Thread: Thomas Burke

Hello Irish records do seem to be difficult. I am struggling with some Irish ancestors. Was he Church of Ireland or R/C. Have you checked the Irish census?

The births and marriage are well before the start of statutory registration in Ireland and also before the earliest surviving census (1901) so to find them you need to rely on church records, if they survive. There are not many church records for the late 1700s/early 1800s, especially for RC.

To use church records effectively, because there’s no centralised index, ideally you need to know the ancestor’s exact religion, townland and parish in Ireland. (Otherwise it’s a needle in a haystack). UK Census returns sometimes include place of birth, and age instead of just Ireland. Look out also for other Irish people nearby in the censuses. Immigrants often settled near people they knew from home. Check military records, old diaries, gravestones, family bibles, wills and obituaries. Birth certs for some locations (e.g. Scotland) include place of marriage of parents. Marriage certs in some locations (e.g. US States) can include places of birth, parents, etc for bride and groom. Funeral home records can be very informative. Death certs (e.g. US, Australia & Scotland) can show parents names.

Once you have found where your ancestor came from you need to search the parish registers. For Northern Ireland, the Public Record Office (PRONI) has copies of many of the parish registers, and has a list of those held elsewhere. www.proni.gov.uk/
For the Republic of Ireland the records are held by the National Library National Library of Ireland - Homepage It is also possible to order copies of the microfilmed records in to your nearest LDS library.