Exciting News About Irish Records in Ireland!

Most people who can trace their ancestors back to Ireland learn quickly that a terrible fire at the Public Records Office (PRO) during the Irish Civil War destroyed about 700 years' worth of records. Documents that went back to the fourteenth century when the British ruled in Ireland plus "thousands of wills, title deeds and parish registers" went up in flames on 30 June 1922. According to an article recently published in The Irish Times online, the 1861 and 1871 census records had been destroyed by the British, and during World War I, the 1881 and 1891 censuses were repurposed because of a lack of paper, as it wasn't deemed necessary to keep the data. What did remain in the PRO were the censuses of 1821, 1831, and 1841—all particularly valuable because they were created in the years before the Irish Potato Famine. These records also burned in that disastrous fire. However, Irish historians, archivists, and genealogists are making a concerted effort to rebuild what was lost and make as much as possible available to researchers. They have created a website called "Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland," and it's growing all the time.

The purpose of the Virtual Record Treasury project is to "recover as many of the lost documents as possible." That is involving extensive searching in archives, government offices, libraries, and other repositories. However, those missing census records have long been the group's priority. Now, through much hard work, the group is on its way to recreating a lot of what was lost. They have discovered several volumes from 1821 that survived the fire and were tucked away in the National Archives of Ireland. These volumes had been microfilmed but could only be used in the National Archives. They have now been digitized as have about 60,000 names garnered from all over the island.

Beginning this month, there are about 175,000 new historical records that have been added to the group's website, which already houses a wide range of information. The home page is at https://virtualtreasury.ie/, and you will definitely want to scroll all the way to the bottom before you start clicking so you can see the amount of information that is available throughout the site.

Before you start exploring the records, however, you might want to go to the User's Guide, which you can find at https://virtualtreasury.ie/help/user-guide. Here is where you can discover exactly what was lost in the fire, what you can use as substitutions for those documents, and an explanation of the kinds of digital content in the Treasury. The User's Guide also explains the symbols used on the website, how items are linked, and quite a bit more useful information that will help you navigate the site.

You also may want to check out the FAQ page before you plunge in so you can get answers to common questions. You can find that page here.

Then, start learning and searching. Read about eras in Irish history and the people that lived there. See what collections are on the site. Find out more about the efforts to rebuild Irish paper records, and much more. The newest releases are in a section called "June 2025 New Releases," which you can access here.

This is an attractive website arranged in linear fashion, so you do have to keep scrolling to get to all of the good parts. And it is only because your blogger has fallen down the rabbit hole that she cautions you to only go to the site if you have hours to devote to it! Not a good plan to start this at bedtime! Even without any Irish relatives, your blogger spent way too much time just reading, enjoying the lovely photos, and absorbing more of Ireland's checkered history.

(If you want to read the article in the Irish Times, the link is here. Thanks to StLGS volunteer Rich Stanton for calling the article and the news about the Virtual Treasury project website to our attention.)