Ireland Research Guidance: Death 1619-1863

Search Strategy
Search the following records in the order given.

1. Church Records: Church records
Church records are the christenings or baptisms, marriages, and burials recorded in registers by church officials at the time of an event. Burial records give the name of the deceased and the date and place of burial. If the deceased was a child, the father's name may also be listed in the record. Before searching church records, it is vital to know the religion of your ancestors.

Read more about Ireland Church Records.

2. Monumental Inscriptions: Cemeteries
Gravestone or monumental inscriptions can be a useful source of family history information. Sometimes, multiple family members are buried in the same vault or burial plot and the inscription will give information on all that are buried there. Inscriptions may give birth, marriage, and death information. They may also give clues about military service and occupation, or family members buried in the same area. Sometimes they give more information than the parish burial register or civil certificate of death. Monumental inscriptions are especially helpful for identifying ancestors who are not recorded in other existing records, and may give a birth date that cannot be found elsewhere.

Read more about Ireland Cemeteries.

3. Newspapers: Obituaries and Death Notices
There are many reasons why someone's death may be recorded in the newspaper. Until more recent times it wasn't common practice for all deaths to be listed, but for the earlier time periods, the higher social classes and military personnel who were officers were the most common listings. Anyone who lived a long time or whose death was accidental or unusual in any way may also be listed. British Newspaper Archives $

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4. Probates: Wills and Administrations
Wills and Administrations may be used to imply a death date when one is not given in the record. Researchers use the implication of a death date as the period between when the will or administration was dated (W/D) and when the will or administration was proven (W/P) in court. The following indexes to wills are available online and cover all of the diocesan, prerogative and district registries.


 * FamilySearch.org Ireland Calendar of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1920 All thirty-two counties
 * Ancestry.com Northern Ireland, Will Calendar Index, 1858-1965 $ Six Northern Counties
 * Ancestry.com Ireland, Indexes to Wills, 1384-1858 $ All thirty-two counties.
 * Ancestry.com Index to the Prerogative Wills Ireland, 1536-1810 $ All thirty-two counties.

Read more about Ireland Probate Records