Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

The Church of Ireland have made historical editions their Church of Ireland Gazette available, and searchable, online. There are nearly 7o years of gazettes available, from March 1856 to December 1923. These Gazettes provide birth, death and marriage notices for clergy; ads; news; and a variety of regular columns, from which you can learn a lot about parishes, attitudes, and (should your family include Irish ancestors) perhaps a little about your family history.

Good news for anyone researching Irish family history. In partnership with the National Archives of Ireland and FamilySearch, Find my Past have released most of Ireland's 19th century census records. Unfortunately, most of Ireland's 19th century census records were destroyed, so what remains is of particular importance. The records include the remaining returns from Ireland's censuses 1821-1851 as well as census search forms from the 1841 and 1851 censuses. Find My Past can be accessed online at all our library branches, either via one of our PCs or using your own device via our wireless internet. Julia

Ancestry database has added some important 19th century records covering critical periods prior to and following the Irish Potato Famine. Griffith's Valuation, 1848-1864 This index has approximately one million individuals who occupied property in Ireland between 1848 and 1864.Griffith's Valuation is an invaluable reference for family historians with ancestors in Ireland in part because no census material from the nineteenth century has survived. It is the only detailed guide to where in Ireland people lived in the mid-nineteenth century and what property they owned or leased. Tithe Applotment Books, 1823-1837 These record the results of a unique land survey taken to determine the amount of tax payable to landholders to the Church of Ireland, the established church until 1869. This data set represents a virtual census for pre-famine Ireland. Since it covers all of Ireland and is important in terms of constructing, not just an image of a particular family line, but of wider so...