When researching your family history, it is important to find out the name of the townland where your ancestor lived. A townland is the smallest administrative unit in Ireland. It is an old Gaelic subdivision which predates the Norman invasion of 1169. Knowing the county or parish of an ancestor may not be sufficient. It is likely that your family name will occur many times in any given county or parish. The townlands of Ireland are listed and displayed on a map at Ordnance Survey of Ireland. The next biggest unit is the parish, and this is a potential source of confusion. There are broadly speaking, two types of parish. There are ecclesiastical parishes which are run by the different churches e.g. Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland etc, and there are civil parishes. The civil parishes are the parishes which pre-date the Reformation in Ireland and were sometimes used by the British authorities in Ireland. For example, the civil parishes were used by the two resources which were created for the purposes of taxation and which are discussed later in this site, i.e. Griffith's Valuation and the Tithe Applotment Books. Initially, the Church of Ireland parishes were based on these pre-reformation parishes, but after this church's disestablishment in 1869, the boundaries of its parishes could be altered without affecting the boundaries of the civil parish on which it was based.

In a great many cases the Roman Catholic parish, the Church of Ireland parish, and the civil parish in which a townland is located will all bear the same name, but you should be mindful that this will not always be the case. Sometimes, you will know the church parish and not find a corresponding civil parish when searching through Griffith's Valuation or the Tithe Applotment Books. Generally, if an emigrant provides a parish name as his or her parish of origin, this is a church parish. A corresponding parish may not be found in Griffith's Valuation or the Tithe Applotment Books, because as already stated, these are based on the civil parish which may not be the same as the church parish. Throughout this web page when the word parish is used, the type of parish will always be specified.

District Electoral Divisions are used in the 1901 and 1911 Census. The census groups townlands into DEDs. It is not necessary to know the DED to search each census. It is possible to search by family name.

Parishes (both civil and church) are grouped into baronies. The barony does not feature prominently in genealogical research.

Baronies are grouped into counties.

Finally, the Registration District is used in the civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths. Civil registration began in Ireland in 1864. It is unlikely that you will know the registration district, but it is relatively easy to find out this information, and then use it in subsequent searches.

In 1864, the state began recording births, deaths and marriages. The Roman Catholic Church, in the case of most parishes began registering baptisms and marriages from the 1840s. In the case of some RC parishes you will find there are earlier records. The Church of Ireland began recording baptisms and marriages from the 1790s.

For some of your ancestors, there will only be church records available. In cases where both types of record are available one type of record should not be seen as a substitute for the other. For example, a baptismal record lists godparents or sponsors. This provides information on relatives which is not available on the civil birth record. On the other hand, in the case of a civil marriage record, the first name, family name and townland of the father of each party is given. Frequently, in the case of the church marriage record, the family name only of each father is provided.

Many of the church and civil records up to 1958 are available for free at Family Search. This site includes a large number of American records, therefore, unless your family name is an unusual one, it is a good idea to restrict your search to Ireland by typing the word 'Ireland' in the textbox labelled 'place'.

Another excellent source of records is Roots Ireland. This is a subscription site. It allows you to search within a parish (Roman Catholic or Church of Ireland) or within a civil registration district.

As already stated, civil records began in 1864. Most of these records are available online, but not all of them. Copies of records can be acquired by contacting the General Register Office. There is a charge for a search and for a photocopy of a civil record. You can search a range of years, in person, by visiting their research centre at Irish Life Centre, Abbey Street , Dublin. You can pay a fee to search for the duration of a day.

Even if the record is available on the Roots Ireland website, obtaining a photocopy of the civil record allows you to check that Roots Ireland transcribed the information correctly. The handwriting can be difficult to read, and errors can be made.

From 1821, and every ten years thereafter, a census of the Irish population was recorded. For a variety of reasons, records for households prior to 1901 did not survive. The records for 1901 and 1911 are available online at 1901 and 1911 Censuses. If you find a relative in this database, you can use the web page to search for everyone who lived in that townland at that time.

Griffith's Valuation was compiled in the 1850s and is a register of everyone who was eligible to pay a property tax called Rates. A property was valued and the amount due was based on this valuation. The occupier or tenant was eligible for the tax. Richard Griffith gave his name to the valuation. He was the Commissioner for the General Survey and Valuation of Rateable Property in Ireland, and was responsible for overseeing the work.

Effectively, Griffith's Valuation, is a list of the heads of households in the 1850s. Unfortunately, unlike a census, it does not include spouses, children or servants, but it is the only resource of its kind extant from this period.

The Valuation Office holds cancelled land books. You can obtain photocopies of the pages from these books. They list the names of those who paid rates (a tax on property) and the years in which they made the payment. They contain the information that is in the Griffith's Valuation for the years since 1850. They are organized by townland. There is a considerable delay between requesting the records and acquiring the records, but you can visit their research centre in person, and undertake the research yourself. The research centre is located at the Irish Life Centre, Abbey Street, Dublin.

The tithe was a tax paid by the occupiers of land to the Church of Ireland. It was a tax that was deeply resented by the majority of the population who were not members of this church. For the purposes of collecting this tax, the Tithe Applotment Books were compiled between 1823 and 1837. These list the occupiers of land holdings in rural parishes.

There are two websites which hold records of people who emigrated to the United States. These are

• Castle Garden Records
• Ellis Island Records

Castle Garden was America's first official immigration centre and was in use from 1855 to 1890. The web page has eleven million records. It was superseded by Ellis Island in 1892.

It is possible to search both of these resources simultaneously at the excellent Steve Morse website.

The National Archives of Ireland Transportation Records Database is a searchable database of records relating to convicts transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868 inclusive. The practice of transporting convicts to Australia was discontinued in 1850, but was resumed in 1867 when people convicted of taking part in the Fenian Rising of that year were transported.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Debt of Honour List is a searchable database of all soldiers in Commonwealth countries who died during the two World Wars. It is estimated that 35,000 Irish people were killed in the First World War while serving in the British army.

There are two well-known subscription sites that allow you to search all of these and additional resources simultaneously. These are

• www.ancestry.com
• www.findmypast.com

The additional resources include US census records and naturalization records (a record of a foreign national becoming a US citizen). These records are particularly useful if you are tracing an ancestor who emigrated to the United States. Both sites allow you to build your family tree online. Ancestry.com allows you to upload a GEDCOM file, and this feature will soon be available at Findmypast.com. Both are subscription sites. Ancestry.com grants free membership for a trial period.

The following will set out the naming conventions that were frequently used in the 1800s when granting first names to children. Please bear in mind that these conventions were not adhered to rigorously, but they can be a very useful guide. Civil marriage certificates do not supply the names of the bride's mother nor of the groom's mother. A search for the marriage certificate of one of the fathers may result in multiple matches making it difficult to be sure of the mother's name. The names of any children which the bride and groom may have together may suggest a possible solution to this problem.

The first son was named after the father's father.
The second son was named after the mother's father.
The third son was named after the father.
The fourth son was named after the father's eldest brother.
The fifth son was named after the mother's eldest brother.

The first daughter was named after the mother's mother.
The second daughter was named after the father's mother.
The third daughter was named after the mother.
The fourth daughter was named after the mother's eldest sister.
The fifth daughter was named after the father's eldest sister.