BYRNE AND
O'BYRNE IRISH GENEALOGY
Before looking at Irish records make sure you know the location of your Byrne
ancestor's home place. Irish record searching requires that you know at least
the County and hopefully the Parish and Townland of your ancestor. Get ALL the
information possible in the USA before beginning your search of Irish records.
This includes known relatives of your ancestor. Ask some of the older relatives
who might know the family traditions which can be reasonably reliable. From US
sources get all available information such as death certificates, cemetery
records, obituaries, census information, immigration and citizenship
information. THEN begin your Irish quest. Irish County Heritage Centers in the
county of your ancestor's origin can be helpful. Even if your family emigrated
before the famine, try to find related Byrnes in the family's home place. Some
of the Catholic Church records (baptism, marriage and death) are difficult to
access because of local church resistance to making the records public. By far,
the best place to access Irish records in the US is in Morman (LDS) Libraries.
You can order microfilm from Salt Lake City for a nominal charge which is then
sent to the local Library where you can look at the film in the Library for a
few weeks. The Libraries have guides which help you order the right microfilm,
but I've found the best resource to be a book called "The Library, A Guide to
the LDS Family History Library" by Johni Cerny & Wendy Elliott, published by
Ancestry Publishing of Salt Lake City.
Remember that the lack of Irish records makes a
searcher rely on creative alternatives. Religious persecution in the Eighteenth
century resulted in a lack of Catholic church records until the early nineteenth
century. A fire caused by fighting in the Civil War in the Four Courts in Dublin
in 1922 destroyed many records including census and probate information. Byrne
and O'Byrne are very common names in parts of Ireland such as Co.Wicklow and
Dublin. Having an uncommon first name such as Malachy or a double name such as
Hugh Gerald can make the searching easier.
Depending on the year your Byrne immigrated to the US, your first goal should be
to locate your family in the 1901 Irish census, as well as the two main census
substitutes in the nineteenth century. Even if your ancestor left Ireland before
1901, finding related family members in the original home place can be very
helpful. The 1901 census lists all the family members along with their ages and
relationship to the head of household. This information can give you a lead for
finding civil registrations of birth and marriage records which began in 1864.
Both the 1850's Griffith's Valuation and the late 1820's to early 1830's Tithe
Applotment only lists heads of household. They both fix your ancestor on the
home place, and provide the size of their holdings and their Landlord, which can
be helpful when searching the Registry of Deeds.
Public birth certificates begin in 1864 as do marriage (1845 for Protestant) and
death certificates. Get as much information on all of your extended family, not
just your direct ancestor. Having the additional information may help provide
additional clues. Even though many of the wills were destroyed in the 1922 fire,
the Probate calendars beginning in 1858 are very helpful. Prior to 1858,
searching for Probate information can be very unrewarding. Many of the records
simply don't exist. The wealthier (mostly Protestant) Byrnes could be listed in
the Prerogative Wills.
Generally records on Protestants are better, with the exception of Church
records, many of which were burned in 1922. Even if your Byrne ancestor was
Catholic, it is entirely possible that they were Protestant for a hundred plus
years prior to the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1828. Many Irish converted to
the Protestant Anglican religion in order to retain ownership of their property,
and converted back generations later when it was "safe" to do so.
AVAILABLE IRISH INFORMATION-
Census and Census Substitutes:
Other censuses covering small parts of the country
Birth, Marriage and Death records:
Probate- most of the wills were destroyed in the 1922
fire, but the calendars from 1858 are in existence which give limited but
helpful information. Most records before 1858 were burned. Some indexes and
abstracts for wills filed before 1858 are in existence, and are worth exploring.
Cemetery- most of the cemetery tombstones have been recorded and are usually
located in Irish county heritage centers or county libraries.
Registry of Deeds- don't start accessing this source
until you know exactly where your Byrne ancestor lived and who they leased from
(Griffith's or Tithe Census Subtitutes). It was established to prevent the
transfer of property to Catholics, but it serves today as the best body of
available Irish Genealogical information which survived the fire of 1922. Read
up on how to access this body of information, and be patient. Their is great joy
in finding a three life lease from the late 1700's which lists a previously
unknown ancestor and his two sons.
If you start any serious work in Irish Genealogy, then it is important to
purchase one or many books on the subject. O'Lochlainns Genealogical Foundation
(Box 7575, Kansas City, Mo 64116) has some good books, Heraldic Artists in
Dublin publishes "Irish Genealogy, a record finder", and another excellent book
is "Tracing Your Irish Ancestors" by John Grenham.
April 1998
Pat Byrne
1449 Bayshore Dr.
Niceville, Fl. 32578
An Explanation of the Reasons Why Irish Genealogy Records are Limited
What few Irish records exist are based upon the
location of your family. Do not try to start researching Irish records,
especially a common name such as Byrne or O'Byrne, unless you know where your
family came from. At a minimum you MUST know the County, and hopefully the
Parish and Townland of your Byrne or O'Byrne family. Searching a common first
name with no known location can be difficult to impossible. Other than the LDS
IGI records, there is no national master lists where you can discover all the
pertinent information on your ancestor. If you don't already know the home place
of your Byrne ancestor by tradition, then the best way to search the birthplace
is tombstones, death certificates, obituaries, or US census records showing the
immigration year, followed by immigration records. Knowing the location of your
ancestor's birth is essential before going to the next step.
Engaging in Irish genealogy is one of the most challenging areas of genealogy
that a family tree nut can pursue. The lack of easily searched records can be
attributable to a number of factors. The most significant reason for poor Irish
genealogy records is the fact that beginning in the mid-seventeenth century,
Irish Catholics were effectively disenfranchised. Many Irish and Anglo-Irish
Catholics were forcefully removed from their land and subsequently
disenfranchised. A genealogist relies on governmental and church records to
track a families' past. Governmental records include deeds to land, wills
transferring assets to named relatives, birth, death, marriage and census
records enumerating the entire family. Church records record the baptism
marriage and death records of parishioners.
Beginning with the Penal laws in the 1690's and continuing for most of the
eighteenth century, Irish Catholics couldn't own land, get an education, own
certain types of businesses, or practice their religion. The result of these
policies was the virtual elimination of record keeping on Catholics.
Governmental records simply were not made on people who had no rights, and who
didn't have economic interests which required protecting by documentation. With
very few exceptions, Catholics couldn't own, buy or transfer land, consequently
they did not record deeds or have sufficient wealth to warrant wills which would
be probated. Since Catholics were forbidden to openly practice their religion,
there were no church baptismal, marriage or death records.
Around the time of the American Revolution the penal laws were relaxed. Britain
feared another rebellion close to home, and moved to loosen the bounds on Irish
Catholics. Catholics were finally allowed to openly practice their religion.
This resulted in the establishment of permanent catholic churches with
accompanying record keeping. It took a number of years for catholic churches to
become widespread and the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1828 released the last
official restraints on Catholics. Most catholic church records begin in the
early nineteenth century. These records begin around 1800 to 1830 and are mostly
accessible, but sometime need the permission of the local priest. Many of the
government sponsored County Heritage Centers have transcribed these records onto
computer data bases. The last significant reason for the lack of Irish records
is the fire in the Four Courts in Dublin during the Irish Civil War in 1922.
Many of the records including most 19th century census and will
records were consumed by the flames. The net result of all this is that the
dedicated researcher must weave a convoluted trail through the maize of
available information.
April 1998
Pat Byrne
1449 Bayshore Dr.
Niceville, Fl. 32578
E-mail
WHERE TO FIND IRISH
RECORDS ON YOUR BYRNE FAMILY
There are many good genealogy libraries in the US, but few of them have any
Irish records to speak of. To be at all helpful, a Library must have Griffith's
Valuation which is the census substitute of the 1850's. Samford University
Library in Birmingham, Alabama is excellent.
The Mormon Church with its microfilm libraries in
every local stake is the best available resource to Americans. The Mormons, for
religious purposes, are strongly committed to finding, copying and making
available to ALL, the genealogical material they copy. For a nominal fee you can
have microfilm sent to the local Mormon library for a period of a few weeks.
You're not allowed to take the film out, but there are available microfilm
reading machines for everyone's use. If you've ever thought abought going to a
Mormon Library, but because you're of a different religious conviction you were
concerned, then rest assured you will be greeted by helpful people, NONE of whom
will even hint at engaging you in a religious discussion. I'm reminded of a
prominently displayed framed resolution in the main Mormon Library in Salt Lake
City. The resolution is from the Jewish Genealogical Conference thanking the
Mormon Library for making available the wonderful resources of the library, and
commending them for the warm welcome given them. If you use the extensive
resources of the Mormon church, either in Salt Lake city or in local stake
libraries, you can rest assured you will have the best available genealogical
resources available in the world, and you will experience no uncomfortable
religious engagement. Anyone in America engaging in Irish genealogy MUST use the
Mormon library to have any reasonable chance of success. The Libraries have
guides to help you through areas of research, but the best general reference
book to help with ordering microfilm from the Mormon libraries is "The Library,
A Guide to the LDS Family History Library" by Johni Cerny & Wendy Elliott,
published by Ancestry Publishing of Salt Lake City. If you have never used a
Mormon Library, then ask a local librarian and they can help. To illustrate how
open and available the Mormon's resources are, a cousin of mine in Co.Roscommon,
has written asking me to order microfilm and look up an Irish record. It was
easier for him to get the information via his cousin in America, than to gain
access to the original records in Ireland.
This illustrates a problem many Americans encounter in Ireland: Irish libraries
and records depositories are not as accessible to the public as their American
counterparts. In Ireland the Irish County Heritage Centers can be a great
resource for much of the information. County Libraries can be helpful, but I
have encountered resistance accessing records which Americans would consider
open and public.
Pat Byrne April 1998
1449 Bayshore Dr.
Niceville, Fl. 32578
e-mail