief guides to some of the most important, or heavily consulted, collections we hold. This list is not exhaustive and only represents a fraction of our holdings. These guides are designed to give a brief overview and to place the collections in their historical context. They are also useful […]
Irish archives are a major source for Australians researching Irish convict ancestors. Not all records from the Chief Secretary’s Office in Dublin Castle survive, however, especially from the period before 1836. Penal transportation to Australia, and later to Bermuda and Gibraltar, covered the years 1791 until 1853, when the sentence of penal transportation was commuted […]
A systematic government census of the Irish population was taken every 10 years from 1821 until 1911. No census was taken in 1921, due to political unrest as a result of the War of Independence and Civil War, but the work of taking census resumed in 1926. All census returns from 1926 onwards are closed […]
What is a will? A will is a document written by an individual in which they express their wishes as to how their estate is to be divided after their death. A will can only become a legal document once a grant of probate is taken out following the death of the individual. A person’s […]
Did you know that the oldest record we hold relating to a woman is a memoranda roll from 1309? That the place of Countess Markievicz’s birth is given incorrectly on the cover of her prison file? That you can examine the will of Princess Grace of Monaco in our Reading Room? Or that we hold […]
The collections relating to maritime history in the holdings of the National Archives are disparate, encompassing official records created prior to the foundation of the state, government departmental records, business archives and small private deposits. Customs and Excise Records, REV/9 The Merchant Shipping Act of 1786 required the owners of any British ship with a […]
Why does the National Archives hold court records? Court records are defined as departmental records under the terms of the National Archives Act, 1986 and are, therefore, subject to the same legislative protection and permanent preservation as other records of state. The National Archives Act, 1986 was the first legislative protection given to Irish public […]