Both Ancestry and TheGenealogist have recently expanded their Irish collections. Two of the new additions are available elsewhere – let's not forget that fresh transcriptions or redigitised material can often bring new discoveries – while the other is an update to a growing obituary index.
Ireland's Memorial Records, 1914–1918
New to TheGenealogist is a collection of some 50,000 records of Irish soldiers and soldiers with a connection to Ireland who died in World War I.
This collection, which is online at several other databases, was originally compiled by the Committee of the Irish National War Memorial and published in an eight-volume set in 1923, complete with decorative borders designed by Harry Clarke, the renowned stained glass artist and book illustrator.
Each entry gives the name, regiment, rank, date and place of death of the soldier, including in some cases, their date of birth and next of kin.
Ireland, National Army Census, 1922
New to Ancestry, this collection is sourced from Ireland's MilitaryArchives. The records was gathered at midnight on the 13th-14th of November 1922, less than one year since the Partition of the island and at the mid-point of the Irish Civil War, when military leaders needed an accurate count of the strength of their forces to make decisions about feeding, clothing, and arming the troops.
The index holds the details of some 32,000 soldiers and can also be searched by their next of kin's name and address. The records include age, religion, marital status and residence of the soldier and the date and place of attestation.
UK and Ireland, Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current
This index provides data mostly gleaned from death notices and obituaries published in titles held by Ancestry's sister database Newspapers.com. Since arriving on Ancestry about 18 months ago, it is updated every few months and now holds more than 19 million entries. Unfortunately, the proportion of that total with an Irish flavour is tiny.
If you do find a record of interest, however, the genealogical information provided by the index is generous, typically including age, place of birth and death, names of family and funeral attendees.