Great news for those of Irish descent!

The Irish Family History Foundation is busy at work digitizing millions of birth, marriage, and death records, as well as census and land records. The project is in progress, though some 6.9 million births have already been indexed, as well as 3.5 million marriages and 1.2 million deaths across the island.

From Northern Ireland’s Co. Antrim to the Republic of Ireland’s Co. Cork, a number of counties north, south, east, and west are already on the Web. Just 10 are not, at the moment, but more records are added all the time.

The site with all of these records is brsgenealogy.com. A simple, free registration allows you to conduct free searches of the index. Then, the full records can be instantaneously viewed via the site for an affordable five Euros each. One way to increase your chances of a match are to enter your person’s name with their father’s name (if you know it of course). You can also search for a name by parish.

I’m particularly excited about these new records in that I’ve already had success with them. I found the baptism record of my 4th-great-grandfather Thomas BULGER and learned that he was born Mar. 10, 1825 in Ballinabarney, Parish of Killaveney, Co. Wicklow. I also found baptism records for his siblings John (1826), Mary (1828) and Michael (1832) in the same townland and Ellen (1842) in nearby Glenphilipeen. I confirmed it was them through their parents’ names, James BULGER and Julia KEALY, which I had through Canadian records.

If you have Irish roots, and especially if you’re searching for an uncommon name, give the site a look. With Irish records so lacking, due to the great Dublin Fire, war, and famine, this effort is literally a goldmine.