The majority of Irish genealogical resources for all counties can be found in libraries and archives in Dublin. Although a significant volume of these records are available online, there are still plenty of sources, and expertise, that can only be accessed in person. Why not progress your family history research with a trip to Dublin?
Dublin is a small city with relevant archives and libraries found in all four corners of the town, with excellent public transport in the form of buses and trams. But walking between repositories is an ideal way to see the best bits of the historic city – and at the end of a long day in a dusty archive, there are a wealth of options for whatever your choice of refreshment.
Most of the repositories in Dublin, including the National Archives of Ireland (NAI), are only open Monday to Friday, although the National Library of Ireland (NLI) is additionally open on Tuesday and Wednesday evening, plus Saturday morning twice a month. If you arrive in the city early on a Friday or stay late on a Monday then you can still incorporate a day of research into a long weekend.
Before you go
- Apply online for NLI and NAI reader’s tickets. Check the ID documentation required for both.
- Where an appointment is required book online.
- Identify call numbers from online catalogues and collection lists.
- You must order NLI material in advance using an online form. Also the NLI and NAI store some items off-site, which have to be ordered 2–10 days in advance.
Day One
Morning
Start your day at the NAI on Bishop Street and take advantage of the free genealogy advisory service, available Monday to Friday 10am–1pm and 2pm–5pm. Professional accredited genealogists are on duty to advise and assist you with your family history research and will direct you to the relevant repositories, with hand-out maps and lists of online resources.
If you have already identified manuscripts in the NAI, get your order in quick to maximise your first three research hours of the day. Except for Mondays the building, frustratingly, closes for lunch between 1pm and 2pm. With permission, you can photograph all records.
If you have the time then coffee and a toasted sandwich at Network Café on Aungier Street will restore you for the stroll through leafy St Stephen’s Green to reach the NLI on Kildare Street.
Midday
The NLI’s ticket office closes between 12.30pm and 2pm, and you cannot access any reading rooms without your reader’s ticket. Arrive early, or stop for lunch en route. You will get a pretty solid tea and sandwich at Buswells Hotel across the street, or the genealogists’ favourite, Brewbaker Café on Frederick Street. If you miss the ticket office, there is an enchanting free exhibition on the poet WB Yeats in the library’s basement until summer 2025, while opposite the NLI you will find the National Museum of Ireland’s Archaeology building (free, closed on Monday morning), with a permanent exhibition ‘Kingship and Sacrifice’ focused on ‘bog bodies’.
The NLI has a genealogy room with free access to subscription genealogy websites, free worksheets and expert staff to offer research advice. The NLI is open from 9.30am until 7pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, but otherwise closes at 5pm. You can photograph research material with permission.
Afternoon
If you don’t plan to spend the whole day at the NLI, a visit to the Valuation Office Tailte Éireann, whose records have yet to make it online, is a must. Heading north from the NLI skirt around the walls of Trinity College Dublin, or just walk through the campus, towards the River Liffey. Cross to the north side for the Valuation Office, housed in the Irish Life Centre on Abbey Street. While appointments are usually required, you will be accommodated without one, if there is space.
The Valuation Office Revision Books, available on computer terminals, are updated copies of Griffith’s Valuation used to trace the occupancy or ownership of a house or land between the 1850s and the 1970s. Find out when your family left or when property passed from one generation to the next, indicating an approximate year of death or emigration. You can then connect a family found in the census back to earlier generations on the same land. Note that these books relate to the Republic of Ireland only. You can photograph the image on screen or print for €1 per page. Before you arrive organise the address information for the property by identifying the townland (or street), the District Electoral Division (DED), the civil parish and county using the Placenames Database of Ireland.
Evening
There is not much to keep you on Abbey Street after hours, unless you have tickets for the Abbey Theatre. You may want to take a peek at Wynn’s Hotel, home to many secret meetings of Republicans during the revolutionary period, or, in the other direction, the Famine Memorial and James Gandon’s impressive 18th-century Custom House on the quays. Although last entry is at 5pm, the nearby EPIC: the Irish Emigration Museum is a popular attraction.
Advanced Options
Morning
While the NLI, Ireland’s copyright library, holds the largest collection of Irish newspapers, local-history books and journals, rent rolls in estate papers, pedigrees in the genealogical office and other manuscript collections, there are also specialised collections in small repositories. The archive of the Royal College of Physicians, also on Kildare Street, documents medical professionals, and the Royal Irish Academy on nearby Dawson Street houses an extensive collection, including manuscripts documenting Ireland’s Gaelic families. Both repositories require an appointment.
Afternoon
From the NLI on Kildare Street, the 46A bus will take you out to University College Dublin. Here you can apply, in advance, to access manuscripts in the Special Collections, but also search, by appointment, the archives of the National Folklore Commission for kin involved in the revival of the Irish language, or who lived in an area where a collector gathered local lore and folk tales.
Day Two
Morning
If you have ancestors who belonged to the Church of Ireland, the Representative Church Body Library (RCBL in Churchtown, Dublin 14, has the largest collection of Church of Ireland parish registers, most of which are not yet available online (although not all survive). Take the 14 bus from Dublin City to Braemor Park. An appointment is required, and you can submit a list of registers you wish to inspect. For call numbers, the collection lists can be found on its website and the staff are supremely helpful. Unless you have a large amount of material to search through, arrive when the library opens at 10am, so that you can leave when it closes for lunch at 12.30pm.
Microfilm copies of some registers are also available in the NAI; see the ‘Church Records’ section of the website Irish Ancestors to establish the relevant repository.
Midday
From Churchtown you should have plenty of time to make your way back into the city and stop for lunch at the bottom of South Great George’s Street, where you’ll be spoilt for options for food and sightseeing.
Uphill along Dame Street is Dublin Castle, home of the British administration in Ireland, the medieval Bermingham Tower, Ireland’s state paper and record office for two centuries, the Chester Beatty Library, and, of course, a café.
Afternoon
From Dublin Castle you can walk down Parliament Street and cross the Liffey by Grattan Bridge. Head north along Capel Street to Dorset Street, then turn right and take the second left down Henrietta Street. The entrance to the Registry of Deeds is on the left once you pass through the archway at the top of the street. Most of the memorials and indexes for the Registry of Deeds, which date from 1708, can be viewed online at FamilySearch, although not indexed. However, the repository is still worth a visit, not least for the views across the city from the reading room, and the Dickensian ledgers propped up on sloping desks. An appointment is required, and you must preorder some indexes and transcript books. The indexes are often more navigable in person as opposed to working with online images. Appointments are short, so arrive on time. The staff are very helpful, and you can photograph
the material.
Evening
If you finish early you could book a ticket for a guided tour of 14 Henrietta Street, which tells the story of over 300 years of family and city life; the museum closes at 6pm on Thursday (4pm on other days). There is not much else to stay for in this area, so wend your way back to Capel Street for a drink. BAR 1661 on Green Street is a gorgeous cocktail bar and pub with food, and outdoor seating on a quiet road. There are plenty of other pubs on Capel Street and as you make your way over the river into Temple Bar, the tourist hotspot of the city.
Advanced Options
Morning
There are a few items of genealogical interest, particularly for landed families in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, that might be found in the collections in Marsh’s Library on St Patrick’s Close beside St Patrick’s Cathedral, a short walk from the NAI. This beautiful library is open until 5pm Tuesday to Saturday.
Afternoon
The new state-of-the-art Irish Military Archive is at Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines Dublin 6, which can also be reached by the 14 bus. Much of its collection is online, but if you are researching the revolutionary period or personnel in the Free State or Irish Army, this archive is worth interrogating. Correspond with the archivist in advance, and an appointment is required. Note that the site is an active barracks, so don’t go wandering around or photograph any of the buildings.
