Wednesday 15 September 2021

Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project continues to grow

The Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project has received several updates since I last reported on its progress in April. During that time, some 31,134 entries have been added to the main index so that it now holds 442,804 entries transribed from 46,487 memorials.

There's been good upward movement in the transcribing of the Townland and Grantor Indexes, too, with the number or additional entries since spring at 22,445 and 2,369 respectively.

The heroes behind these achievements and the steady progress of the project are the volunteers... all of them regular Irish family historians keen to add to the Index so that other researchers can lift the lid on the secrets so long hidden in this huge archive, which dates back to 1708.

With images of microfilmed copies of the manuscript archive now readily available to view via FamilySearch, the indexing of the deed memorials (and the Registry's own indexes) has become much easier than it used to be when volunteers had to spend hours at the Dublin repository working through the heavy volumes. Check out the Project Index site via the link above, and look at some of the memorials and index books at familysearch.org, and if you can spare a bit of time now and again, why not consider becoming a Project volunteer?

Details are on the home page, as are links to how-to guides.