New Hope for Irish Genealogists

It is a postulate of Irish genealogy that the destruction of the Irish Public Record Office in late June 1922, resulting in the loss of a vast collection of Irish source records at the outset of the Irish Civil War, was the greatest tragedy in Irish genealogy. Among the losses were centuries of census, probate, parish, and other records. Since 1922, researchers have endeavored to reconstruct some of those records (see the following article); however previous efforts pale alongside the a new undertaking to restore those records.

According to an article by Roman McGreevy that appeared in the December 5, 2019 edition of The Irish Times, the organization Beyond 2022: Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury intends to “recreate the building and contents of the Public Record office of Ireland destroyed by fire at Dublin’s Four Courts in 1922.” Comprised of personnel from Ireland’s National Archives, the UK national archives, Northern Ireland’s public record office, the Irish Manuscripts Collection and the library at Trinity College Dublin, Beyond 2022 intends to conduct a country-wide search for replacement records and to digitize them for wide consumption by Irish genealogists.

For more information about Beyond 2022: Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury please see the December 6 article from The Irish Times.

Irish Source Book Substitutes for Records Lost in Four Courts Fire of 1922