ROOTSIRELAND.ie

[James18]

Hi all,

Have any of you ever used https://rootsireland.ie ?

It costs £18 for a month's subscription, or you can pay more (but less in the long run) for 6 or 12 month subscriptions. Are their records any good? Have you been able to find the sort of things you want?

For example, I would want pre-1860 birth/baptism records for a few people, but there are probably more cost-effective ways of getting those.

I've only used GRONI and Ancestry for Irish genealogy, so I'm keen to learn more about alternative sources of information.

[Karamazov]

As always the answer is - depends what you are looking for and how much you already know.
If your ancestors were Catholic, and you know the parish they originated from, the NLI Catholic parish registers, freely available online, can be a goldmine. http://registers.nli.ie
I've never used rootsireland myself so can't really comment. However, my cousin has in the past and sent me a few bits and pieces he had found. If I recall correctly they were all transcriptions rather than original images so neither of us were particularly impressed and it did seem overpriced.
If you post further details here, I'm sure there will the usual array of willing helpers...
Christine

[James18]

I don't think there were any Catholics in my family. They were all either Presbyterian or Plymouth Brethren, so I doubt the Catholic records would be of much use. That's kind of the problem; I'm trying to suss out how useful the sub is likely to be before I take a punt on it. There's not a great deal I'm actually looking for.

[PhotoFamily]

I've successfully used RootsIreland, but also couldn't find things that I knew should have been there.

I don't think any of the "records" that are available are scans of the records - everything I"ve pulled up has been transcriptions.

They do have lists by county of records that have been transcribed - you might check to see if what you want is there, as not all records have been transcribed.

Please note that familysearch has transcriptions of some Irish CivilReg records - marriages beginning in 1845 to ??1870ish, and births from 1864 to ??1870ish. Actual records, not the indexes. BUT - they also have transcribed Civil Reg indexes, not sure how far it extends.

FMP has also transcribed the indexes, not sure how far it extends.

There's an online way to retrieve older Certs - I haven't used it - can someone review it?

[kathsgirl.48]

Have you searched on this... http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/index.html
It's a Free website but not all counties are covered though.

I've found lots of my Ancestor’s and their families on here but they all came from Dublin, which was the first batch of Baptisms, Marriages and a few deaths from the Parish records that were put on the website. They hope to add more over time, but as you can imagine i'ts a BIG task!

Unfortunately very early Parish records don't give much detail at all unlike those for the late 1800's onwards.

[Elwyn]

I don't think there were any Catholics in my family. They were all either Presbyterian or Plymouth Brethren, so I doubt the Catholic records would be of much use. That's kind of the problem; I'm trying to suss out how useful the sub is likely to be before I take a punt on it. There's not a great deal I'm actually looking for.

Rootsireland has some Presbyterian records but not all of them. There is a breakdown of what they hold for each denomination, county by county, but you have to pay a subscription to see that information. Not so helpful. Many Presbyterian records in Ireland are not on-line anywhere. The most comprehensive sets of Presbyterian records are in PRONI in Belfast and in the Presbyterian Historical Society, also in Belfast, but a personal visit is required to access either set. You’ll struggle to find any records for Brethren but, as you probably already know, many of them were originally Presbyterian so you may be able to trace them that way.

[James18]

Rootsireland has some Presbyterian records but not all of them. There is a breakdown of what they hold for each denomination, county by county, but you have to pay a subscription to see that information. Not so helpful. Many Presbyterian records in Ireland are not on-line anywhere. The most comprehensive sets of Presbyterian records are in PRONI in Belfast and in the Presbyterian Historical Society, also in Belfast, but a personal visit is required to access either set. You’ll struggle to find any records for Brethren but, as you probably already know, many of them were originally Presbyterian so you may be able to trace them that way.

Thank you very much for this information, Elwyn. Much appreciated.

[Karamazov]

James,
There is currently a half price offer for a rootsireland.ie annual sub which reduces the price to £90 for the year. (Offer doesn't apply to the monthly sub). Even with 50% off it's still pretty pricy in my opinion ...
But in case you're interested, you can find more details here:

http://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2015/12/rootsireland-offers-half-price-annual.html

Christine

[James18]

I appreciate the information, but I won't be buying a sub to anything right now. I have half of my six-month Ancestry sub left, which - combined with the odd batch of SP credits - is fine for now.

I really only want a few minor details about Irish relatives, which certainly isn't worth the cost of a sub. So far I've managed to find most of what I need from GRONI and Ancestry.

[Bo the Bodger]

Hi James

Just to stick my two pennyworth in - RootsIreland website was compromised a couple of years of ago and personal details credit card information & passwords were taken. I didn't suffer any fallout but it was a right pain and so I've lost trust in them. They could be absolutely secure now.