Thursday 21 January 2016

IGRS Birth Index adds 2,600 records

The Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) has updated its Early Irish Births Index with 2,600 additional records bringing the total number of entries in the database to 8,605. All entries in the Index come from sources other than parish registers or civil registration records collection.

As well as the more usual sources such as newspapers, census records and memorial inscriptions, this latest batch of birth records have been gleaned from the Admiralty Passing Certificates held at The National Archives in Kew, London, and (more than 500 entries) from the Registry of Deeds. In addition, a delighted genealogist in London presented Vice-President Roz McCutcheon FIGRS, the founder and manager of the Index, with an exact birthdate in 1861 for her Irish-born great grandfather, found in the 1939 National Register

Launched last year at RootsTech, the Early Irish Births Index is an online members-only resource. So, too, is the Early Irish Deaths Index.

However, the first of the Society's trio of bmd Indexes – the IGRS Early Irish Marriage Index – is free to access by members and non-members. It holds details of more than 70,000 marriages.