To be continued............ Records for Ireland People always comment on how there are so few records remaining for Ireland because of the fire in the Four Courts in 1922. Yes, many records were lost at that time and it was terrible - but there was an awful lot of material which wasn't stored in the Four Courts. People on the newsgroups are always wondering why their families moved from Ireland to England, they wonder about how the famine was the main cause of movement out of Ireland. Well, it was and it wasn't. There was movement before the famine and movement after the famine. Look at it in the same way as you do life today. How many of you have family who have gone away - somewhere where there is work? Not in your hometown. Back then - Ireland and England were one. London was the capital. People moved about - I've always been saying that - don't pen them in. Ireland was part of Great Britain. It was run by the House of Commons, with MP's representing constituencies in Ireland as everywhere else. Many of the people in the House of Lords were born and raised in Ireland. So - whether anyone likes it or not, Laois, Mayo, Kerry, Cork, Tyrone - any county in Ireland was to England as any county in England. During that time we had industrialisation..and as today - people went where there was work. It didn't matter if that work was in England or Scotland - across water...it was all the one Great Britain. As with the European Union - the Irish moved from place to place, they didn't need passports to travel across that stretch of water.it was the same thing as crossing the river Shannon...just a bit more water and a longer journey.and for some of them - it may have taken less than to get from Dublin to Cork (24 hours). The Irish did not emigrate to England....they just wandered over and back - maybe for the Summer months, maybe for a few years, maybe forever..but they were still in the same Great Britain. So - there are no emigration records. More went during the famine, more moved off to foreign climes, more went seeking that fortune in the New World.... But stop and think - were the Irish the only people heading across the Atlantic during the time for the famine?? If they were - then it would be easy for you all to find your ancestors on those remaining passenger lists... They'd all be Irish. But - they weren't. Everyone thinks of Ireland as a Catholic country - we had more Protestants back then. But - Great Britain had a population which was 40% Catholic. The records in the Four Courts were lost.....but there is so much else remaining for Ireland..if you stop thinking of this little island and think in terms of it being just a part of Britain...and look to England and English records. We have the House of Commons Sessional Papers Records of the House of Lords Commissioners for Forfeited Estates in Ireland 1690's & early 1700's Select Committees on the State of Ireland (1824 & 1825) The Royal Commission on Tidal Harbours in the United Kingdom (1845) Royal Commission on Shipping dues (c. 1853) RC on Militia (1858-9) Harbours of Refuge (1858-9) Sea Fisheries (1863-5) Railway Charges (1865-7) Marriage Laws (1865-9) Cattle Plague (1865-6) Sanitary Laws (1868-9) All considered Ireland. Then we have: The Army: During the 19th century about 1/3rd of the British Army was Irish. Many ordinary men took the King's shilling instead of being labourers. Officers careers can be traced through the Army list and ordinary soldiers through their admission and discharge papers and Regimental Musters. These go back to the 18th Century - beyond Parish records. Admission and Discharge papers for 1760-1854 have been indexed alphabetically. We had 'out-pensioners' technically discharged to Kilmainham hospital but actually drawing their pensions al over the country. There are medal rolls for each campaign. All recorded in British Army records. Soldiers who died in the great War - the First World War - there's a medal roll for them. The death certificates of al soldiers who died in WW1 are indexed centrally at St. Catherines House and give number, rank and regiment.