Researching your Irish family history

It's said that "everyone's a little bit Irish on St Patrick's Day". But if your Irish heritage runs deeper than tomorrow's festivities - or you want to find out - here are just some of the resources available from our libraries to help you learn more about your family history.

Digital Library Resources

Ancestry Library Edition

This version of Ancestry gives you access to records from Ireland, the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand and more, including New Zealand electoral rolls to 1981, and New Zealand city directories to 1954.

Access to Ancestry Library Edition is available from all Hamilton City Libraries locations - either bring your own device and connect to APNK wi-fi, or use one of the library computers. For guidance, see the on how to use Ancestry Library.

Findmypast

Findmypast contains family history-related records from Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, and Canada.

Access to Findmypast is available from all Hamilton City Libraries locations - either bring your own device and connect to APNK wi-fi, or use one of the library computers. For guidance, see the on how to use Findmypast.

Books

	Tracing your Irish family history by Anthony Adolph Gives an expert's helping hand in retracing your family's past in Ireland.
	Tracing your Irish family history on the Internet by Chris Paton Many of Ireland's primary records were lost during the civil war in 1922 and through other equally tragic means. Paton shows you that, not only has a great deal of information survived, a lot of it is increasingly being made available online. He explores the online records available from both the north and south from the earliest times to the present day.
	Tracing family history overseas from New Zealand by Anne Bromell Information and practical advice that enables enthusiasts to extend their research outside New Zealand without leaving home.
	Irish records : sources for family & local history by James G. Ryan For the period of greatest interest to family history researchers -- the late eighteenth and early to middle nineteenth centuries -- Irish family records are sparse. However, sources are available -- civil registers, censuses, land records, church records -- and Irish Records tells you where to find them.
	Pocket guide to Irish genealogy by Brian Mitchell By skillfully blending case studies, maps, charts, and his own mastery of the subject, Mitchell has managed to convey the basics of Irish genealogical research in scarcely eighty pages. Following introductory chapters on the background of research on the American side, the author describes the nature and uses of all significant record sources in Ireland. Another important chapter explains the differences between the various administrative divisions of Ireland, knowledge of which is critical in tracking down all available records on Irish ancestors. The Third Edition includes a new chapter on "Irish Genealogy and the Internet," which discusses all the principal web sites for conducting Irish research online.
	A new genealogical atlas of Ireland by Brian Mitchell Since its publication in 1986, A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland has established itself as a key resource in Irish genealogical research. Now, with the addition of maps detailing the location of Roman Catholic parishes in all thirty-two counties of Ireland and Presbyterian congregations in the nine counties of Northern Ireland, this new 2nd Edition moves the book to the forefront of Irish genealogical research. Also, for the first time ever, this one volume contains a complete geographical picture of the three major religious denominations in Ireland during the middle years of the 19th century.