Friday 6 December 2013

IGRS Marriage Index races through 30,000 milestone

The Irish Genealogical Research Society has announced that that its Early Irish Marriages Index has broken through another milestone with more than 30,000 records now uploaded. This equates to over 70,000 names, with some 60,000 brides and grooms recorded plus 10,000 parents identified, and they all date from before 1864.

What’s more, they are free to search on the Society’s website, IrishAncestors.ie.

The Early Irish Marriages Index is the creation of Roz McCutcheon FIGRS, a long standing member and volunteer of the Society. She says that about 5,000 marriages now in the 30,000-strong database were drawn from the Registry of Deeds, either from her own research in the Dublin search room or from the Registry of Deeds Index Project (which is run by Nick Reddan FIGRS, another stalwart of the Society).

“One entry from the Registry of Deeds that delighted me was the marriage before 1753 of Hill Wilson in County Down,” says Roz. “Anywhere I had checked previously, there was just a blank where Wilson’s wife’s name should have appeared. But in Book 350, from a deed extracted by Nick, not only is Wilson’s wife named as Elinor Lutevidge, but also his father-in-law is named, plus the Lutevidge address in England. That’s just a tiny example of the riches being uncovered by indexing the Registry of Deeds.”

As the Index continues to grow, Roz is constantly checking for duplications. She explains: “Sometimes three or four entries will refer to the same marriage, but each entry will supply something new towards building a record of the marriage.”

The Early Irish Marriage Index was launched on St Patrick’s Day 2013. If you have not searched it before, I'd echo the Society's suggestion that you read through the Introduction before launching into the database; it'll help you to understand your search results.