Press release
Ministers Doherty and Madigan Announce Release of More Historical Birth, Marriage and Death Records Online
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
All civil marriage records from 1845 to 1944 are now available online to members of the public, along with the release online of birth register records for 1919 and death register records for 1969. Over 15.5 million register records are now available to the public to view and research online on the www.irishgenealology.ie website.
The records now available online include:
• Birth register records – 1864 to 1919
• Marriage register records – 1845 to 1944
• Death register records – 1878 to 1969
Regina Doherty TD, Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (which has responsibility for the Civil Registration Service) emphasised:
“I am delighted to see the completion of the project to make all historical civil marriage register records available for public access via the www.irishgenealology.ie website. The marriages project has taken a number of years to complete - given the condition of some of the older records – but all historic marriages are now accessible online for the first time. This is a great achievement for the Civil Registration Service and ensures the preservation of these valuable records in digital format for the future”.
Minister Doherty went on to say civil marriage registration started in Ireland in 1845 and almost 100 years of historic marriages records can now be readily accessed for family history and historical research purposes. Earlier marriage records registered by Church bodies are also available on www.irishgenealogy.ie.
The Minister continued:
"The site is continuously being improved and enriched with very valuable records. It is indeed a rich tapestry of Irish history on a very accessible platform and is available for all to use for free”.
Josepha Madigan TD, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht explained that:
"This annual release of birth, marriage and death register data by the Civil Registration Service is part of an ongoing partnership between my Department and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The aim is to make all of these historic records freely available and easily accessible to all members of the public both at home and throughout our Diaspora".
Minister Madigan added:
"This important work will continue. Our departments will continue to work together to digitise and make available further historical records over the coming months and years".
These include the digitisation of images for up to 1.5 million death records covering a period from 1864 to 1877 which remain to be released to the public.
ENDS
The marriage records being launched are non-Catholic marriages only, as civil registration of Catholic marriages did not commence until 1864. Marriages from 1845 to 1944 are now available online in a variety of image and digital formats.
Site usage - Number of Site Visits to the civil records in 2019 was 5,187,476
Some 1.5 million death records covering 1864 to 1877 are being worked on and will be put online during 2020.
A separate joint project between the two Departments will allow the publication of a number of other registers held by the Civil Registration Service. These registers include a record of Irish personnel killed during World War 1, army registers relating to births, deaths and marriages; similar registers maintained by the consular services.
Below are two sample marriage registrations from this release: